Stijn van der Plas - 3D animation

Sayen

To start off I'd like to share with you the creation of Sayen! This was my first attempt at trying out the complete workflow for making a head for a stylized character, who has simmed hair and is completely rigged from scratch. It was a great experience to team up with Production Designer Jelle van Elk to craft the designs. And to be able to gradually learn to understand how to achieve diverse facial deformations with joints, blendshapes and wire deformers working together.

What I loved the most was how the technical and artistic needs could meet and inspire each other. For example, because I wasn't familiar with the process of making CG hair, the way it looked was depending on how much complexity I would be able to handle. But after some time I got used to the way xgen worked, which led to new ideas, which resulted in striving for a better understanding of the technical side :)

Dynamics

Next up I got a school project called Dynamics. The goal was to make a full CG shot that included the use of dynamics, and to be a part of a larger chain reaction with one student making an entry before the other. 

I was curious to see if I could make an animation driven by momentum and energy, while dramatizing the use of children's toys to contrast the worldbuilding with its content.

After making a previz I started with the keyframe animation in Maya with the Malcolm Rig (a rig of Animschool).

Everything else was made in Houdini. I wanted to see how far I could go with procedural modeling techniques to build the environment in a simplistic but graphic way. The car track in the beginning, the ground on which the car crashes, and the lego wall in the back were made with customs tools I set up.

Especially working with RBD and smoke systems was a great challenge in the beginning, but after realizing the importance of scale the process became quite a bit easier.

Origami Train

I would also like to show you another short animation, with the focus on the art of origami. Years ago I fell in love with the craft of folding techniques, which inspired me to make a digital train out of paper. At the same time, it was an awesome opportunity to give myself an introduction to learn the software Houdini in which everything is made.

Animation Reel

Finally, I'd like to share my first official animation reel with you guys! This is a combination of clips of personal work, and short graduation films of 4th-year and 3rd-year students I was asked to participate in this year as an animator (Exolvo, SoWhat, Verlangen and Solon).

It also includes some animations from the fan-made short film Star Wars: The Amethyst Blade Cinematic on which I was lead animator and previs artist. You can check that one out here!