FREEDOM

VFX Portfolio - FREEDOM

Concept & Modeling

The main story of my portfolio revolves around the human desire for immortality, which led to the creation of cloned brain cyborgs. With their greed, war became inevitable, and the cyborgs were conscripted into the military. Those who ran away from their orders were executed immediately. After writing the story, I searched for robot references to create the main character of my portfolio.

Although I found various references, I couldn't find any that fit with my imagination based on the story. So, I decided to design my own robot that would fit well with my portfolio. I tried to merge different parts of the robot and added some new parts to create a unique atmosphere.

This is the final concept of the robot that I drew by myself to ensure that all components fit well and create a cohesive atmosphere. While drawing it, I considered certain points such as the LED light and joint structure of the robot.

After finishing the modeling, I proceeded to texture the robot. First, I selected a color for each part and then decided on the material. Next, I added dust and dirty scratches to give it a worn and realistic appearance. I used both Substance Painter and Adobe Photoshop in the texture creation process. And this is the final render of the robot!

Previz

My goal was to provide various perspectives of the scenes throughout the story and immerse the audience into the narrative. I made various attempts to create a tense and exciting atmosphere.

At first, I did the pre-visualization work with the motion-captured character. I edited some animations and then applied them to the robot. While working on this process, I also set up the camera motions. I tried over a hundred different times to find a good scene.

Background 

When creating the background, I collected references to find a suitable setting for a scenario where the robot is running away. After considering various options, I decided that a back alley in a particular city would be the perfect fit and arranged the layout accordingly, taking into account the alley's structure.

Rig & Animation

Before applying the motion-captured data to the robot, I set up joints for each component. The main joints were based on the human structure, and I added more joints for the wires. I checked all the joint axes to ensure they had the same direction as the motion-captured data, and finally, I baked the simulation.

Lighting

When setting the lights for the scenes, I considered two important factors: contrast and the intended meaning of the light. I believed that the primary purpose of lighting was to emphasize what I wanted to showcase. I think that light has the power to draw the audience's attention, making it easier for them to focus on what I wanted to highlight. To ensure optimal contrast, I did multiple checks using Adobe Photoshop. 

Additionally, I wanted to focus on their meanings. Light can be divided into two different aspects: brightness and darkness. I wanted to highlight these two sides and assign a meaning to each atmosphere. The robot frequently passes through the light and shadow sides, with the bright side representing the desire for life and the darkness representing death. To summarize, the bright side symbolizes vitality and positivity, while the dark side represents negativity and mortality.

Green-screen Shooting

During the story, I filmed live-action footage to create a scene in which a soldier shoots the robot. (The soldier is me!). I then processed this footage using Nuke and Adobe After Effects.

Render

These are the final renders of each scene, including the beauty pass, ambient occlusion, and edge pass. I used V-ray for rendering.