Hey guys,
I wanted to share a showreel from a series of short, conceptual 3D pieces I made for IRIB TV1. The project explores moral and cultural themes through symbolic storytelling, with each episode wrapping up with a saying from Imam Ali (AS).
Due to the high volume of work and tight deadlines, I decided to use Eevee for all final renders to get fast turnarounds, while still trying to maintain a cinematic atmosphere.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the lighting and overall look!
I like the graphics, but as a video it all feels a bit ‘disconnected’ or random; I have a hard time following it. I think you need to add a level of storytelling to make this more effective.
Thank you so much for your feedback. I really appreciate it, and it’s incredibly valuable to me.
To be honest, I had the same feeling. Visually, I thought the piece looked strong, but it barely received any engagement. Wherever I shared it, it never got the attention I expected, and almost nobody commented on it. I felt something wasn’t working, but I couldn’t quite identify what it was.
I completely agree with your point about the video feeling disconnected and random.
The project is actually a collection of short conceptual pieces. Each segment is inspired by a different idea and ends with a quote from Imam Ali. Because of that, I ended up putting all of these unrelated pieces together into a single reel. Looking back, I think I treated it almost like a salad, throwing everything together without enough structure. That made the overall video feel fragmented and created exactly the sense of disconnection you described.
I’ll share one of the individual pieces separately so it’s easier to understand what I was trying to communicate.
The video below is inspired by a saying of Imam Ali that can be summarized as:
“Detach yourself from this world, because in the end it will leave you behind.”
The message is about not becoming attached to worldly things. The Earth is depicted as a prisoner’s ball and chain, symbolizing how attachment to this world weighs us down and keeps us from moving forward.
great work !
Hello !
Super cool shots, I agree with Bart, individually they look amazing, but the whole thing put together feel a bit long and gives some kind of a showreel effect. Especially when you aren’t familiar with what they are referring to, they are a bit hard to digest as a whole…
Do you know the movie Baraka ?
It’s a series of sequence filmed in different parts of the world, the movie in itself is quite abstract without any dialogue or voice over, but there is a clear message that you start to get after a while.
This might be interesting to study if you want to go further…
I think also that since each shot is kind of a story that is very self contained then it’s difficult to make it a part of something bigger and construct a narration one shot after the other…
Maybe I should just post them individually then! 
Yeah, I think I watched it more than 10 years ago. If I remember correctly, it starts with rivers and the landscapes of Africa, then travels through different parts of the world, showing very different societies, from African tribes to highly industrialized cities in Japan. It moves between the calmness of nature and the chaos of crowded urban life.
I should definitely watch it again though.
Individually could work , or maybe a group of 3/4 related topic… Maybe explaining the idea behind could be good too !
Something too short might not work because it’s hard to enter into something of a few secons, but there should definitely be a connection between each animation if you plan to make something longer…
And yeah that’s Baraka !
Have fun !
Very cool! It makes me think of if you combined the severance intro with kids show elements. I think the shots of the man running on money and the butterfly in the caged world are your strongest, message wise.
I featured you on BlenderNation, have a great weekend!
