2nd Year Projects

The Hero's Lair project consisted of representing a place where a hero could be found, his safe place and the place that represents him the most. For my part, I chose to represent the room of Ophélie, heroine of the novel "La pass Miroir" written by Christelle Dabos.

One of the first problems I encountered during this production was representing a location that didn't really have a visual because it's straight out of a book. So I drew, reread and reimagined the piece while reinterpreting the author's words.

Ophélie is a young girl who is about to be forced to marry a man she does not love. She is a discreet, introverted young woman who is above all passionate about history. She's from elsewhere endowed with powers that allow her to read the history of objects by touching them and to pass through mirrors. She also shares her room with her little brother.

I first made quick sketches to set the mood and the space that I liked. Here are the selected sketches.

After establishing Ophelie's profile and all the pre-production, I began to create a layout and model (maya) the objects that I found relevant for my scene. 

After that, I defined my two lighting atmospheres (one during the day and one at night). For the night part, I made a lot of changes because I didn't like it at all at first. I had a hard time deciding.

 I then took the time to shade the objects (renderman) and work well on my textures according to the atmosphere I wanted. I then paid attention to the lights and was able to do my compositing in Photoshop.

The insect's project consisted of imagining an insect, a creature and its environment. For my part, I chose to create a small insect but which appears imposing to dissuade predators from attack him. So I chose to name it the Rex Silvarium, which means the King of the Forests. I chose its colors so that it can camouflage itself on leaves and in trees to hunt and escape other insects.

I then started modeling with a layout beforehand (maya), I was able to imagine its structure but also start to think about how I was going to be able to animate it afterwards.

Secondly, when the modeling was finished, I was able to take care of cutting out the UVs and then start doing the first surfacing and shading tests (renderman).

At the same time I was able to work on the rigg of my insect, I was then able to automate the animation of its mendibles as well as its breathing with the automation of the swelling and movement of its abdomen.

When I finished my rigg, I did different tests for the animation by creating a layout of the environment in which my insect would evolve. I was able to imagine the shapes and the very forest-like atmosphere that I wanted to have.

I was then able to finish the final shading of my insect to fully concentrate on my decor by finishing the modeling of the very small space (macrophotography) for my creature.

When all the shading was finished, I was able to import my animation to begin my final renders for the project. When I had all my images, I was able to start compositing and embellish my image sequences by reworking the different sequences.

Few exemples of base color maps and height maps...

This project brought me a lot, first of all because it is the first project of the 2nd year because I discovered a lot of things and ways of working. I have also gained maturity in the work process as well as in organization.

But above all, I was able to discover the areas of 3D animation that I like the most and towards which I would like to turn.

Here is a making-off about the process and the production.

Here is my demo real, it shows most of my projects from first year as well as second year.