THE PLASTIC STUDIO

Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A lush, green forest scene is brightly illuminated, with sunlight streaming through tall trees, glowing mushrooms on the forest floor, and white posthuman shapes resembling fish or birds floating in the air. Dark foliage frames this CGI-inspired vision.
Ares Awakening

INSTALLATION

Direction: Aias Kokkalis

Concept:  Aias Kokkalis

VFX, Animation: Aias Kokkalis

Art Direction: Aias Kokkalis

 

Actors:

Kristof

Konstantinos Georgiopoulos

Vocals : Savina Yannatou
Analog Synths: Jannis Anastasakis
Sound Design: DieArkitekt
Mastering: DieArkitekt
Dancer: Spyros Ntogas
Production:
ONASSIS Stegi
Camera Operator: Demosthenes Kouros
Photographs: Penelope Gerasimou

Ares Awakening is an installation piece commissioned by ONASSIS Stegi for the Plasmata 3 exhibition during the summer of 2025 in Pedion to Areos Park, Athens, Greece. Rare footage from security cameras, breaking news bulletins, a nearby trapdoor, and surreal animal apparitions converge to create a slice-of-life tableau of our daily interactions, pervasive anxieties, and political stances in the face of an Athens imperiled by the ‘Others.’

“Ares Awakening” is a mockumentary chronicling the exodus of hybrid, strange animals over the course of the night and during the exhibition of the piece, from an underground prison. During the Greek dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas (1936–1941), the ancient ecosystem of Pedion tou Areos park, renowned for its vast biodiversity and rare fauna, was replaced by a concrete park designed for military parades. All its creatures were hurriedly driven into an underground bunker, consigning that venerable past to oblivion once and for all.

Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A forest scene at night with a glowing, futuristic blue portal or screen among trees and foliage, created using Houdini CGI, emits blue lights that illuminate the surrounding area in an ethereal, posthuman atmosphere.

The central objective of Ares Awakening is to plunge the viewer into a visceral, real-time ethical crisis.

Through the unfolding testimony of a scientist and a journalist, the viewer is thrust into an urgent ‘live’ event: the escape of the marginalized “Others” This structure is designed to bypass passive observation, demanding that the audience navigate their own social reflexes and prejudices in the heat of the moment. Ultimately, the work aims to hold a mirror to the viewer’s own complicity in systems of gentrification and exclusion, challenging them to decide, under the pressure of a simulated state of emergency, whether they will act as gaolers or allies to those we are taught to fear.

Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A TV displaying a man in a suit speaking is set outdoors, partly obscured by lush green trees and plants, blending into the garden like a CGI scene crafted in Houdini. Sunlight filters through the leaves.

The project explores themes of confinement and resistance through magical, mutated creatures escaping from an underground prison. It’s a narrative haunted by the authoritarian past of the park.

The heart of the project lies in the tension between three layers

1) A literal trapdoor serves as the viewer’s entry point, a sculptural reminder of the architectural and social barriers used in gentrification to hide the unwanted populations.

2) 3D animations of iridescent hybrid creatures represent the “others.” Their calm, meditative movement acts as a form of silent protest and trauma recovery, contrasting sharply with the violence of their displacement.

3) Live-action sequences featuring human actors debating the “fate” of these escaped hybrids mirror contemporary political discourse. It highlights how society dehumanizes individuals into “problems to be solved” or “threats to be contained.”

Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A dimly lit, posthuman scene at night with several people standing around. The focus is on a person with a bouquet, their face obscured by bright light, with trees and a parked car in the background. Shadows and darkness dominate the image.

The initial research was around the native flora of the park. We 3D scanned the park’s soil and surface structures, studied the slope, fertility and moisture levels of the soil, and finally simulated all the soil dynamics in Side Effects Houdini. Point-based scattering systems were created to distribute plants based on environmental data. Then detailed tree growth simulations were run again in Houdini, focusing on how native trees would respond to space, light and competition over time.

Those tree simulations became essential for shaping the park’s spatial rhythm, allowing the creature’s escape to feel both choreographed and organically embedded in the terrain.

Motion Capture

Custom walk and run cycles for each of the creatures was created, along with some unique behavioral movements. We captured a motion performance for the mutated monkey using an amazing dancer Spyros Ntogas. Three GoPros were used to capture the performance and then it was translated into skeletal animation using Quick Magic.

Finally we cleaned and refined the motion in Cascadeur and Houdini to ensure proper foot locking and generally fine-tune the movement.

Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A large, illuminated display shows a CGI forest scene with various animals, including a deer, surrounded by trees and greenery, set against the darkness of an outdoor environment at night.
Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A child crouches in the shadows behind a large tree at night, gazing toward a glowing, blue-lit forest scene that feels almost posthuman, as if conjured by CGI or crafted with Houdini in the darkness of dense trees.
Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A group of people, including adults and children, stand and kneel outdoors at night, illuminated by bright lights among trees in a scene reminiscent of CGI Houdini artistry. Some look ahead with interest, while the background is dark and partly obscured by foliage.

The most important part of this project is none other than the creatures themselves. Each one of them was modeled animated and then passed on in Houdini for grooming, soft body and tissue simulations and shading RnD. The creatures had to look familiar but with a twist. Many of them lack eyes or ears to hint on the underground life they have spent. Others are completely transparent or products of mutation.

On the technical side, the sheer complexity of the shots with many creatures, billions of foliage instances, strands of hair, volumetric effects made the final shots of the work a stress-test for any renderer. The final scene assembly and rendering took place in Houdini with Karma and Blender with Cycles as the workflow was always based on USD. 

Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A group of people, including adults and children, stand and kneel outdoors at night, illuminated by bright lights among trees in a scene reminiscent of CGI Houdini artistry. Some look ahead with interest, while the background is dark and partly obscured by foliage.
Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - A large, illuminated screen displays a black-and-white CGI image of plants and foliage in a dark outdoor setting, surrounded by trees and vegetation at night.
Aias Kokkalis - Ares Awakening - Three children sit outdoors on the ground, captivated by a large, bright digital screen displaying a vibrant forest scene with a mythical CGI creature and lush greenery. Tall trees and foliage surround this enchanting Houdini-powered viewing area.

VFX Breakdown

A Narrated making of for Ares Awakening