My entry for the Motion Designers Community (MDC) "Lost Civilization" contest. Contestants were tasked with creating a 5-second animation themed around a lost civilization of some sort.  ​​​​​​​

Essentially settled on a simple geometric city similar to the following below.

I decided against using SSS (would've LOVED to) for the sake of render times, given how dark and moody the scene lighting would be. I did however explore a few options for SSS on the clam tongue which I wanted to be a fleshy, pocky sort of surface which the white pearly substance would graduate into a city. Having just made the jump from Octane, there were a lot of displacement problems I had to wrap my head around. Something I would definitely go back and clean up a lot better. 

Inserting the finished shell city into a dark, cave-like environment was the last step. I would've done the two shot differently but was up against a deadline, so I opted for a very simple drifting camera move followed by a quick cut to the clam springing open revealing the lost, pearly civilization inside. 

In conclusion, would've like to have spent more time customizing a sparkle / glow on the city (hadn't upgraded to the post-effects version of Redshift) for the reveal, and doing some more interesting moves with the dark environment. I am pretty happy about the city itself though, as well as that fleshy SSS clam tongue. 

Be sure to check out the other awesome entries on MDC's Behance post for this contest. .