Nay Min Maung - Student Demo Reel

This portfolio showcases a selection of my work from my second year of school, primarily inspired by the distinctive styles found in Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Studio Ghibli, and various other productions.

My creative focus is on crafting vibrant and dreamy scenes designed to evoke happiness and uplift viewers, captivating them with mesmerizing visuals.

Turnip Head 

Since childhood, I have been captivated by Miyazaki's animated films. Given two weeks to work with Vellum in Houdini, I was inspired by a scene from Howl's Moving Castle. I wanted to attempt recreating this iconic 2D shot in a 3D environment to explore the potential of translating its magic into a new dimension.

Using Marvelous Designer and Substance Painter, I created the assets for the main simulation of Turnip Head. The rest of the cloth assets are mainly geometry created in Houdini. 

Sea Adventure 

This was my first experience working with FLIP simulations in Houdini. Finding a reference that was challenging enough for me to work on but still manageable for my PC was quite difficult. Inspired by the movie Moana, particularly its rich and vibrant nature, along with the breathtaking water scenes, I aimed to recreate a similar feeling in my project. 

During the initial testing phases, I used a low-poly boat model. However, to refine my modeling skills in Maya, I later recreated the iconic boat from Moana and textured it in Substance Painter.

I started my project by converting the boat into an RBD (Rigid Body Dynamics) object and tried simulating collisions with the wave tank to achieve a realistic movement. However, as I progressed through the testing phases, I noticed that the two simulations was quite heavy for my PC to handle. I ended up manually animating the boat's movement to reduce the load on my PC.

I couldn't achieve the desired effect of waves hitting the front of the boat with the wave tank so I added custom velocity at the front of the boat to generate stronger splashes upon impact.

I incorporated a vellum simulation onto the sail and rope of the boat. Additionally, I blended the extended ocean with the wave tank to achieve the final look I wanted.

Stag in the Moonlight

For my first grooming project, I selected an animated stag model provided by the school. Inspired by the Deer God scene from Princess Mononoke, I aimed to create a similar atmosphere. Typically, my projects feature bright lighting, so I took this opportunity to experiment with a darker scene while maintaining a magical vibe.

I created multiple groups for the parts of the body so I would have more control over small details on the stag. 

It was my first time using SpeedTree to create a custom tree that would fit into the background of the scene.

While still a work in progress, I plan to elevate the scene further by introducing glowing particles throughout, along with adorning the antlers of the stag with leaves, flowers, and vines. These additions aim to enhance the regal and magical ambiance, adding depth and allure to the overall composition.

Rocket Lauch

For my Pyro project I wanted to play around more with the smoke than fire to see what I could come up with. I thought of doing a rocket lauch but instead of the typical shot of a rocket lauch from the ground I wanted to create a shot where it's mid flight up in the sky with clouds surrounding it. 

I created 7 different cloud shapes and scattered them across the scene in difffernet sizes and angles for more variation. I added some extra clouds using different methods to test out which would be the least taxing on my PC while looking good.

Burmese Market

This was my final project of my first year in school. We mainly worked with Maya and Substance for the first year. There is very little representation in general when it comes to any content regarding Myanmar so I decided to recreate a market from my country. 

Some still frame images of the scene for social media.

I modelled and textured all the assets in the scene and ended up with a personal 3D kit of objects from a Burmese market. I am motivated to create even more content related to my country in my future work hoping it'll slowly get more recognition for the beauty of the country.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look at my projects.