3D Character Animation Demo Reel

"Here, I present to you some of the best work I have accomplished during the program. It has been an incredibly long year and a half, pouring blood, sweat, tears, and immense effort into each project. I am very excited to share with you the reel showcasing my best work during this time. Scroll down to see a breakdown of each project featured. I hope you enjoy!"

"One of the first shots I got to create with a fully equipped rig (without facial ctrls.) This project was a turning point for me as I felt like I was truly bringing a 3D character to life, considering all the complexities it entails. From the perspective of acting, mechanics, and physicality, I felt really satisfied to how it unfolded in the end :). I didn't just want the character to push something heavy; I decided to take it a step further by animating the trash can running over him."

"Here are the thumbnail sketches used to plan the animation."

"Here is my take on the shot with a strong focus on advanced body mechanics. This project stands out as the longest among the six showcased here. It was during this project that I began to develop a deeper understanding of constraints, parents, and groups. As you'll see, the character will interact with multiple objects throughout the shot. This definitely presented a significant challenge while animating."

"In the thumbnailing process, I divided the shot into three separate parts to make it less overwhelming. In terms of the story, it's not particularly special. My main goal was to create a shot featuring a thief and focus primarily on the body mechanics aspect. I wanted to convey the thief's desperation to escape, which allowed me to really immerse myself in the character's motivations and capture his frenetic actions."

"The progression shot reel of my pantomime take. This is when I started to grasp more firmly and resonate better with the complexity of searching good references, thumbnailing and have plausible ideas that would be entertaining."

"Here are thumbnails for "Buckingham". Note that I didn't use the establishing shot from the first take. I felt that the shot would flow more smoothly this way. Also, in the last cut, you can see that the character is not in a fetal position hugging the weapon as displayed on the final result. Instead, he is leaning and resting against the wall. Funnily it gave the impression of him being dead, so I made that change towards the end."

"I had to get started on creating the props I needed for the shot, so I did my research. I looked for references and then modeled the Bearskin (Royal Hat) and adapted a weapon prop to resemble the SA80 rifle, which is commonly used by these guards. Later on, I realized that the hat needed some movement so it wouldn't feel like a rigid brick. With a general knowledge of rigging, I created a simple rig for both the hat and the rifle."

"So, here's how I went about creating 'The Scholar'. From the start, I had this vision of a medium shot that wouldn't require too much body mechanics, allowing me to focus more on subtle gestures, lip-sync, and facial animation. I had three different ideas in mind, but the one that got approved was this particular concept. Additionally, if you take a look at the final result, you'll notice that I aimed to capture a dimly lit setting, resembling an office or a cozy library. So finally, I finished satisfied and happy with how it turned out."

"The accent chart was crucial in the early planning stages. I had to analyze the chosen audio and identify key words that would determine the accent's intensity, as well as establish moments of softer and more gentle delivery. This was essential in adapting the animation to align perfectly with the spoken words and convey the intended energy. Discovering the subtext of the audio was also immensely important, as animating a character goes beyond mere puppet-like movements. It requires bringing the character to life, capturing the subtleties of gestures, facial expressions, and overall acting. By understanding the subtext, I gained a deeper insight into the character's thoughts, leading in a more believable result."

"Here are the thumbnail experiments and planning for the acting and lip-sync. In the case of the lip-sync, I roughly marked the accents (already analyzed on the accent chart) with red to align the correct expressions with the stronger and softer parts of the audio. Additionally, I included the appropriate phonemes and mouth shapes."

" In The Plan, I encountered several challenges throughout the process. My goal was to create a shot set in the 1940s-50s, which required finding the right audio and establishing a believable setting, theme, and mood. It was a complex undertaking, involving technical aspects such as character interactions & contacts, costumes, and environmental adaptation. Despite the intricacies, I immersed myself so much in the story that it made the work very much enjoyable."

"The storyline follows two characters on a train platform in Germany, attempting to escape the Jewish persecution of the 1940s. Prior to the shot, the characters falsified residency and nationality documents to evade the increasing control over exit, entry, migration, and investigation of Jews. Afterwards, they travel separately on different days and trains but with the same destination - a ship departing from Normandy to the outskirts of southern England. The character's wife is present on the platform bidding him farewell, as he is the first one to leave."

"Given the complexity of the shot, I created a list highlighting the key beats of the actions, ensuring a well-executed conception to deliver the initial stages of the shot."

"Here's the exploration of thumbnails I did."

"Last but not least, here's a glimpse behind the scenes of the final shot I worked on during my Master's degree at Animum. Let me tell you, it was one of the most challenging shots in the program. Unlike the other shots with a more realistic take, this one had a cartoony style that required a different approach. I focused heavily on creating dynamic movements and well-defined holds, breakdowns and key poses. With numerous important breakdowns and key poses, I had to create almost a key per pose at a 24fps framerate."

"You'll notice some changes between the thumbnails, references, 2D animatic, blocking, refine, and final polish. This isn't an exhaustive list of everything I had to adjust during the process, but rather just some general highlights. In short, there were several timing, acting, and mechanics adjustments that were necessary. This project had the most changes out of all the shots I worked on during the program, making it a very mentally exhausting and time-consuming process. However, I learned a lot both technically and artistically in the end."

"This is the first step where I created a shot plan with small sketches, based on the first of several 2D animatics. It was a challenging shot where I had to figure out how to make the character's movements and deformations look just right. I had to get creative with the rig to make it work, so later in the process I used deformers as lattices and/or blendshapes to achieve the desired result."

"To achieve the final aesthetic look, I didn't render the scene but instead playblasted it using the best quality available in Maya. I also took separate playblasts of the background, foreground, and character so that I could later composite them in After Effects. Some people may be surprised to learn that you can playblast separate parts of a scene or use image sequences with transparency. As a tip for aspiring animators, I recommend adding a few basic lights and, if you're not proficient in rendering, compositing the images in a VFX software like After Effects. This will significantly improve the quality of your shot. However, if you know how to create great renders within the software, then go for it, but playblasting and later compositing can save you time and resources while still producing excellent results."

"I had to rig the ring for the shot to handle its complex deformations. My rigging knowledge is quite general as I mentioned earlier, but I managed to create a rudimentary rig that served its purpose effectively." 

"Alright, here's an extra bonus for you. So, as I was working on some of the textures for the props in the environment, I got super excited and kind of carried away, to be honest. I couldn't help but think that each less emphasized object deserved its own story. So, I came up with some simple little tales for each one...

...Now, these stories have nothing to do with the technical or creative aspects of the final shot, but hey, I wanted to share this fun and quirky addition with you anyway. It may not be all that important, but I hope it brought a smile to you :)"

"**I must mention that in addition to creating my own assets and props, many of them used in all of my projects come from a royalty-free library by the incredible Paul Laulhe, also known as Quaternius. Without him, I probably wouldn't have achieved the showcased results here. He has a meticulously crafted library of low-poly assets that are not only well-made but also come in lightweight file formats. If you're looking for simple and stylized assets, and to save time to focus on other animation-related aspects and tasks, I highly recommend taking a look at his page. They are truly amazing! :)"

- You can explore his work at https://quaternius.com/


That's all! Thank you for your patience if you made it to this final part!
Cheers!😊