Lyrebird Profile: Victor Dream Holder

Above: Victor Dream Holder at work during the post production of The Message of the Lyrebird and his art designs.

Victor Dream Holder was chosen as designer and animator for The Message of the Lyrebird as the film required multidisciplinary techniques for a variety of sequences, from traditional rotoscoping to digital water colour art. 

Victor holds extensive experience producing animations, interactive live installations, public art, outdoor visual projections, virtual reality (VR) experiences, and large format paintings. His work has taken him from his native country Venezuela to projects in Europe, Cambodia, Malaysia, Central America, United States, and Australia; his new-found home since 2000. 

Victor has worked with the Sea Shepard Australia, World Wildlife Foundation, Discovery Channel, City of Port Phillip, City of Melbourne, Melbourne Zoo, RMIT Melbourne and Multicultural Arts Victoria, among other organisations. He is also founder of the 4DIVERSE HUB – a wellbeing and artistic non-for-profit organisation, which operated from 2012-2019 in St Kilda, Victoria www.4diverse.com

Why do you make art?

Since I have been a child there are constant deep emotions, ideas and visions inside me that need to get out. 

I have a desire to express what I feel during my existence in this life, and to create visions that hold value for humanity, and also to contribute to the process of bringing clear awareness to social and environmental issues, as well as healing.

For me, art has always been a type of therapy, or a form of meditation; a self-healing medication with outcomes that create pure joy for my soul and for the audience’s soul. 

My intentions with multidisciplinary art is to inspire people to look a little closer at social and environmental concerns, and to stay in touch with the environment that surrounds them. My intention is to help people see the invisible resonances of the spirit of nature; what is there but is not easily perceived, creating a closer connection with nature. 

The tools I use to achieve this work range from traditional materials and techniques to the digital realm.

What was the creative process for The Message of the Lyrebird?

Working on this film started 11 years ago when Balangara producer Mark Pearce invited me to design the costume character Flyerbird (the spiritual spokesbird of the forest). 

I also performed as the Flyrebird in this crazy suit during the traditional Birdman Rally at the 2011 MOOMBA Festival. I flew off a platform – or more truthfully, I jumped – into the the Yarra River to help bring awareness to the Ethical Paper Pledge campaign, for The Wildness Society (Victoria).

This creative event was super fun and for the first time I had to impersonate this wild, ancient sentient being, its unique dance, and diverse sounds.

Soon after, I collaborated as an animator, interpreting the Indigenous Dreaming vision of the lyrebird for an early pilot draft of the documentary. 

Since 2010, I have worked as an animator and motion graphic designer in other collaborations for Balangara Films, which has kept me in close contact with Mark to follow some of his incredible environmental projects. 

In 2021, I left Melbourne through a self-created environmental fundraising trek for Bangalow Koalas. As I was escaping Covid 19 in the city of Melbourne, Mark contacted me and invited me to participate in this feature-length film. 

The Message of the Lyrebird became a great opportunity, an enormous honour, and a privilege that gave me more motivation for my environmental mission; a long walk, journeying from Victoria to the northern rivers in New South Wales and finally to Queensland, where I started to illustrate my nature experiences in the form of watercolour paintings. 

As soon as I arrived at the Balangara studio in the Hinterland on the Sunshine Coast, Mark took me on many forest walks to connect with country. He shared many interesting stories about the lyrebirds and the ancient forests for about two weeks before we started design work on the film.

Thanks to this initial process, my soul and mind was full of inspiration, where I dived deeply into exploring the subject matter to bring an organic ‘next-level’ feel to the animations. 

I used Photoshop for illustration and rotoscoping with my Wacom tablet, 3D software, Cinema 4D and After Effects to compose and synchronise the animation with the sound.

I had the great opportunity to work closer with Mark while he was still editing the film and he welcomed me to give feedback on what he was creating at that time.

The work was arduous and we had some tricky times but I'm so grateful how much I have learned and contributed to the process. 

When the film was completed, we previewed it in large format with my projector. It was an immense feeling of pleasure to watch the The Message of the Lyrebird with a dozen friends. It’s super-well edited, with great sound, and colour grading. 

What a unique message for Australia and the World !!!