SONOS
CHALLANGE
Create a captivating product launch campaign (:10 - :15 sec) for Sonos that showcases the power, clarity, and emotional impact of sound. This campaign should demonstrate your ability to creatively visualize sound in a way that feels cinematic, immersive, and emotionally resonant. Turning invisible energy into a stunning visual narrative.
year
2025
role
Animator Designer
category
Speaker
3d Animation
software
Houdini
Nuke
CInema 4D
After effect
OBJECTIVE
I collaborated with Enrique Santamaria to create a cinematic sound visualization that merges abstract aesthetics with technical precision. Our approach maintained SONOS’s premium and minimal design language while translating sound pressure, vibration, and airflow into dynamic particle and fluid motion forming an abstract yet intuitively immersive “sound-as-motion” experience.
credit
Kitbash 3d
Future Deluxe
Cinema 4D Assets
Kelly Warner
As part of our early research, we analyzed FutureDeluxe’s SONOS campaigns to understand how they approached sound visualization through premium, abstract design. Their work emphasized atmospheric lighting, fluid-like motion, and particle-based behaviors to communicate the warmth, clarity, and multidirectional presence of SONOS audio. We studied how they used ripples, refraction, and vibration as visual metaphors while maintaining a refined, minimal aesthetic that aligned with the brand. This research helped us define our own direction focusing on sound as a physical force that shapes space, using particle and fluid simulations to achieve a cinematic yet emotionally expressive interpretation.
RSEARCH
PROCESS
In the early stage of development, we explored a wide range of ripple behaviors to understand how sound could leave a visual imprint in space. We tested subtle micro-vibrations, slow and heavy deformations representing low frequencies, and fast, thin wave patterns inspired by higher tones. These experiments helped us study how different frequencies could physically influence a surface and ultimately shaped the foundation of our visual language.
EXPLORATION 1
For our first exploration, we tested Houdini’s Ripple Solver to see how sound could be expressed as surface movement. By driving ripples across a deformed grid and using the speaker geometry as a collision source, we experimented with different amplitudes and frequencies to study how low-end pulses create slow, heavy deformations while higher tones generate tighter, faster waves. This helped us establish an early understanding of how sound pressure could visually travel across a surface.
EXPLORATION 2
We also explored a more design-driven approach using Cinema 4D’s MoGraph system to animate ripples directly across a grid of hexagonal objects. By combining Cloners with Torus Fields and Random Fields, we created expanding wave behaviors that mimicked sound traveling through a physical speaker grille. This allowed us to test a more controlled, graphic interpretation of sound where each object rises and falls in sync with the pulse resulting in a clean, stylized ripple animation that contrasted nicely with our more organic Houdini simulations.
EXPLORATION 3
We also explored a particle-based approach using Houdini’s POP network to visualize sound as expanding energy waves. Starting from a circular emitter, we layered multiple point wrangles and copy operations to generate rings of particles that pushed outward like shockwaves. By adjusting velocity noise, falloff, and lifespan, we were able to create dense, cloud like particle formations that felt both chaotic and controlled capturing the sensation of sound energy radiating through space. This test helped us define how clarity, intensity, and directionality of sound could be expressed through particle behavior.
EXPLORATION 4
For this exploration, we generated a field of decagon shapes using a Copy to Points setup and animated them through color information. By driving a gradient of color values across the grid, we were able to create a procedural pattern that pulsed, faded, and expanded like an energy field. This color data was then transferred into the particle system, allowing POP particles to inherit the animated values and move accordingly. The result was a layered wave effect where particles responded to shifting color states producing a dynamic, synchronized motion that felt both graphic and organic.
We rendered the project using Redshift, which provided the speed and flexibility needed for our particle-driven and deformation heavy simulations. For lighting, we aimed for a dynamic and dramatic atmosphere, using strong directional sources and deep shadows to emphasize movement and texture. In terms of materials, we shifted from a pure gold look to a soft gold-to-beige palette to achieve a more refined sense of luxury. This subtle color range allowed the surfaces and particles to catch light in a sophisticated way maintaining warmth and premium character while staying aligned with SONOS’s elegant, minimal design language.
FIRST PASS
All post-processing was completed inside Nuke, where we refined the visual language through targeted color grading, hue correction, and hue shifts to match our warm gold to beige palette. We added re grain to reintroduce cinematic texture and preserve detail within the abstract forms. Additional effects such as bloom, depth of field, and motion blur were used to enhance scale, softness, and motion, helping the particles and surface deformations feel more immersive. These Nuke adjustments were essential in unifying the final aesthetic and elevating the emotional tone of the piece.
POST-PROCESSING
