LÍDIA PUJOL
BEGGING THE WAVES

BEGGING THE WAVES: A VFX JOURNEY

Lídia Pujol is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing Catalan singer-songwriters of our time. In 2009, she released "Begging The Waves," a single based on a poem by Maria-Mercè Marçal. Working under the direction of Jesús Manuel Montané at Grupo Estudio, I was brought on as the lead Visual Effects (VFX) artist and editor for the official music video. The core of the video required Lídia to sing atop a cloud and subsequently ride a massive sparrowhawk ("esparver") speeding through the sky—a bold narrative that demanded high-end technical execution.

THE TECHNICAL STACK: GREEN SCREENS & 3D ANIMATION

The entire performance was shot in a studio using a full green screen backdrop. My responsibility was to build the mystical world around her from scratch. To generate the hyper-realistic, dynamic skies and clouds, I utilized VUE (by e-on software), an industry standard for 3D environment generation at the time. The sparrowhawk itself was a complex 3D asset that I rigged, illuminated, and animated entirely within Daz Studio. To preserve maximum quality, the bird was rendered out as frame-by-frame transparent PNG sequences before being brought into the final composition.

THE CHALLENGE OF EARLY COMPOSITING

Perhaps the greatest challenge of the project was the meticulous motion tracking and compositing. I relied on Autodesk Combustion to key out the green screen, track Lídia's movements, and seamlessly blend the 3D rendered sparrowhawk, the VUE skies, and foreground elements together. It was a painstaking but immensely rewarding process that solidified my foundation in high-end CGI and interactive media.

BEYOND THE VIDEO: LA CERIMÒNIA DE LA LLUM

This highly technical collaboration evolved into a much deeper strategic relationship. Years later, in 2012, Lídia trusted me to develop the digital identity and web platform for La Cerimònia de la Llum, a highly ambitious, multidisciplinary project bridging medieval heritage (like the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat) with modern audiences. Translating the essence of a show built on the "creative light of life" into a digital environment proved that our collaboration could transcend pure VFX and step into profound artistic strategy. This connection also paved the way for future projects, including web development for Mohamed Soulimane—the violinist of the Orquestra Àrab de Barcelona and a core member of Lídia's ensemble for the Cerimònia.