Experimental Design
3D Motion Case Study
Project Details
Project Type
3D and Illustrated Animation
Timeframe
1 Week
Tools Used
Blender and Photoshop
Step 1
Initial Goal
To create something exciting and beautiful that made the viewer feel transported to a different time and location through an unexpected means.
Research
I started by researching different parts of the world that were considered “Paradise”. My research consisted of identifying different plants and color tones that people associated with beautiful settings. Many of the locations were so bright with contrast, it almost looked like the hightlights were glowing.
Step 2
Content
What would be the actual content of this animation? Well the initial intention was to create something exciting and beautiful that made the viewer feel transported to a different time and location through an unexpected method. How could I surprise the viewer after the first few frames? I decided I would have a character jump into murky water that led to somewhere much larger than anticipated.
Step 3
Character Creation
Who would our hero be? I remember in the 90’s many video games had silent protagonists. This would allow the user to really feel as though they were the avatar. I really liked this idea, and thought I would take it a step further by removing any identifiable features.
I created some initial sketches, outlining minor character movement and atmosphere. I then Illustrated texture shading.
After this, I manipulated the shading with different nodes. I also wanted the skin tone of our avatar to be visually fluid. Is this character dark, or bright, or both? An emission shader with a linear colour ramp and mix shaders, applied to my illustrated texture would accomplish this.
Step 4
World Creation
It was time to take my research folder and create my own world that the protagonist would live in. I started by sculpting the pool they would jump into, then the land/ mud surrounding it, next the plants, and then the mountains and the moon in the background.
As I stated earlier, many of the research images had a very bright contrast, so I illustrated each texture for all the assets in this world and then applied an “emission shader”, which would make it glow.
Step 5
Animation
Now that I knew how the worlds would exist, I then could understand where I wanted the protagonist to move in the scene. I key framed out 327 frames to bring him to life. His full movement was brought to life through 4 main movements:
• Two hops
• A front flip
• Treading water
• Butterfly stroke swimming
Step 6
Sound
Without sound, I felt the world was flat, and didn’t accomplish the objective of bringing our viewer into an unexpected world. I added 10 different layers of sound, including various background tones, and distinguishable sounds like birds and water splashing.
I chose to keep the sounds in the second world more vague, cutting back on distinguishing sounds, as if one were entering a world where all senses were off balance.
Reflection
Looking back this was a very fun project, but I think I would change a couple things If I were to return to it.
I would make it longer and show a full arc for the character. An idea I had was for our protagonist to enter the giant head that was located underwater, retrieve an item, and then return back to land to celebrate.
