2018-2019 Motion Graphics Portfolio: A Year in Retrospect
Hello, I'm Kyle! A motion designer specializing in 2D and 3D animation. This is a collection of my work during my year at Vancouver Film School's Digital Design Program. Enjoy!
2018-2019 Motion Graphics Portfolio: A Year in Retrospect
A Year In Retrospect
Hello! I'm Kyle Castro, a motion designer from Winnipeg, MB. I specialize in 2D and 3D animation primarily using After Effects and Cinema 4D. Below is a collection of school work from my year at Vancouver Film School's Digital Design Program.
I go through my creative process in each one, but if you're short on time, check out my awesome reel instead. :)
Projects featured:
Mission Vega // The Picture of Dorian Gray // Space Battles // Mograph Toonshading // Factory Loop // Sushi Walk
#1 Introducing Mission Vega
The graduate project for Vancouver Film School’s Digital Design program, Mission Vega is a collaborative motion piece that influences music lovers and creatives to get their hands on the new head-wear responsible for being at the forefront of immersive sound quality and out-of-this-world headphone technology.
I was responsible for the 3D asset creation and animation, as well as the compositing of the 2D and 3D assets into a space environment.
Programs: Cinema 4D / RedShift / After Effects / Photoshop / Illustrator
Techniques: Trapcode Particular and Form / 2D&3D Animation / Compositing / 3D Modeling
A Quick Case Study
Barely in and still short on time? Here's a quick case study of the development process of this piece!
Past the video you will be able to check out my involvement in this project and my process in the 3D modelling and animation work.
Sparking Inspiration
The conceptual process started with research for possible shots to use in our piece, as well as inspiration for the model of the headphones.
For the piece, the target audience was aspiring DJ's and EDM music lovers, so we wanted the headphone model to reflect that.
Sculpting the Star of the Show
I'm fairly new to hard-surface modelling or even modelling in Cinema 4D in general. The headphones went through rounds of revisions and attempts until a final look was reached.
I explored Redshift to texture and render the headphones. The learning curve for node texturing and GPU rendering was very challenging, but very rewarding.
Animation Process in Cinema 4D
From the headphones, I started to model and animate the main scenes of the project. The process consisted of hours of research and development - testing different animation techniques to achieve specific results.
In the touch gesture scene, I found several ways to mix together several references and tutorials I learned from online, to create the animation. For example, using fields, effectors, and deformers in certain ways to have the materialize together, and later on create a sound wave as the surface interacts with the main character.
The Constellation Challenge
One of the major challenges was discovering how to create a constellation-like treatment. The goal was to take the 3D models and transfer them to After Effects.
I explored using sketch-and-toon in Cinema4D, to discovering possible treatments using Plexus, until I finally came to using RedGiant's Trapcode Form in After Effects.
I found the Trapcode Form process to be very render-efficient and very fun to learn and use!
The Result
Overall, the graduate project experience was very rewarding for me.
I gained teamwork experience, polished my creative process, improved my technical skills, and challenged myself to put in the best effort for the project.
I hope to explore 3D animation and other uses of Trapcode Form in the future!
#2 The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” follows a young man obsessed with beauty and purity, who becomes cursed with eternal youth, but to eventually have it fade away from him.
An assignment for VFS, we were tasked with taking a novel through the creative process to create a motion title sequence if it were adapted into film or TV.
Programs: Cinema 4D / After Effects / Photoshop / Coggle
Techniques: 2D&3D Animation / Compositing / 3D Modeling
Organizing the Thoughts
What a better way to start a project than to organize and write down all the ideas!
I wanted to do the story justice by doing research and thoroughly breaking down the overall plot, the different themes, symbolism, and utilizing keywords to influence ideas. Using Coggle, a browser-based mind mapping tool, I was able to put all these ideas, and possible ways to execute them, in one place.
Telling the Story With Light
The tragic story of Dorian Gray contains several dark themes and Gothic imagery that generates gloomy visuals and when paired with the right light, can create powerful and dramatic compositions.
To demonstrate, I collected several images from other title sequences to reference how they used different lights and camera shots to create dark moods and visuals. From that, I used the keywords brainstormed before to create a story concept that reflects the plot of the book.
Defining the Look
After locking down the story and plans for execution, I created concept frames in After Effects and Photoshop to test out the visuals, and motion tests in Cinema4D to test out animation.
Voronoi Fracture for Days
In attempt to recreate the realistic CGI title sequences often seen in TV shows and movies, I utilized Cinema4D for the majority of the asset creation and animation.
To play on the theme beauty fading or breaking away, I felt that the Voronoi Fracture effect would be the best way to execute it. As i’m still improving in my C4D skills in general, to my best ability I created textures where ever possible, and focused on camera setup and render setting optimization.
Compiling the Pieces
From Cinema 4D, I integrated the assets and 3D data to After Effects where I began to composite the 3D objects with 2D images and light. Afterwards I carefully took the time to color correct and color grade the scenes to match the concepted look and feel.
The Result
Slap on dramatic music and add in the credits and we have a title sequence.
Overall, one of my favorite pieces, I was able to take a story through the creative process, creating 2D & 3D assets and mashing them together to create a piece that looks and feels how the original work would possibly turn out to be if into a show or feature film.
#3 Space Battles
Finding ways to combine different passions and hobbies into a project is always fun - this was that kind of project for me.
For this assignment, we were to create an animation that utilizes techniques and workflows between 3D and 2D software, as well as compositing.
Programs: Cinema 4D / After Effects / Illustrator
Techniques: 2D&3D Animation / HUD Design / Compositing / 3D Modeling
Discovering the Motion in UI
UI motion design and Heads-Up-Displays (HUDs) is a field I would like to explore more. It often connects me with my love for Sci-Fi movies and video games.
It’s important to involve the story’s world into the design of the HUD so I tried to give it a futuristic look and made sure to include possible elements that would add to the narrative of this short piece.
I created the design in Illustrator then took the assets into After Effects for animation and compositing.
A Video Game Look
For the second part of the video I wanted to create a sort of video game vibe with a outer space chase scene. I was inspired by the Gummi Ship battles in the Kingdom Hearts franchise by Square Enix and also games that feature a blocky visual style.
I created the scene in Cinema4D and used RedShift to give the ships a plastic look to resemble toys. I wanted to give the piece the feeling of a retro game turned modern.
The Result
Happy with the result, I enjoyed the process of creating UI design, animating it and mixing it with 3D assets in this video game-esque piece.
#4 Toon Shading Mania
This is an assignment for Vancouver Film School's Digital Design Program. We were tasked with creating an animation that utilizes Cinema4D's different methods of creating a cartoon look to achieve what is known as Toon Shading.
Programs: Cinema 4D / After Effects
Techniques: 2D&3D Animation / Compositing / 3D Modeling
Be Like BEEPLE
SUBPRIME - Beeple’s 2009 work became a huge inspiration for me to create an animation in a similar fashion.
Using his work as a premise for further research, I collected other images and animation reference that had a similar style in look and feel.
Production Time
Instead of utilizing Cinema4D’s toon shading render effect, I found creating the shaders by hand to be more efficient and quicker when rendering in the viewfinder. The process, albeit fairly straight forward, found some challenges along the way.
The modeling and animation was simple enough, but when it came to creating the toon-like texture, I found it difficult getting it to look right with colours and lighting since the shader either projected the colours incorrectly or completely wrong. Dedicating the time to get the shader to work how I want, I eventually was able to play around with it enough to work.
From that, the assets went into After Effects for the final colour touches and grading.
The Result
Here’s the result! Although short, I was able to create a piece similar in animation and toon shading look of Beeple’s Subprime.
#5 Factory Loop
Ever pass by those cool looping animations on Instagram? Well here’s another one for ya!
An assignment for VFS, we were to take our overall understandings of different Cinema 4D tools and apply them into a short animation.
Programs: Cinema 4D / After Effects
Techniques: 2D&3D Animation / Compositing / 3D Modeling
Simple and Isometric
Fun and Simple. The inspiration from this project was from Pixego’s “Mini Machines”
Isometric drawings and artwork are one of my favourite styles and is a trend that has been fairly popular recently. I love the idea of simple colours and shapes pairing together to form an overall complex and intricate design - Mini Machines in particular, reminds me the fun times I would have with Lego as a kid.
On the Production Line
From that, I headed into Cinema 4D to create and animate each section of the production line, embedding music in the file to make sure the animation matches certain music beats.
With the assets and animation complete, I used RedShift to create the light and textures.
The Result
Loving the look, I was able to make a cool project that involves many of Cinema4D’s animation and modelling tools while also being designed to loop.
#6 It's Food. It Walks. It's Sushi!
Out of all things that could possibly be imagined as bipedal we have sushi to add to the list.
An assignment for VFS, we were set to discover the many functionalities of Adobe After Effects - one of them being the ability to create walk cycles through various means. Using the creative process, we designed characters to be animated and developed a story to pair with it. A fun project - the product being a cute, determined, walking sushi.
Programs: After Effects / Illustrator
Techniques: 2D Animation / Character Rigging / Compositing
Flat Design & Cartoon Illustrations
It’s a simple illustration and animation trend I often see, but one that I aesthetically love.
Starting off with building inspiration for the piece, I concepted a walking sushi that would be paired with a Japanese styled environment. Below is the initial concept and development phase for the character - that would later on be re-designed for the reason that it looked like toilet paper, and environment.
A Little Splash of AE Magic
From there, I took the Illustrator assets and moved them to After Effects. Choice of rigging tool was fairly simple - Rubber Hose, a simple and effective tool for creating walk cycles. Afterwards, I used the initial environment concepts and recreated and animated a scene with cherry blossom trees and mountains - throwing in all the cool Japanese themed icons to build a story.
The Finishing Touches
With all the assets together, I found the piece to be rather flat and lacking visually.
Although reaching the flat design theme as concepted, I decided to a little bit more research into what makes other similar projects more visually appealing. From there, other than a few animation and composition tweaks, I changed the color palette to be more cohesive and introduced grain and lighting to create more contrast in the scene.
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