Mediterranean Games 2022

Amine Rachad created detailed natural textures within a sonic world for the stadium environment of the 2022 Mediterranean Games.

When Monumentiel approached Amine Rachad to work on this year’s Mediterranean Games in Oran, they asked the artist to create three different sequences spanning twelve minutes of the opening show. The producers were mainly looking for animations of several different natural textures. Rachad generated sand, wind, rock, and turf that shape-shifted with particle movements and synchronised music.

Rachad aimed to make, above all, something dynamic enough for the widescreen event. Having plenty of experience working with illusions in 3D animation, he used his skills to play with perspectives and distortions while maintaining a poetic approach to the work. After defining the camera’s point of view and receiving a detailed brief from the art director, Rachad began refining textures and proposing ideas for the animations.

On the floor of the first sequence, the artist generated a sand symbol over which many dancers performed around wind effects and small tornadoes. The second sequence involved a rock floor with tremors, cracks, and crevices in motion. For the last sequence, Rachad created 3D models of different sports fields and transformed them with the flow of the music.

When his ideas were completed and approved, Rachad stretched the image to fit the rectangular shape of the screen on the stadium’s grounds. The final product was seen by 40,000 live spectators, including the President of Algeria and other national representatives.