Through the Dark

Google x Hilltop Hoods

Interactive Film

Stylised black-and-white scene of figures in a room mirrored upside down below

‘Talbot says the poignant animation managed to reduce a room full of hardened, cynical creatives almost to tears. “It wasn’t just something new, but something beautifully executed. […] It gave me goosebumps.”’

D&AD Jury

Through the Dark is a 4½ minute 3D-animated interactive film for Google that’s viewed in a web browser and rendered in real-time, allowing the user to experience the story by changing the camera’s perspective and moving between two worlds.

The project was a collaboration with Hilltop Hoods and features their song of the same name. The track was written by one of the band members, Daniel Smith, when his eight-year-old son Liam was diagnosed with leukaemia and spent six-months in hospital. Based on this experience, the film tells a poignant story of a boy and his father struggling with their fears of losing one another.

The film is told in fourteen scenes, each of which was modelled and animated in Maya, then converted to a format that allowed it to be rendered in real-time in the browser with standard web technologies such as WebGL and the Web Audio API.

Through the Dark was the most successful digital interactive project of the year, receiving over fifty accolades at major international award shows and festivals.

Close-up of a smartphone displaying a 3D scene of a person standing beside a hospital bed, viewed from two perspectives.
Close-up of Ned Kelly's helmet.
Storyboards by Xavier Irvine
A graphic 3D rendered image of a man and boy walking in the snow, leaving footprints behind them.
A graphic-looking black & white 3D renderered image of a boy swimming underwater.
Black & white 3D rendered image of a boy and man in a row boat on the water with icebergs in the background.
Graphic-looking black jagged trees in a white misty void.
A black & white 3D rendered image of a boy and man in a hostpiral room.