Advanced VFX & Debris

Siena Jekel and Cole Krivak

Advanced VFX


Winter 2021




Debris is a short animated film exploring the relationship between the deep sea and pollution. It is a place so remote and unexplored yet is still being affected by today's excessive waste. Through the use of the 3D modeling program Blender, the life of a angler fish and the blight of its habitat is simulated.


Cole's Brief:

Debris is a short animated film exploring the deep sea and pollution, and how a place so remote and unexplored is being affected by today's excessive waste.  Through the use of the 3D modeling program Blender, the life of a regular fish and its habitat is explored.

The first part of the film takes you through the environment and establishes the fish’s character through the use of body motion and sound. A scene depicting a plastic bag blending in with a group of jellyfish shows how pollution has merged with the environment and how it even resembles some of the animals in the ocean, making it a very real threat to predators. A dramatic chase scene ending with the fish escaping into a cave shows how the fish is capable of surviving in its natural habitat, and implies that the real threat is the pollution. This is confirmed when the fish leaves the cave and sees a small piece of plastic, and thinking it’s a small fish, tries to eat it. The pleasant and natural looking environment shifts to a much darker and more menacing look as the fish dies, and the camera pulls up showing a large amount of trash and plastic floating there. The film ends on a slightly more positive message asking people to regulate their use of plastic, and even donate to organizations dedicated to cleaning the oceans. Debris is meant to show people how even the most remote places on this planet are affected by pollution, and that just because we don’t feel the impact of it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.