Pupillary | The Beginning

“In a dying universe, an aloof master comes across a religious child who has been revered as a goddess by her people.”

“The master serves the universe, to ensure that it can die smoothly, whereas the child, who has become his pupil, is filled with boundless hope of restoring the world to its original state. Could the two characters, from drastically different backgrounds, coexist, or even more so, learn from each other?”

Pupillary is the IP project I had the liberty to create during my last semester in The One Academy. For this project, I was deeply moved and inspired by Rose-Lynn Fisher's microscopic photography series - "The Topography of Tears", which explored the beautiful crystalised structures of tears under the microscope. I thought to myself, "What if there were a universe within our tears?" after seeing the microscopic images, which resembled the branches that formed the cosmic web all around us. Hence, the world of Pupillary was born.

The art direction of Pupillary takes inspiration from the visuals of microscopic photos of tears, creating branching spirals and mesmerising shapes is a must in every design. The idea of small to big is also there, imagine things that we don't usually see with our naked eye, becoming huge motifs and environments.

Her Dying Wish

The Pupil isn't ready for change. All her life, she always had what she needed within reach. Who knew, that one day, it would all come to an abrupt end? She was to be sacrificed as the chosen goddess by the hand of a foreign empire, to alleviate the Herald of Plight, to stop the end of the universe, but that is not what the universe wants.

Saved by a masked mariner in rags, she now has to start a new life and get accustomed to the vast lands she will traverse on her journey, with her "master", she sulks; to both learn the truth of the universe, a journey for the soul.