Planet Unknown

Film By Shawn Wang

At the end of 21st century, mankind were facing global resource depletion. Space Rovers were sent out to find potential inhabitable planets

Planet Unknown is a glorious little animated film created as a thesis film by 3D animator Shawn Wang. In the likes of some famous cinematic space robots, Shawn explored the idea of intelligent and comically relieving rovers studying foreign planets.

Festivals:
01. Burbank International Film Festival – Best Animated Short
02. Korea Independent Animation Festival – Official Selection
03. Imaginaria Film Festival – Official Selection
04. LA Shorts Fest – Official Selection
05. Oaxaca Film Festival – Official Selection
06, Los Angeles CineFest – Official Selection
07. Lisbon International Film Festival – Official Selection
08. CACC Golden Dragon Award – Official Selection
09. Winchester Short Film Festival – Official Selection
10. China International New Media Short Film Festival (CSFF) – Official Selection
11. China International Student Animation Festival (Aniwow! 2016) – Finalist

Links:
Official Website: PlanetUnknownFilm.com
Facebook Page: facebook.com/PlanetUnknownFilm
IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt5850826
Echoic Audio: echoicaudio.com

I had been working full time on Planet Unknown from July 2015 to June 2016. It was a passion project as well as my graduation thesis film at Communication University of China. This 11-month journey was very challenging, but it was a perfect learning opportunity as well.

The idea started back in 2014 when Interstellar was released. I was deeply impressed by the movie and was inspired by the two robots TARS and CASE. The idea of intellectual robots exploring space developed from there.

Other inspirations include Pixar movies like WALL-E and Toy Story, as well as CHAPPiE, NASA documentaries about Mars Rover Curiosity, and short films by individuals like Alex Roman’s The Third & The Seventh, Richard Mans’ Abiogenesis, Erik Wernquist’s Wanderers, Alf Lovvold’s Dawn of the Stuff, and so many more.

Echoic Audio, one of the UK’s leading music & sound design studios, joined this adventure with epic cinematic score and detailed sound design which catapulted the film to a new level that I had never imagined.

This project pushed me to do what I never thought I could do. However, it also keeps punching me in the face and shows me how limited my skills are. There are still tons of problems in the making that I can’t figure out even now.

Thanks to everyone for the support along the way. The new adventure begins…

Special Thanks to System Advisers – Horizon Bian / Sicong Wang / Jiawei Cao

Planet Unknown

At the end of 21st century, mankind were facing global resource depletion. Space Rovers were sent out to find potential inhabitable planets

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