Back in the Game

It's time to blow off the dust and rip into some new design work for this year. To start with I have been looking at some of the precedents for our first 3D Animation and Modelling project; Materiality.
My current favourite is the work of Laszlo Maholy-Nagy. I find his play with light and shadow as interesting as the models themselves. While the forms of the models are quite beautiful the shadows they cast are a whole other form.

The ghost-like ambience he creates in some of his other work makes the photograph seem more mysterious. Viewers aren't instantly aware of what they are looking at causing them to study the photograph for longer, even if it's just to appreciate the simple geometries present.

Concerning my project, I am thinking I could try and replicate Maholy-Nagy's atmosphere. Having some kind of mysterious object shifting and changing in a ghostly environment could be intriguing or peaceful. If the texture of the object was glassy or watery it would also bend the light in unnatural ways, adding to the ambience.
Another precedent was the work of Salvador Dali. The surrealism of his work is quite astounding. The dream-like content and detail in his painting is fascinating to say the least.

The style of the paintings is very fluid and the lighting in them makes the shapes seem soft and organic. I find that if I was to use Dali's work I would replicate the organic style and have the form melt down into something else, or go in the complete opposite direction and make something rigid and structured and almost mechanical.
The last precedent I'll address is the work of Francis Bacon. His style is somewhat morbid and horrific. The forms are twisted and melting, almost like the style of Dali but far darker in nature. Also like Dali they are dream like but in this case nightmarish.

The forms this work inspires in me are more chaotic and ominous and the transformations more violent or unpleasant. Perhaps the form will resist the change but be forced into it. The environment or textures used could be darker or morbid.