Jacky Jones -- 2022 VFX

PREFACE

This submission entry of mine will include some of the works I have done during my first and second year at the auckland university of technology for my bachelors in digital design. I may also include further context to support these. My choice to pursue the path of majoring in VFX is a very recent one for me, and thus is something I am just beginning to delve into and grow my skillset on though am very excited about this journey. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated with the digital world of film and gaming, and so it only makes sense that now in my late teens I begin to cement my place in creating these fantastical worlds and bringing them to life.

This was my first ever VFX assignment that I worked on for a group university assignment. We were tasked with creating a trailer for a hypothetical short film and conceptualising its narrative before using various VFX elements to bring it to life. Our group chose to do a horror--thriller as it excited us most, and after I discovered an abandoned farmhouse within my local area we revolved our trailer around shooting in there. Our goal was to create the impression of a creature within the setting without explicitly modelling or showing any creature, rather, to instill this fear without ever actually seeing it in true form. To do this we placed heavy emphasis on using CGI effects to create ambience.

For this project in particular I worked on creating the 3D environment for the interrogation room, using Adobe After Effects to replace the greenscreen with such room modelled and rendered in Maya 2020 and textured with Substance Painter. I also created the nosebleed effect seen within the end scene, alongside the subtle ghost appearance in the pan zoom-in shot, again using After Effects to achieve such. You can see this in the breakdown reel below the final completed trailer.

This second project here is of a character I conceptualised, designed, and modelled for my second university VFX assignment. As of writing this creature's short film is yet to be completed, however this unfortunately will not be done in time for me to include here. The assignment brief is to create a short film utilising a VFX creature that plays a quintessential role and interacts with its human counterpart. This was done in a group of four.

I wanted to create a creature for my short film that embodied both the past and future of the human protagonist, to bring their internal conflict to life and allow them to interact with this 'impending crossroads' in a visual, touching way. Alike my other art pieces I drew it up using predominantly Medibang Paint Pro with some Adobe Photoshop, and modelled it using Maya 2020 and blender, texturing with Substance Painter and finally simulating fur with xgen. I kept the concept art/isometric sheet a lot more minimalistic compared to how I prefer painting, as to ensure it easier to understand and follow. As for the model, I wanted the dog to appear a fine balance of semi-realistic, as obviously ideally our dog would be as realistic as possible however only being second-year students this was quite an ambitious goal. Because of this, we wanted to manipulate our modelling and texturing to get the dog looking as close to realism as possible, without crossing a line of tackiness. The dog's left side is meant to represent the past, whereas the dog's right side represents the future. In the short film, it serves as an embodiment of the protagonist's struggle to decide whether or not to stick around in an unhealthy relationship or move forward with a much coveted overseas study acceptance letter.

Here are some work in progress shots of the short film in its current stage, all being my designated workload.

CONCLUSION

Thank you for viewing my entry. Your time and energy is utmost appreciated. I am incredibly passionate about what I do and am only looking to expand my skills from here, as I am currently 18 and always a firm believer in room for improvement. I hope you enjoyed looking at my art, and again, thank you.