About

“Hence there is no absurdity in portraying the Celestial Natures by discordant and diverse symbols” --- Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (Celestial Hierarchy)

Psaltix is a motion design project iterating on the well known "biblically accurate angel" meme. Be not afraid? Sounds like a general good advice...

The main idea is to focus on the design of angels in the form of animated gif loops. The timeless motif of angels is, among other things, a way to pinpoint this project in the great History of Art since pre-antiquity, where such representations already occured. Today as well, the way of representing angels must be relevant to the contemporary context, without falling into easy and ephemeral trends, nor chasing after past forms. We do not believe the "biblically accurate "angel meme will die anytime soon, precisely because of how it ties both to the present times and to the ancient past of humanity.

Individual video asset designs are first sketched on paper with fine ink pens, scanned, traced as vectors in Illustrator, and then imported into After Effects for animation. None of the designs or animations are AI-generated. Some faces are traced directly from christian icons or ancient pagan masks. The loops are available in h264, dxv and apple prores 4444 codecs, depending on the packs.

The "biblically accurate" angel of the web is not only related to the obvious bible verses where it appears, but also to the current visual culture, running from science fiction videogame alien and fantasy world hybrids to psychedelic perceptive replications and mathematical abstract modelizations from generative code superstructures..

Our angels almost always consist of a face or central element, surrounded by a set of wing. This is the usual form of seraphim or cherubim angels in most eastern christian art, icons, frescoes, churches etc.

Traditionally in such art, the central element would be a face, most often human but also bull, eagle or lion, all four corresponding to the four gospels. Here, such animal elements are brought back to life indeed, but our range of experiments can span way wider, into digital screens and ui elements, flowers, clocks, helmets, technical blueprints, miscellaneous symbolic limbs, objects, signs or purely abstract 2D hyper replicative brain twisting shapes. This central face holds the grounding of the image, it is the visual center into which every visual tensions seek to resolve.

The wings are complex, almost fractal and reminiscent of high-end mathematical shapes and 4D projections into computer graphic generated environments, although everything is built in 2D. Everything revolves around an iterative use of the layer cloning method. Stacked-up, staggered and tweaked mostly on their size and delay, we can create some pretty interesting motion patterns. Indeed, the wings are the most interesting part of each picture, from a purely graphic and aesthetic standpoint. Their symbolism is more free, more abstract.

This project is clearly outside of the boundaries of religious iconography. Yet, an experimental effort is made to stay in line with a set of loosely defined principles or constraints that could be said to frame the general practice of neo-byzantine art today :

- Two dimensional graphics (shape layers animated from basic properties)
- Clarity and fluidity of lines (consistent two pixels wide stroke)
- Tension between abstraction and figuration (abstract wings around figurative faces)
- Composition parallel to the picture plane (face)
- Reverse perspective (further objects appear bigger, closer objects appear smaller)
- Emphasis on making the subject present (centered eyes)
- Life and rhythmic unity (seamless loops with synchronized motion)
- Active move towards the viewer (hypnotic symmetry)
- Overriding of the limits of spacetime (no beginning nor end)

This pictorial and conceptual framework is then re-interpreted with great creative freedom and realized in the modern format of short seamless gif loops. The aesthetic qualities of the design seek to incorporate sensitivities from contemporary internet art, gif art, crypto art, street art, generative patterns, fractals, postmodern abstraction, contemporary illustration, sci-fi interfaces, anime, retro video games, etc.

One of the core idea behind the project is to reactivate the often overlooked visionary, mystical and prophetic aspects of the Christian visual narrative in profane art.

The hope is therefore to humbly contribute to the general effort of at least partially reenchanting the modern nihilistic materialistic world, which seems to have lost sight of the invisible realms of spirits and angels. We are thus threading one strand among many within contemporary culture, that try against all currents to reconnect us to the spiritual dimension of our past and future as humans.

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The video loops, assets, packs and bundles are sold for non-exclusive licencing aimed at musicians, video editors, content creators, labels, agencies, performers, artists, film studios, game developers, broadcasters, production companies, and other creative professionals, with three licence tiers designed to accommodate applications ranging from live performances and personal use to online media and large-scale commercial productions.

We hope our loops inspire freedom and creativity among everything you want to create with them and to anyone who will be able to enjoy them.

Thank you for attention and please remember to be not afraid,
Lucas & Océane