Tale of the Second Hand Stranger
D Smee (2019)
Science Fiction
Featured in
3D-based
In this dark, satirical allegory on how our environment and behavior form a symbiotic relationship to define how we define ourselves, a nameless man accidentally turns himself into a transdimensional serial killer when trying to kill himself. Due to circumstances which he struggles to understand, his suicide transports him to another dimension. Everything comes with a price, of course, and our man quickly finds out that the fare for this ride amounts to a piece of his body and soul. A tale of mental skulduggery involving an extraordinarily diverse cast of characters including a cat, several pants-less horses, balloon animals, and Someone Else.
The cover design depicts the book's transdimensional concept as a layered composition that sequentially strips the main character’s layers. Using 3D software and dedicated hardware, our cover cooks created four different renders of the same figure from the same point of view with progressively fewer clothes followed by layers of muscle, skin, and skeleton mapping. The final image is the result of the four generated images merged into one. The typographic composition is also in synergy with the dynamism of the sequenced layers.