Mark Louis Spark - Death of Hope

The incredibly talented CG artist Mark Louis Spark has spent the last few years working on the CGI short film Death of Hope. The scope of this project is otherworldly and Mark has single-handedly carried out a workload that would have made even a large team of specialists tremble - and he had to do it as a side project outside of his day time job as a game level artist! Read on to hear how Mark managed to pull it off and how Rokoko Studio and the Smartsuit Pro helped transform his animation workflow.

Death of Hope is a CGI short film and art project that originates in the very popular Warhammer 30K universe. The project became incredibly popular and got millions of views on YouTube while receiving heaps of praises for its stunning details and extraordinary design and craft. Everything in Death of Hope is built from scratch, from the amazingly detailed characters to the stunning environments.

The gifted artist behind this impressive work is CG artist Mark Louis Spark, who single-handedly took care of 3D models, animations, writing, direction, and drawing of the project. With more than 1.6M views on his first YouTube video, Mark not only established himself as an incredibly talented creator but also started a vibrant and supportive community. In this user story, he told us how the Smartsuit Pro was used in the realization of his masterpiece. Despite having a remarkable art-style and proving himself capable of building a fascinating animated universe, Mark is not a professional animator and knew nothing other than amateur 3D modeling when he began this journey. Before starting, he had no experience with animation and considered skipping it all-together, but the Smartsuit enabled his creativity, expanding his abilities without constraints.

"My skill set for animation is very minimal as I started learning on my own when I did this project. The capability of the Smartsuit to bring something to life like this gives you infinite possibilities. The fact that I have this in my household and can create animations in real-time in my home is just crazy to me."

Mark explains that integrating the Smartsuit into his existing workflow was simple, immediately helping him to get across dialogues between characters with ease - something he initially thought he would have to do manually. What he appreciated the most about using the Smartsuit for his art was the opportunity of working and doing everything related to animation and motion capture in his household. He was amazed by the fact that he was able to do something like his project simply in his apartment, even with all the mocap and animated work behind. Mark’s first job in the professional industry was at EA’s motion capture studio in Vancouver. He explains how he at that time had never dreamed of being able to do that kind of work at home in his house! He feels that having the Smartsuit really pushed him to overcome his own limitations.

"The Smartsuit definitely helped to shape the idea of where the project is supposed to go and helped me overcome the challenges that I wouldn’t have bothered to try out."

Finally, in his view, the mocap suit is something any creator who’s looking to do a similar animation project should get. He sees the Smartsuit Pro not only as something great for anyone who needs a mocap solution to create their own animations or even develop an indie game, but also for education programs and people studying animation in college. A simple and affordable way for students to approach the world of motion capture.

"My first gig in the industry was at EA's motion capture studio in Vancouver. I never thought I'd be doing this a home"

As Death of Hope Pt. 2 and Pt. 3 are on the way, we can’t wait to see what more Mark has in store for us and how this marvelous Warhammer 30K Universe will be further developed and explored. From what we’ve seen so far, we are sure it is going to be mindblowing!