Well, it’s finally “done”. Not really, because there are numerous things I’d like to improve, but the hardware I use has its limitations, and after 7 weeks of editing, simulating, rendering, tweaking lights, particles, bricks, angles and flares I feel there’s not much I can do. There’s one or two shots that I could improve, but my patience has run out. And it’s time to move on to another project. I still want to do “Expando Earth” and “Retrograde”.
So up up and away, time to upload.
Note: watch in 720p or 1080p for best quality
The philosophy
What is this “Dark Tower”? Why does it collapse?
Well, the idea is that everybody has some thing that he or she would rather see … ‘not there’. As in destroyed, demolished, gone with the wind, vaporized. I am convinced that for most awake & aware people there’s a whole list of institutes, organizations and cabals that they would like to see gone. There’s the Bilderbergers, the Banksters, main stream media, the Elite, the military-industrial complex, the EU, the UN, NATO, the minion class, the Oppressors, the reptilians, the Polluters of the Planet, the Strip Miners, the Fear & Death Administration, Mac & the food poisoners, Monsanto, Shell & BP & the Frackers, the Racists, the Extremists, the Vatican, the Archon, the Corporate Corpses, the Criminals… I’m sure you can name a few of your own.
My goal was to capture this universal feeling, which is not “hate” but more like “I’m really really fed up with this shit”, and collapse ‘it’ for you. So that you may experience what it would be like to actually see it gone.
In essence, the Dark Tower will mean different things to different people.
For me, personally: it’s the breakdown of the Ego during spiritual growth. That’s why the Tower’s head explodes first 😉 Back to nature. Green is love.
After building this Tower that represents all the things we are really really fed up with, then there was the question: how does the collapse start? One idea was to have this big ol’ black cannon ball fly in and smash a good piece out of the walls. After a long debate with a friend on the matter I decided: no cannon ball. Any form of bullet, explosion, cannon, hammer or other Tools of Destruction would imply violence. I wanted a “non-violent” collapse, since I’m a non-violent guy. And last thing I wanted was people seeing this video as a call for violent action.
Best would be to have the Tower collapse under its own weight. Makes sense, for example the military-industrial complex might just collapse under its own weight when the funds run dry and the US can no longer pay its expenses. Or the Church collapsing under the weight of all the pedophilia scandals and pay-offs. Or the corporate world collapsing under its greed.
Visual tricks in the story line
I used a couple of tricks that make the effect stronger, at least that’s the idea. When working too long on a project you develop a certain blindness, and in the end I’m not sure if it comes across as intended at all.
In the very first shot, we are completely blinded by the light. This is intended to be an analogy for the ‘appearance of light’ that the Illuminati uses, or the Church, or MSM for that matter. The fake appearance of light makes it hard to see what’s really going on, deception is used to cover up lies, greed and so on.
When the Tower first becomes visible, it still looks like it is light, because the flare partially covers it.
We see the real nature of the Tower the moment it reveals itself as being dark and black:
In this case the light means “lies”, because the Tower itself is everything but light. It just hides “in the light”.
At this point in the video the light itself goes away and the true darkness sets in for our Tower.
In a couple of scenes the direction of the lens flare makes it seem like a ‘sword of light’ that actually causes the debris to fly out:
The falling stones suspended in mid-air constantly change shape, hopefully creating a surrealistic monster that “dies” while falling:
In the end, of course, nature takes over. Even before all stones have fully settled, ivy starts to cover the pile of rubble:
While circling the scene, we also discover that even nature has its “dark side”:
I really wish I could show more of this nature stuff, but unfortunately this part took forever to render.
The grass leaves also have this annoying flicker that I can’t get rid of. My best guess is that the “random positioning” is causing interference in the rotating scenery.
Also watch how the scale changes – the same stones that are meant to seem huge in the first scenes, look a lot smaller when the ivy has grown over them.
This reduces the Big Tower to an even smaller insignificant pile of rubble.
Ah maybe I’m over thinking it. I hope you enjoyed watching the video.
Sound track
If you like the music in the video, there’s good news. You can download the track for free, just as long as you use it for personal pleasure only.
Downloading the file means you agree with this term.
Djsadhu – the Collapse.mp3 (10.7Mb)
(right-click -> “save target as…”)
Technical stuff
I worked on the video for about 7 weeks. The sound track was composed parallel, switching back and forth to get the best effect.
Every frame in the video took anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes to render. There are 30 of these bad boys in a second, so every second of video took between 30 minutes – 7 hours to complete!
The stone collapse simulation itself took about half an hour to run, but I ran it a couple of dozen times before I was satisfied with the result.
The .max file with the stored key frames (6000 frames, 4800 stones) ended up being 2.7Gb. Just opening the file on a network render PC took about 10 minutes.
There are about 400,000 grass leaves and 500,000 dust & debris particles.I designed the scene on a computer with a Q8300 quad core @ 2.5Ghz, with 5Gb RAM.
I ‘network rendered’ on three computers for 4 weeks, and could actually turn off the radiator in my room because the three computers did a nice job heating it.
Special thanks to Ork^ and Warmode for letting me borrow their computers. Without their CPU time it would have taken much longer to create this video.
I love this! Thank you for giving me a feeling for this happening….
Relief and freedom!
I just watched a few of your videos… i loved them! I feel like we are a little similar with our ideas of expressions… Keep uploading!
Man, what an amazing and focused artwork.
Highly inspirational during EndGame on Earth.
I take note of the geometric figures and platonic solids depicted as ‘lens flare’…
Have you noticed the massive Illuminati/Hollywood
use of the ‘hexagon’ (star of david) as lens flare in many many movies and movie studios initial presentation scenes, like Columbia pictures, with the’neuralizer’ (MIB), being the torch of the lady, resembling the Liberty statue?
Keep focused on your mission my friend.
You are the man. (no BEgo eh?)
hello loved the vortex and the spinning spiral
sort of like grandmother spider spinning the universe
i saw video of nissam cant remember his last name
on the same subject fascinating
my spirit knew it was true i am heartened that
we are coming out of the wornout ideas/beliefs
have you watched tom campbell and bruce lipton the “summit” two scientists discover
that all is consciousness and love
none of my emails are working censored???
i am joyful light on fb sure would like to stay in touch
the tower crumbling was poetic and the round spectra
from the camera? that seem to circle the action
were like orbs – plasma beings
as the light was moving towards the doomed structure
i noticed the shadow on the ground it was like the perspective lines in a painting
like your writing too honest
you are surely one of the indigo kids
love and light eaglelight nm
Wonderful theme as we all do have sacred cows to lose or towers to fell. May your soul continue its great journey as it shares its gift with us all. Up Up and and away. Warm Regards
Why not have the CIA fly a plane into the side of the tower and claim it was structural failure?
As a Painter, and a Photographer, and most importantly as a Human Being, I love these. I’ve seen three :):):)
Greg Autry
Thank you Greg. You have the most amazing photographs on your website, I’m really impressed!
I first found your videos by running across “Vortex” and have really enjoyed them. It was quite cathartic to envision my own “demons” as the tower and watch it fall and be reclaimed by nature.
I particularly like your musical style. Reminds me of a lot of the downtempo hip hop of the early 2000’s, a personal favorite style of mine.
Please keep up the great work.
Thank you
Nice work DJ. Ego down; Spirit up! Thought you might enjoy this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOgLWzEvKQk
Peace
nicely done. is the rubble meant to represent a pyramid?
I find this video to be racist. I notice your use of a “Black” tower crushed by the flashing “white” light. Thank you for exposing your self as a racist
Sorry man, but this is funny. I can assure you that I am not a racist.
When did you ever see black light?!
The light/dark analogy that is in nature, is as old as mankind, and has nothing to do with skin color.
If you live out in the wilderness, darkness/night/cold can be hostile, and sunlight/warmth is your friend.
If you’re lost in a dark place, light can guide you towards safety. I did not make this up.
Next thing you know having a flash light is racist because it does not emit blackness?!
How you can make this a skin color issue is really beyond me.
My goal was to make a video in such way that anybody coul fill in what it is about for themselves… it clearly worked out.
DJ, came across your site researching the speed of planet earth through the cosmos. Your graphics in relation to the “Vortex” suggestion are excellent. Is it then the point you are making the Milky Way galaxy also “screws” it’s way in a vortex like fashion through the dark matter of the universe therefore answering the age old question why planets and stars aren’t being flung away from each other through centrifugal force? Well done, answers so much for me personally.
Your falling tower. Amazing and awe inspiring. Was waiting for a very tall tree to grow from the leaves then realised video was almost over. Would pay to see the tallest tree grow through the rubble 🙂
That poor chap comment 13, such a shame. I’m half black half white and at no point could see slightest hint of racism. Trust me I would know being 50 years subject to it in a white society. You answered well. Keep up the amazing work and please email if you would like to see an important truth regarding your “Vortex” work and if you edit your piece with a growing tree, would genuinely pay to have my own copy 🙂 PT.
Thanks 😀 Something with a Tree is already in the making…
Check inside yourself and you will find which tower must colapse… This is what all of us where searching… since the beginning of time…
The Self, I, conscious…
This is what is wrong, and must be replaced by something that we also carry with us…
The other, our inner real, the hidden treasure…
Once you get there, there´s no more reason to colapse, because you will not “BE” anymore…
I love this. Great Job and your consciousness just blows the roof off it… or tears it down… or collapses the roof… or… ahh you get the picture. It’s freakin Awesome. Please email me. I’d love to create with you. I have a project going.
Cause and purpose DJ.
I think with all your wonderful effort, you need to concentrate on the STORY you present, as a whole. Your animation plays with the destruction of a tall, dark tower. Your blocks do not disintegrate, they bubble sort of effervescently downward.
They do not really interact between simultaneous forces of interactive rubbing, kick, bounce and disintegration, do they?
Look at the real NY Twin Towers falling. I assume a connection here.
There is a sequencing order of how gravity affects the collapse. I had wished you’d try to present more of a directed cause and effect to this, otherwise, WHAT is the message conveyed to us, the audience?
It is beautiful, tedious, hugely time consuming work that provides much awe and respect, but as Goldstein (Scriptwriter) suggests: “Create one implausibility, then make everything else very realistically consequential to this first “chance. Otherwise the astute observer will not continue to believe in watching your story…:it has not enough realism to believe and dispose of the curiosity of what NEXT?”
same here.
The tower symbolizes what? An edifice? A monument? A fortress? an obelisk? A Mausoleum? Its destruction can be much more innovative, as gravity will FIRST pull from the bottom, out (By structural gravity stress) and loading. Hence I’d recommend you sequence a direct cause and effect ( Giant, meteor, wind, weapon, bullet, whatever) as a story arc more effectively, with an introduction, a start, a supposed conflict, a consequence, the battle, the negotiation, the inevitable resolution, and again the denouement, what the solution actually brings about to the problem when you started. Think about the reason for your story. and effect to your message.
I hope this helps you next time. Btw, Soon enough, there are software algorithms which will make 3D CAD elemental, fractal, flames and water motion totally realistic and easy to drive ostensibly interesting storyboard as a hard-earned, well defined story development. Keep up your excellent work, I hope my brief support criticism is taken as hopeful advice for a reward-rich, blossoming future for you!
Thanks for your review! Yes, there are a lot of things I would have done differently a next time. Most are due to hardware limitations on my consumer grade PC. Making these animations is a constant battle between how I want the result to look, and what my RAM and CPU allow me to do. In the end I have to choose a version that looks good enough, but does not take forever to render. I only used standard 3ds Max stuff, no expensive plug ins here.
The goal of this video was to translate a ‘universal feeling’ into pictures – a feeling that most of us know, but translates differently for each of us. Some rather see the military-industrial machine collapse, some wish the bankster fraud gone, others feel this way about the ‘hidden hand’ in world politics, or weather modification for all I know. The fact is, we all have something we’d rather see “gone” because we feel it is evil. That is what the Tower stands for.
It is not an physical object or real building, it symbolizes any evil construct we can do without.
The reason I did not use a “cause” (bullet, meteor, hammer, impact, I thought about those) is that “it” should be the cause of it’s own destruction.
Once we enter symbolic mode, a “cause” would call for an external destructor – this would make a “non-violent collapse” impossible.
Let’s say one associates the Tower with the military-industrial complex, then the question would rise: what does the meteor/wind/bullet stand for? Who destroys “it”? Does China attack the US? Do the people attack the banksters? No, that would mean violence. So I chose not to have any external cause of destruction, “it” needed to collapse on its own, in a relatively peaceful manner. A more natural “end of life event” (hence the ivy and grass) as opposed to a man-made “violent destruction”. Also stretching out the collapse over 4 minutes should make it look kind of peaceful and trippy.
I hope the feeling still translates despite shortcomings in simulation reality, render quality and so on. On a technical note: I try to keep render times under 10 minutes per frame, otherwise it will just take forever to make these videos. I’m looking forward to trying out new techniques and plug ins 🙂
Thanks again for your comment!
Great vid mate! Not just this one, but your other 2 aswell.
mARVELLOUS IDEA a video that you can personalize as you like and imagine the collapse of something you’d like to fall THANKYOU REALLY THANKS nice MUSIC !!!!!
Sos Brillante Sadhu !