Ethio-Djibouti Railway

Headquarters Opening Films

A railway reopening its headquarters wanted the building's own screens to say it was entering a new age. One film can't carry a history and a future, so I made two that run in opposite directions: an ad that follows one container down the line into a digital city, and a title sequence that walks from bare feet to steam. They meet where the past catches up with the present. I made both alone, all CG, from concept to final mix.

Industry: Ethio-Djibouti Railway
Type: Brand Films
Role: Sole author: concept, modelling, animation, rendering, compositing, sound

From a box to a city

The ad's argument in one journey: a box opens onto Africa, a parcel is scanned, and the containers build themselves in the railway's green. A crane lifts one off at the port; it is tracked, loaded, carried by train and by truck, handed to the electric line, and runs into open country, where the world turns into light.

One colour on screen

The port, the cranes, the stacks and the yards are rendered white, almost clay. The only colour in the first half of the film is the railway's green, on its containers, its trucks and its locomotives, so the brand is never a logo in a corner: it is the thing your eye follows.

Every leg of the trip

A railway is one link in a chain, and the film rides all of it: ship to crane, crane to wagon, wagon to truck on a cable-stayed bridge, then back to the electric line. The container is the one constant; everything around it changes.

The turn to digital

The last third is the argument. The line runs out over green country, and the landscape breaks into a blue wireframe from the horizon in, the train turns to light, and a city rises in the same blue. It ends where the building did: a railway stepping into its next age.

The long way here

The title sequence runs the other way, from the beginning. A clay globe in its orbits, then bare feet on dark ground, and a single footprint left behind. It is about the oldest way of moving, told in close-up, with each step captioned in Amharic and English.

Legs, then wheels

The feet give way to a horse at a gallop, then to steam: an early steam carriage in smoke, its gears and pistons shot close, and a locomotive coming out of the rain at night. Each age of moving hands over to the next without a break in the idea.

Where the two films meet

A flash of light, and the history catches up with the present: the ad's green locomotive and container train run through the middle of the title sequence. Then the clay globe turns to metal, breaks up and rebuilds itself as a digital Earth, and the railway's mark closes both films the same way.

Model to mix, alone

Models and textures in Rhino and Blender. Every scene laid out, animated and lit in Cinema 4D, rendered in Redshift for the ad and Octane for the title sequence. Motion graphics, tracking, titles and colour in After Effects. Licensed music, re-cut and mixed, with the sound effects built on top.

Closing thoughts

A company film usually shows what a company has. These had to show where it came from and what it was becoming, in about two minutes between them, to a room of people standing in the building that was the proof.

Services: ConceptArt direction3D modelling and texturingAnimationLighting and renderingMotion graphicsCompositing and colourSound design and mix
Tools: RhinoBlenderCinema 4DRedshiftOctaneAfter Effects
Date: July 2025

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