Table Tennis

For our final third-year project at ESMA in Toulouse, France, we were challenged to create a 10-second clip highlighting sports and para-sports. After several months of preproduction, we chose to create a dynamic table tennis scene featuring two able-bodied and two disabled characters competing in a training session.

                                                  -------------- Team and Contributions --------------

Our dedicated team of four members worked harmoniously to bring this project to life:

     - Myha Bolon: Lighting, rendering, modeling, and texturing props.

     - Léa Alvergne: Rendering, Concept art, modeling, and texturing characters.

     - Jeanne Blanc: Rigging, Concept art, part of the animation, pipeline management, and compositing in Nuke.

     - Tiphaine Houdeau: Animation, Concept art, character modeling, and 2D FX created in Procreate.

                                                  -------------- Concept and Production --------------

Our choice of sport, table tennis, was driven by the desire to showcase inclusivity and competition in a dynamic setting. We dedicated several months to preproduction to develop character and environment concepts before diving into five intense weeks of production.

We opted for a stylized, non-realistic texture inspired by comics. Given the tight deadline, we decided to combine realistic lighting and shadows with stylized textures. To enhance the comic book feel, we added contour lines around characters and props, as well as a halftone effect based on the facing ratio to emulate the look of comic illustrations.

                                              -------------- Challenges and Learnings --------------

During this project, we discovered the workings of a production pipeline for the first time. The initial organization was challenging, but after a few days, our workflow became smooth and efficient. Working as a team taught us effective communication, staying calm in the face of bugs and issues, and collaborating harmoniously.

This project allowed us to develop our technical and artistic skills and strengthened our ability to work as a team under tight deadlines. We are proud of our achievement and excited to share our work with the Rookies Awards community.

SHOT 01

WIP (LookDev Props / Chara)