Listening & Image Formation
The soundtrack was studied repeatedly until recurring emotions, images and transitions began to form a coherent internal film.
Directed Short Film / Cinematic Visual Development
Imperfect
Imperfect
Abortion
A surreal CGI short film created through sound-led visual improvisation. The film explores interrupted creation, incomplete artificial intelligence, control, fear and the fragile transformation of something not yet fully understood.
Project Overview
Unlike a commissioned commercial production, Imperfect Abortion began without a brief or conventional storyboard. The film was shaped by repeatedly listening to the music until its rhythm, emotional tension and symbolic images formed a complete visual language.
FormatIndependent CGI Short Film
My RoleDirector / Visual Artist / Digital Filmmaker
Creative MethodSound-led visual improvisation
ThemesAI / Creation / Control / Fear / Transformation
Visual LanguageSurrealism / Symbolism / Realism / Abstraction
Production ScopeDirection, Visual Development, Character Lookdev, CGI, Lighting, Compositing, Editing
Festival RecognitionFour official selections across the 2025–2026 festival cycle
Exhibition Master4K film with English subtitles
Core Tools
ZBrush / Adobe Substance 3D Painter / Cinema 4D / Octane Renderer / NukeX / DaVinci Resolve
Original Music
Farnood Pouransari / FARNOODEX — Illumination Sounds Record
Full Film
The complete film is presented as a single audiovisual experience. Music, performance, light, editing and symbolic imagery were developed as one connected cinematic structure.
Concept & Meaning
The loss of creation before it can fully become itself
The film considers interrupted birth in both physical and metaphorical terms. It reflects on how individuals and societies may destroy what they fear, misunderstand or cannot yet control.
Within the film, artificial intelligence is not shown as a complete or conscious being. It appears as an unfinished form still trying to grow—judged as if it has already reached maturity, while remaining vulnerable, unstable and incomplete.
“Technically, the film is made with CGI. Emotionally, it is a stream of instinct—every movement, light and transition came from what I felt inside the music.”
Sound-Led Direction
The project was created through listening rather than through a traditional storyboard. I returned to the music repeatedly until the visual rhythm, emotional progression and individual frames became clear enough to build.
Music & Sound Collaboration
The original track was produced by Farnood Pouransari, known professionally as FARNOUDEX, a techno and melodic-techno composer working with Illumination Sounds Record. The music was not added after the visuals; it became the foundation for the film’s rhythm, emotional progression and visual structure.
Film identity
Original music producer and composer
Music production / label
Creative Process
The process moved from instinctive listening into a controlled cinematic structure without losing the original emotional impulse.
Symbolic Visual Development
Abstract themes such as creation, control, fear and incomplete consciousness were translated into visual metaphors rather than literal exposition.
Shot Construction
Scenes were built around emotional beats, silhouette, movement and light, allowing each image to function as both narrative and symbol.
Rhythm & Transition
Editing and visual transitions were shaped directly around the soundtrack so the film would feel performed rather than illustrated.
CGI & Final Image
Lighting, rendering and compositing were used to move between realism and abstraction while maintaining a consistent emotional atmosphere.
Exhibition Delivery
The final film was prepared as a 4K exhibition master with English subtitles, trailer, poster and selected stills for festival presentation.
Character Look Development
Developing the two central characters as part of one visual world
The two primary characters needed to feel connected to the same cinematic universe while remaining clearly different in material language, silhouette and emotional presence. Their look development was shaped around the film’s themes of incomplete creation, vulnerability, control and transformation.
I refined form, surface detail, material response and lighting behavior through a series of focused lookdev studies. The three clips below show the progression from early visual exploration to the final character treatment used in the film.
Previsualization
Testing rhythm, staging and shot progression before final production
Although the project did not begin with a conventional storyboard, previs became essential once the first visual ideas had formed. It allowed me to test camera position, shot duration, scale relationships and the overall rhythm of the sequence before committing to detailed production.
The previs remained intentionally simple. Its purpose was to preserve emotional timing, reveal structural problems early and confirm that each shot supported the progression of the film.
Production Pipeline
The film moved through a connected sculpting, texturing, animation, rendering, compositing and editorial workflow. Each application supported a specific stage while the direction, visual language and final image remained unified.
ZBrush
Character sculpting, form development and detailed surface construction.
Adobe Substance 3D Painter
Character and environment texturing, surface variation and controlled material wear.
Cinema 4D
Scene construction, character presentation, camera development and previsualization.
Octane Renderer
Character look development, lighting, atmosphere, material response and final cinematic rendering.
NukeX
Compositing, integration, atmosphere, selective correction and final shot polish.
DaVinci Resolve
Editing, rhythm refinement, finishing, color review and 4K exhibition delivery.
AI, Art & Environment
The film places artificial intelligence inside a wider question about creation and responsibility. It does not present AI as a finished intelligence, but as an emerging presence shaped by the environment that produces, controls and judges it.
AI as Incomplete CreationThe central figure is still forming, making the film less about technological certainty and more about vulnerability, projection and premature judgment.
Art as InterpretationThe film uses symbolic imagery rather than direct explanation, leaving space for the audience to form an emotional and personal reading.
Environment as Active ForceThe surrounding world is not passive scenery; it shapes, restricts and transforms the emerging subject throughout the film.
Directorial Decisions & Authorship
Protecting instinct while building a complete cinematic structure
The main challenge was turning an intuitive response to music into a film that could sustain meaning, rhythm and visual continuity from beginning to end. The solution was not to replace instinct with a rigid process, but to give that instinct a disciplined cinematic form.
Music Before StoryboardI allowed sound to determine the first visual ideas, then organized those ideas into a deliberate progression rather than forcing them into a pre-existing narrative template.
Symbol Instead of ExplanationThe film avoids direct exposition. Meaning is carried through recurring forms, movement, scale, light and transformation, giving the audience room to participate.
Unified AuthorshipDirection, visual development, CGI decisions, compositing and editing were treated as one connected system so the final film retained a single emotional voice.
Festival Recognition
The film received four official selections across the 2025–2026 festival cycle, supporting its positioning as both a directed cinematic work and an independent visual-art project.
Filmmaker Sessions Volume 9Official Selection, 2025.
INDIE FILM LAOfficial Selection — Los Angeles, California, 2026.
Royale Film FestivalOfficial Selection, 2025.
Western University Film FestivalOfficial Selection, 2025.Project Credits
Core creative and production information.
- Title
- Imperfect Abortion
- Format
- Independent CGI Short Film
- Director
- Mo Asnaei
- Creative Role
- Direction, Visual Development and Cinematic Authorship
- Production Scope
- Direction, Visual Development, Character Development, Character Look Development, Previsualization, CGI, Lighting, Rendering, Compositing, Editing and Final Delivery
- Festival Cycle
- Four official selections across the 2025–2026 festival cycle
- Original Music
- Produced by Farnood Pouransari (FARNOODEX)
- Music Partner
- Illumination Sounds Record
- Core Tools
- ZBrush, Adobe Substance 3D Painter, Cinema 4D, Octane Renderer, NukeX and DaVinci Resolve
Selected Frames
Ten selected frames highlighting the film’s surreal environments, symbolic transformations, psychological scale, robot performance and movement between realism and abstraction.
Cinematic CG / VFX Leadership
Turning visual direction into a production-ready system.
For cinematic, animation, CG supervision, visual-development or technical-production opportunities, contact me directly or review the broader portfolio and resume.