I had been working full time on Planet Unknown from July 2015 to June 2016. It was a passion project as well as my graduation thesis film at Communication University of China. This 11-month journey was very challenging, but it was a perfect learning opportunity as well.

The idea started back in 2014 when Interstellar was released. I was deeply impressed by the movie and was inspired by the two robots TARS and CASE. The idea of intellectual robots exploring space developed from there.

Other inspirations include Pixar movies like WALL-E and Toy Story, as well as CHAPPiE, NASA documentaries about Mars Rover Curiosity, and short films by individuals like Alex Roman’s The Third & The Seventh, Richard Mans’ Abiogenesis, Erik Wernquist’s Wanderers, Alf Lovvold’s Dawn of the Stuff, and so many more.

Echoic Audio, one of the UK's leading music & sound design studios, joined this adventure with epic cinematic score and detailed sound design which catapulted the film to a new level that I had never imagined.

This project pushed me to do what I never thought I could do. However, it also keeps punching me in the face and shows me how limited my skills are. There are still tons of problems in the making that I can't figure out even now.

Thanks to everyone for the support along the way. The new adventure begins...

At the end of 21st century, mankind was facing global resource depletion. Space Rovers were sent out to find potential inhabitable planets.

Credits:
Written & Directed by - Shawn Wang
Modelling, Texturing, Animation, Compositing & Editing - Shawn Wang
Music & Sound Design by - Echoic Audio
Composer - Sam Foster
Sound Design by - Tom Gilbert & David Johnston
Special Thanks to - Evolutions
Re-recording Mixer - Will Norie
Faculty Producer - Xinyuan Huang
Faculty Adviser - Yucheng Huang
Special Thanks to System Advisers - Horizon Bian / Sicong Wang / Jiawei Cao

Links:
Official Website
Official Trailer
Echoic Audio
Facebook Page
IMDb
Behind the Scenes