Body of Clay

Mridangam ,which translates to “Body of Clay” , is one of the commonly played ancient percussion instruments from South India. We want to work towards elevating the brand presence of performing artists and introduce, Mridangam and Carnatic as an art-form to the world through dynamic and extravagant visuals.

“Motion meets Mridangam” is a cross collaboration between established classical Indian percussionists and visual designers. This idea of bridging the gap between sound design, rhythm and moving visuals would pave way for creative traditionalists in the Carnatic industry to enrich the whole music experience for audiences.

Before diving into creating any graphics for the artistes, our primary focus was on formulating a strong design system that will elevate the performer’s brand voice. Brand isn’t just the music or the visual or the impressions the community has on the artiste, it is rather how one feels about the artiste.

Having a consistent visual system which would resonate with viewers could help improve the social and digital presence and help followers or Rasikas learn more about the artiste and their craft.

Year

Branding | Motion | Posters

2025

We live in a fast-paced world where consumption of information in the digital space is significant. Creating art is our passion and as designers we seek to tell better stories and sell emotions through our work more than anything. We want businesses to thrive by helping them connect with their customers better. Design doesn’t just revolve around aesthetics, it forms the basis for solving complex real world problems. Our mission here is to offer the most effective design solutions and create well curated visuals that resonate with our viewers

India being one of the oldest civilizations in the world is well known for its extremely rich culture and heritage. Our focus is to celebrate the country’s ten thousand year old civilization and work towards increasing visibility to large number of prestigious artifacts, sculptures, instruments, architectural sites and establishments. This creative and motion design studio aims to digitalize assets while preserving the authenticity of what is considered Indian.

Our objective is to create, run campaigns and promote classical artists, creative groups, local businesses in the digital space while creating a massive library of custom made digital props.

Animation is an umbrella term used to refer to a sequence of images stitched together in a chronological and logical order.There are several different types of animations. Motion graphics, as the term suggests, is just graphic elements in motion. Visually attractive and appealing compositions consisting of moving abstract shapes, typography and manipulated imagery. This style of animation is also known as motion graphics design. It happens to only be one of the many subsets of animation, and is mainly used for creating short form eye-catchy visuals, product showcases, visual pitches and motion posters, both in two as well as three-dimensions.

Dependence on computer graphics in recent times has played a crucial role in helping us achieve things that wouldn’t generally be possible in the real world. The possibilities are limitless with the technology we have at disposal and we can create more compelling visual stories to better connect with communities and individuals.

Archiving projects digitally has a huge advantage as one would be able to access, reuse assets, replicate

There is a significant correlation between rhythms and mathematical patterns. Several theoretical and experimental studies have shown that it is possible to link rhythmic patterns with complex mathematical models. The vibration of the membrane when the instrument is played obeys the laws of physics, sound engineering and math. The instrument is made out of a single long barrel of wooden block which serves as the resonator. The Mridangam is asymmetrical in shape since the left side of the instrument is slightly smaller than the right, and has a center rim that is offset from the actual geometrical center. These discrepancies in the structure are deliberate, as it facilitates better control of sound waves and rhythms.

Anirudh will be working closely with percussionists to understand the mathematics and engineering behind the rhythmic vibrations. These explorations mainly open up new possibilities for visual artists to leverage principles of mathematics and computer graphics to enhance the music experience in an innovative way.

Here are a few digital illustrations and renders based on hyper-surrealism, showcasing a traditional hand crafted Mridangam placed in unusual settings. Most of these digital compositions try to mimic real world camera work to achieve realism.

Anirudh examined and studied actual models of Mridangam to understand how they were made. Digitally recreating a percussion instrument started with the whole process of stripping down the instrument to its bare parts. Right from building an optimized mesh to creating custom textures, needed to be done from scratch.

Thalam Collection

An ode to one of the oldest South-Indian percussion instruments.

Parts of a Mridangam

These deconstructed views of the instrument show all its components clearly

Karanai - Right head

Leather straps

Varu - Braces

Wooden barrel - Resonator

Thoppi - Ring

Mettu : Exterior Ring made of Buffalo skin

Left had has just two rings and has a greater diameter than the right head

Left head

Soru : Interior Rim made of Goat skin

Process

Anirudh was going for a dark and cinematic look to make the compositions feel more dramatic. He also wanted to visually craft pieces that would bring significant emphasis on speed and extremely quick rhythmic beats. This whole project is an ambitious attempt to combine classical arts, computer graphics and brand storytelling to accelerate the digital presence and positioning of Indian classical artistes. The artist felt that going for a darker theme with plain backdrops would elevate the game from a brand design standpoint. In majority of the works, the Mridangam is placed in an outdoor setting where most props mimic concert stages and fog lighting. Concerts used to be performed in temples earlier. Digitally creating parts of temple architecture and incorporating those elements in this series was of paramount importance.

Percussionists often accompany the main vocalists in the music troop. They also have solo recitals and performances.

The objective was to come up with an optimized and a simplified version of the Mridangam in order to make it animation ready. Certain moving or vibrating parts of the instrument are parametric in the software, meaning it can be changed in real time by altering geometrical parameters like radius, width, height, axis and angles.