Worlds
Moonlit places with their own rules, built one floating island at a time.
Independent animation studio
Stories grow deeper here.
Dark Forest Animations makes animated short stories and living worlds: moonlit forests, floating islands, and the circuits that run beneath them.
The studio
Above the ground, the stories.
We make short animated films and the worlds they live in. Calm, atmospheric, a little strange: the kind of forest you would walk into slowly. Everything begins as a place, and every place gets its own story.
Making
Sketches, geometry, light, and the failed experiments in between, shared as we go.
Motion
Short films and motion studies, made to be watched slowly.
The craft
Beneath, the craft.
Every world starts as a pencil line. It becomes geometry, then light, then motion. Nature above, technology below, one root system: the trees are modelled in Blender from photographed leaves and bark, and the roots are circuits we draw with our own code.
Our emblem says it plainly. A grove on a floating cube, roots pouring over the edge and turning into circuits. That is the studio: imagination first, tools second, both growing from the same ground.
The descent
Every root finds a path.
Every path carries a signal.
Every signal is a story waiting to be told.
Sixty books, fourteen stories. Take one in hand.
Talos / the first story
Meet the fates.
The forest introduces the craft. The roots become threads. The threads lead to the Fates of Talos: seven lives in one living world, and not one of them agrees on what it should become.
RenThe boy who can see another way
Character reference: concept art made with AI tools, chosen and directed by the studio. Not a frame from the film.
Side characters / The quiet bonds
Some lives change yours without a word.
The old man
In the slums, an old man takes Ren in. His origins are unknown. He says nothing, but food, shelter and small acts of affection tell Ren that he is not alone.
A quiet presence in Ren's earliest memories.
Minions / Under the Codek
One command. Many shadows.
The Codek's influence reaches through those who carry out his will. Cy is created in his image and remains purely loyal to him. Algos has broken away, but the old order still follows him.
The making
A world, grown from a single spark.
Stone, roots, five trees, then light. Scroll to build the world inside our mark.
- FoundationA fragment of stone, suspended in the dark.
- RootsLiving paths become luminous circuits.
- GrowthFive oaks rise from a shared ground.
- CanopyPhotographed leaves catch the moonlight.
- LightThe halo closes. A forest becomes an emblem.
Inside the emblem
A forest above. A universe within.
Look closer. The canopy holds the light, the roots carry the signal, and a library waits inside the stone. Every part belongs to the same world.
How it grew
From one picture to a living world.
Seven steps, in order. Keep scrolling and each one plays as you reach it.
-
01
The first picture.
It began as one image, made with an AI image tool from our own brief: a forest on a floating stone, roots turning to circuits, a full moon behind. A picture of a place that did not exist yet.
-
02
The first model.
By the next morning the picture had depth: a first model of the island, lit and rendered. Rough, but you could walk round it.
-
03
How the current logo is made.
See the current logo take shape in six labelled stages. This reconstruction uses the actual scene running on the site, from assembling the form to the final moving light.
- Build the form. Assemble the stone, roots, canopy and ring.
- Check the geometry. Inspect the mesh in wireframe.
- Read the silhouette. Use neutral clay to check the shapes.
- Add the surfaces. Apply bark, foliage, stone and lunar detail.
- Shape the light. Balance moonlight, shadows and circuit glow.
- Bring it to life. Add wind, travelling light, clouds and bloom.
-
04
It found its light.
The ident, eight seconds long: the roots and the circuits first, then the rise to the whole island under its moon.
-
05
It went deeper.
Down the roots and the traces, until the stone opens and the library inside shows through. It is the path this page follows.
-
06
The full turn.
The finished model, all the way round, rendered frame by frame. Nothing hidden on the far side.
-
07
Yours to turn.
The current emblem, captured frame by frame from the same live scene you can explore below. A fresh full turn of the ring, trees and luminous stone.
Explore the model
Drag to orbit, scroll over the scene to zoom. Escape to stop.
Moving images & further studies
Fresh films and studies from the current animated scene. Updated 10 October 2026.
Built in Blender: 130,637 triangles in the desktop model, 64,787 in the phone one. Photographed bark, rock and leaves from Poly Haven; Moon imagery from NASA.
Process
How a story grows.
Seed
An idea and a feeling. A place we want to stand in, and a question about who lives there. It is written down before anything is drawn.
Sketch
Thumbnails, frames and a rough board. If it does not work as ten drawings it will not work as a film. The board is cut until it does.
Build
Models, sets and light. The world gets geometry and the geometry gets rules. Real materials, photographed, and code where it helps. Concept art may be AI-assisted and is always labelled.
Animate
Timing, motion, then sound. Slow where it should be slow. Every shot is watched at speed and at a crawl.
Release
A film on the channel, and the making of it shared alongside. Then the next island.
Talos / our first animation
What if your future was not yours?
In Talos, living beings are called Fates. The system can calculate their paths. A boy from the slums can see another way.
Ren sees the futures other people are made to accept. Beside him is Damon, a lost friend rebuilt in a machine body, whose loyalty becomes his own. Between them and the men who would own tomorrow stands a living world.
-
The city that promises a future
Automata
A radiant city of engineered life, licensed movement and uncertain freedom. Its brilliance is real. So is the price paid below.
-
The lives beneath the light
The slums
The slums are dangerous, but never empty of care. Repair stalls, shared meals and improvised homes survive in the shadow of systems that count people as fuel.
-
Where rejected futures remain
The Outer Nether
Beyond the safe world lie broken cities and forests that remember shapes they should not possess. The Void is not simply absence. Something lives in what was discarded.
Explore the world
AI-assisted concept studies directed by the studio. These are not frames from the film.
Automata10 studies
The slums10 studies
The Outer Nether10 studies
In development No announced date and no trailer yet. The posters, the world studies and the book covers in the library are AI-assisted concept art directed by the studio, not frames from the film.
The studio
Who we are.
Dark Forest Animations is an independent animation studio, founded in 2026 and based in the United Kingdom. A growing forest on the screen, and a channel where the work is shown as it is made.
What we hold to
- Patience. Worlds are built slowly and shown when they are ready.
- Craft. Real tools, real materials and real geometry in the 3D work. Concept art may be AI-assisted, and it is always labelled.
- Curiosity. The failed experiments are part of the work, and they get shared.
- Honesty about process. Studies are called studies. Nothing is called a film until it is one.
Working with us
Collaborations and commissions start with a conversation. Write to us with the place, the feeling and who lives there, and we reply ourselves. If we go on to work together, the terms are agreed in writing before anything is made.
Questions
Do you take commissions?
Yes, when the story fits. Use the form below or email the studio; we reply to everything.
Where do the films premiere?
On the YouTube channel first. Nothing is released yet; the first story is in development.
Can I use your emblem?
Not without written permission. The emblem began as an AI-assisted picture and was then rebuilt by us in 3D, so we protect it mainly as our brand mark. The press kit covers reporting on the studio; for anything else, ask.
Where do your textures come from?
Photographed materials from Poly Haven (CC0), and NASA's public-domain Moon, Earth and star maps; the circuits are drawn by our own code. The sources and their licences are listed on the terms page. NASA and ESA do not endorse this site.
Beyond the forest
A wider sky.
Worlds beyond the branches. A quiet passage between stories.
Begin
Begin a story.
Follow the channel to watch the worlds grow, or write to us about a story, a collaboration or a commission. We read everything and reply ourselves.
