The Story of Psyche

Year: 2024-2025
Artist: Jessica Hall
University: Rochester Institute of Technology
Major: New Media Design
Title: The Story of Psyche
Tags: Abstract
Genre/Medium: 3D render; Cinema4D & Redshift Rendering Engine
Category: digital video
Current Location: Digital Only
Description: “The Story Of Psyche” is a narrative motion graphics piece that illustrates the story of both the Psyche mission and asteroid through time. It begins as a mere concept, before blooming into discovery. Around it, a mission is built to study and explore this mysterious metal world. A dramatic launch calls the spacecraft into the sky, and the Psyche craft begins its journey through space. After slingshotting past Mars with its gravity assist, the spacecraft travels a lonely path before finally arriving at the enigmatic Psyche asteroid, which waits to reveal its knowledge and mystery.

With this animation, I wanted to explore the profound sense of beauty, excitement, hopefulness, wonder, and mystery surrounding the Psyche asteroid and its mission. I used simple and abstract motifs to represent such qualities, as well as to symbolize the innate curiosity within the human race that drew us to the asteroid in the first place. As this asteroid still remains so mysterious to us, I left the ending of the piece open-ended, allowing the animation to loop and leaving the conclusion up to interpretation.
Artwork Link: https://psyche.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery/the-story-of-psyche/