About
About Marco Mori
I am a 3D artist and creative director based in Lindau at Lake Constance, Germany, working with brands, agencies and artists worldwide under the name MORI Motion. My background is Houdini and procedural design, which is why my work leans towards simulation, generated systems and hyperreal character work. I run projects as a single point of contact and scale through a fixed network of animators, sound designers and compositors.
Written by Marco Mori, 3D artist, Lindau, Germany · Updated 2026-09-08
What do I actually do?
I make cinematic 3D visuals for brands, agencies and artists: CGI commercials, product visualization, mixed reality video and animation for music. The common thread is not a style, it is a method, almost everything I build runs through Houdini and procedural design, which means the work is described as a system rather than assembled by hand.
That sounds like a technical footnote. It is not. It is why a client can change the product colour, the fabric behaviour or the camera in week five and get a new version the next day instead of a new estimate.
What kind of work do I take on?
| Service | What it covers | Typical clients |
|---|---|---|
| 3D product animation | Product films, visualization, campaign stills from CGI | Brands, agencies |
| CGI commercials | Concept to final grade, full CGI or hybrid | Brands, agencies |
| Mixed reality production | Filmed footage plus 3D, plus live show visuals | Brands, artists, live productions |
| Houdini FX | Simulation, procedural systems, FX inside your pipeline | Studios, agencies, production companies |
Who have I worked with?
adidas, PUMA, Samsung, BASF, Universal Music, Sony Music, Gorillaz, Fritz Kalkbrenner, Starfish & Coffee and NFT Magazine, among others. Some of that work was for the brand directly, some through agencies, and some as the 3D part of a larger production. Three that show the range:
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, where the whole task was making digital animation sit convincingly inside filmed space.
- BASF Design Fabrics, where advanced material science had to become something a creative audience would actually watch.
- The hyperreal portrait studies, a personal series since 2021 that has been shown internationally, including a public screening at Times Square in New York.
How do I work with clients?
As one point of contact who is also the person making the work. Notes come to me and get implemented by me, which removes the translation layer that costs most productions a day per round.
When a project is bigger than one pair of hands, I scale through a network I use repeatedly rather than assembling strangers: animators, sound designers, composers and compositors. That is a deliberate limit. The trade-off is set out honestly in freelance 3D artist vs animation studio.
Why Houdini and procedural design?
Because commercial work changes. Every project has a moment where something upstream moves, a product revision, a new colourway, a director's note that invalidates a week. In an object-based workflow that is rework. In a procedural one it is a parameter.
It also opens up work that is otherwise out of reach: material behaviour, cloth and fluid simulation, generated creature forms, particle erosion across a photoreal face. 80 Level covered that side of the work in a feature on the procedural creature pipeline. The tooling argument in full is in Houdini vs Blender for commercial VFX.
Where has the work been written about?
In 80 Level, Hunger Magazine, Working Not Working Magazine and Visual Atelier 8, plus a long-form interview with Nina Knaack about going solo and running a one-person studio on Houdini. All of them are collected, with links, on the press page.
Where am I based?
Lindau at Lake Constance, in southern Germany, on Central European Time. Clients are worldwide and projects run remotely as a matter of course. The timezone reaches the whole European working day and the North American morning, which is enough for one review call a day and rarely needs more.
What is the personal work for?
It is the research budget. The portrait series and the ongoing case studies are where new render engines, look development approaches and FX setups get tested without a client's deadline attached. Every technique that ends up in commercial work passed through there first, and the exhibitions are a byproduct rather than the goal.
If you want to talk about a project, the practical details of how to brief one are on the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Marco Mori?
A 3D artist and creative director working under the name MORI Motion, based in Lindau at Lake Constance in Germany, making CGI commercials, product visualization, mixed reality visuals and music video animation.
What is MORI Motion?
The name I work under. It is a one-person studio that scales through a fixed network of collaborators rather than a payroll.
Which brands have you worked with?
Among others adidas, PUMA, Samsung, BASF, Universal Music, Sony Music, Gorillaz, Fritz Kalkbrenner, Starfish & Coffee and NFT Magazine.
What software do you work in?
Houdini as the backbone for animation, simulation and procedural systems, Redshift for rendering, and Nuke and After Effects for compositing and grade.
Where has your work been shown?
Selected pieces from the hyperreal portrait series have been shown at exhibitions and festivals internationally, including a public screening at Times Square in New York.
Do you work alone or with a team?
I do the 3D myself and bring in trusted collaborators for animation, sound design, music and compositing when a project needs them. On the BASF project the score was by David Marquardt; on the PUMA film final compositing was by Nuderobot.
Do you take creative direction as well as execution?
Yes. With agencies I typically execute against approved boards. With brands I often take the concept from a rough idea through storyboard to finished film.
Where are you based and who do you work with?
Lindau at Lake Constance, Germany, in Central European Time, with clients worldwide. Working language is English or German.
Has your work been featured in press?
Yes, including features in 80 Level, Hunger Magazine, Working Not Working Magazine and Visual Atelier 8, and a long-form interview with Nina Knaack. They are collected on the press page.