Tal Uliel blends analogue and digital techniques in his new animation for instrumental artist Soul Supreme

Geshem Bejuni is the name of Israeli motion designer and visual artist Tal Uliel’s graduation project. Submitted as his thesis project studying Visual Communication at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Tal says the brief for the project was open. “So I took the opportunity to collaborate [on an animated music video] with Soul Supreme, one of my favourite musicians and a longtime friend,” he explains.

Working together, the pair dreamed up a song and animation centred around the themes of travel and connection, and drew inspiration from Tal’s “solo travels throughout the world, coalescing into the idea of journeying alone through different landscapes in search of a feeling of belonging”. Whereas, typically, the music would be written first, here the sounds and the visuals were created in unison, and what results is a video that perfectly balances the two.

Coupled with Soul Supreme’s signature blend of hip-hop-jazz-funk instrumentals, Tal’s animation elevates the experience to become something hypnotic and captivating. Drawing on his background in graphic design, it brings together an analogue aesthetic with 3D compositing, and nods to the visual influences of risograph printing and abstract geometry.

Speaking on this, Tal says: “Recent years have seen me working on many print-based projects for concerts and parties, and the printed aesthetic speaks to me on many levels. I was particularly interested in risograph printing in relation to the texture and colours produced by this medium and wanted to see how far I could push the boundary between printed and digital when it came to motion design.”

The finished result shows that you can indeed push it quite far. The animation carries with it the trademark vibrant colour palettes of risograph, and juxtaposes these with the graininess of the medium, evoking feelings of nostalgia that feel aligned with the video’s original concept. Another element that Tal borrowed was the layering involved in risograph printing, explaining that “each layer is placed uniquely against the other layers on the page, creating the little offsets and imperfections we as designers love to create”. Wanting to explore this in a digital setting, he scanned a large number of riso-printed textures and incorporated them into his compositing process.

All of these considerations come together in Geshem Bejuni to create a video that feels at once stimulating and meditative. Forms merge and colours contrast as we follow a mostly off-screen protagonist navigating an entrancing stream of worlds and spaces. The endless search for a feeling of belonging is embodied in this process, and Tal says he hopes this message is clear for his audience. He adds: “My hope for the project is to generate a feeling for the viewer that they aren’t alone in their experience, that they share more than they know with the world, and are less alone than they may feel.”