HANG IN THERE
Group Animation Project
PROJECT BREAKDOWN
A handmade magnet falls off a fridge and lands on floor only to be swept underneath where it is forced to encounter the things lurking beneath.
My responsibilites:
Project Manager
Concept Art (Primary Concept Illustrations)
Modeling (some of the kitchen assets and the eyes underneath the fridge)
Look Dev (main magnet character, eyes under fridge, and some kitchen assets)
All Rigging
Lighting Assistant (in under fridge scenes)
Rendering
Compositing
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Managed team deadlines, assignments, presentations, and pipeline
For this project I was in charge of project management. This included creating spreadsheets for maintaining our overall all schedule, weekly goals, bid sheet, and asset list.
I also worked with each member of the team in establishing weekly tasks and goals in order to make sure we were able to complete the project according to our timeline.
Part of my management responsibilities also included making and giving weekly presentations for feedback and review. I collated the work for each member throughout the week and presented it to the professor and class for group feedback. This required constant communication and contact with the team in order to make sure that each person was up to date on their tasks and solve any technical or production problems.
In addition to managing production, I was in charge of setting up the pipeline on our remote projection pipeline and our school production pipeline. This entailed setting up Google file stream for the team to work remotely and then transferring those files onto our school's local render farm.
IDEATION AND STORY DEVELOPMENT
Developed concept and story as a team based on the prompt "handmade"
Our story centers around a handmade fridge magnet that finds himself in an unlikely situation when he loses his magnetism and gets stuck underneath the fridge.
Storyboard and 2D Animatic by Joseph Brown. 3D Layout by Deandra Muniz
Final Compositing by Deandra Muniz, John Bearrie, and myself
STYLE AND LOOK DEVELOPMENT
Gathered references and established an overall style as a team.
Our style is centered around a 1950's aesthetic with a colorful energetic color scheme that then shifts to a dark horror color scheme underneath the fridge.
I am responsible for the Primary Concept Illustrations for the kitchen and under the fridge.
Magnet Character design by Gabrielle Steagall. Secondary Character design by Adithya Sathya
ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT
Created environment assets based on the items drawn in the primary concept illustration.
Our models were developed in Maya, with surfacing developed in Substance Painter and Renderman
I am responsible for modeling and surfacing several kitchen props including the toaster, the kitchen curtains, the kitchen towel, paper towel holder, crayons, pen cup and pens, salt shaker, paper grinder, and tiled floor.
Other models and textures created by Deandra Muniz, Gabrielle Steagall, John Bearrie, Adithya Sathya, Joseph Brown, and Vanessa Ramriez.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Developed expressive characters through modeling, surfacing, and rigging
Our project has 3 characters: the main magnet character, the old rusted character underneath the fridge, and the mysterious eyes that appear at the end of the short.
I was responsible for the surfacing of the main magnet character as well as the modeling and surfacing of the mysterious eyes, and all rigging components for each character.
Main magnet character model by Gabrielle Steagall. Secondary older character model and surfacing by Adithya Sathya. Final animations by Joseph Brown.
LIGHTING AND RENDERING
Rendering, Lighting, and Compositing using Maya, Renderman, and Nuke
I am responsible for compositing shots 3, 4, 5, and 6, as well as rendering shots 2-6.
Lighting of shots 1-3, rendering of shot 1, and compositing of shots 1-2 by John Bearrie. Lighting of shots 4 and 6 by Deandra Muniz. Lighting of shot 5 by Adithya Sathya.