Visual artist Oleg Memukhin planned a recent CGI experiment around one of Earth's most hypnotic visuals: fish swimming around in a circle. Using the graphics application Houdini, Memukhin created a school of small, shimmery fish and had them move in sync around any objects placed in their path. In the video above, Memukhin describes the four elements in his "flocking model": cohesion, separation and alignment, obstacle avoidance, and shape animation and flee behavior.

As Memukhin moves a submarine around an animated shipwreck, the fish swim around it without straying from their circular path. The video's only a few seconds long, but it's pretty easy to sink into.