3D Animation

3D Animation Show Reel

Pantomime

Planning and animating this shot was fun, and its simple story hits quite close to home.

I shot so many different reference takes; I never thought laying and rolling on top of my bed would be my homework one day.

Although fun, I faced a plethora of questions as I planned out the execution for this pantomime.

After writing out the idea, I was struck with the questions of “Where can I get a rig for this? How do I fix the intersecting problems on the bed and the chair?”

After searching and tinkering, I used a few of the scripts I had found and used them to answer those questions!

Using Ignacio Zorrilla’s IKSpline script and a few edits with some basic rigging knowledge I had learnt during my time in 3DSense, I was able to create a basic bed rig to get that bed bounce, then used that same process onto the alarm clock prop.

By using fRigging Awesome Studios’ JSStickyMod, I addressed the intersecting problems with my props. I used it for not only this shot, but for my other shots that had unrigged props, static geometry and unwanted clipping issues.

Musical Number

I knew since the beginning that I wanted to animate at least one musical number.

After I got my audio approved, I quickly went to storyboarding and reference taking.

After some feedback, I had to reshoot my reference and tweak my idea to be less all over the place. Once I finally got my idea and reference greenlit, then off to Maya I went.

A problem I had was the bouquet that squashes into a mascara.

I used the same IKSpline script from my pantomime for the stretch, but due to technical difficulties where I can’t have scaling properties when the stretch properties are present, I had to create a duplicate bouquet capable of scaling.

I do wish to improve and do another musical shot in the future, I find that these are the most fun to do and at the same time quite challenging!

Parkour

I originally had more shots and story segments for this sequence, it was a shame to not be able to achieve it all, but I’m glad to have made something so cool at the end!

This shot was quite difficult due to the sheer size difference of the monster and the child.

It took a tremendously long time to get the camera right, and even after that I had to face a lot of technical issues.

The child’s strides were just too short for the distance I wanted to achieve. Causing me to use the global controller and well placed camera angles to boost him forward while running to get that distance.

Another major issue that emerged was a caching issue which caused the rig to start disassembling itself. This issue was caused due to the heaviness of the scene, I had to minimize and optimize as much as I could, but when it came to playblasting I had to either separate it into parts or grit through it.

Out of all my shots, this was the one I had the most problems with. I’m glad that by the end of it all, I was able to achieve my goal. 

Dance

Animating the dance made me realize just how important keyframes and breakdowns were. There were so many little details that were so important, that without them the movement just wouldn’t hit right or feel empty. This one was the most straightforward but the most detailed oriented out of the bunch. Adding the facial expressions, although prioritized secondarily, was a lot of fun and added a lot to the character for me!

Dialogue

I didn’t expect it to be so hard to animate a face. I was astonished just how stiff my first attempts were for this shot. I did run into clipping problems with my character’s hair at the back of her head, which was static. I used the JSStickyMod to deform and add delay to their hair.

There was a lot to learn, and still a lot more. Despite the challenges, I’m overjoyed to see my character talking and expressing. I only hope to get better and to eventually be able to share this same feeling of life from a character to all those who see my shots.