Courtney Thornton | 3D For Animation Portfolio

⦾ Morsel

"Resting opulently within a wall, staring over a cavernous abyss, sits the Great Visage; a gigantic mechanical face that routinely gorges itself on the most exquisite foods and luxury goods offered up to it by a legion of masked servants. Waiting nearby for the procession to finish their offerings is Zara, another servant whose job is cleaning up the mess made by the feeding. Day after day she scrubs the offering platform, pushing leftover food off the edge into the abyss. However, eventually, her frustration mounts to a breaking point, seeing all this food going to waste. She decides to try and take a bite of one of the many delicacies that lie strewn in piles across the floor. But these wasted offerings are not meant for the likes of her, and this slight against the Great Visage is sure to draw its ire."

Morsel is a short film created by a team of nine graduate students at The Animation School. 

⦾ Lighting of Morsel

One of my main roles in the production of this short film was as lead lighting artist. This required me to shape the overall lighting direction and take on some of the more complex shots in the film. Our main goal with the lighting was really to sell the menacing, ever-present nature of the gigantic face as well as the unsettling cave environment.

(The compositing of all the shots I've included here was done by Phoebe Redelinghuys)

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Programs: Maya & Arnold Renderer.

⦾ Lighting of Morsel

One of the biggest challenges I faced with the lighting was the number of shots that required animated lights. Both the gigantic face and the mechanical sentinel's eyes functioned almost like spotlights tracking the main character, Zara, as she moved. It was definitely something I had to learn to navigate in order to balance finishing shots in an appropriate turnaround time while making sure that there were no discrepancies in the lighting in every frame. 

Additionally, we also constantly needed to be wary of structuring our render layers and samples as efficiently as possible as the larger scale of our environment turned out to be quite taxing on render times. 

⦾ Lighting of Morsel

Below are the lighting keys I created to guide the lighting team through the process.

⦾ Sindra

In addition to lighting, I was also involved with character asset development. I worked on developing the secondary character in the film: Sindra. Sindra, like the main character Zara, is a servant of the giant face. However, Sindra has been in this role for longer and tries her best to correct Zara's behaviour out of fear for the face's wrath. 

I worked on modelling, texturing and surfacing Sindra. However, for efficiency, the modelling was split where I modelled the base body that is shared between Sindra & Zara whilst the shirt, belt, collar, and mask were modelled by Phoebe Redelinghuys. Additional broom prop was modelled by Eva Le Touze. 

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Programs: Maya, Zbrush, & Substance Painter. 

 Sindra original concept art created by Phoebe Redelinghuys.

☼ Gaby's Kitchen

The brief for this project was to create a hero prop and then a 3D set based on a character we'd created earlier in the year. This kitchen shows the aftermath of Gaby's attempts to recreate a ramen dish inspired by her travels with her best friend. 

We were also required to take inspiration from a given biome, artist and country in the designing of both the hero prop and the final set.

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Programs: Maya, Mudbox, Arnold Renderer & Photoshop.

☼ Gaby's Kitchen

After finalising the hero prop: the ramen bowl, I moved on to designing the final set. I wanted the set to feel both cluttered but also still cosy. 

All additional assets were both modelled and textured to the camera as it wouldn't be animated. 

✦ Sam the Bug Catcher

For this project, we were required to develop a character that we'd be able to use throughout the year to learn the fundamentals of character modelling, texturing & surfacing, rigging, animating and compositing. 

Instead of facing the 'real world', Sam buries herself into her hobby of amateur entomology. Except, she's not searching for any old bug but rather a beetle of legend. 

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Programs: Maya, Substance Painter, Arnold Renderer & Photoshop

✦ Sam the Bug Catcher - Design

While developing Sam's design, I really wanted to make sure that there was a subtle link to an insect-like silhouette. A lot of inspiration for her silhouette was taken from an African Mantis such as the large head and spindly limbs. However, through the process, I was mindful of not taking it too far and making the design feel creepy. Her costume design helped in avoiding this through her clunky jars, knitted jersey and comically large hat. 

✦ Sam the Bug Catcher - Model and Texture

I initially struggled quite a lot in translating a 2D design into a 3D model as this was the first full character I'd attempted. It definitely took a while to make sure that the model didn't just fit the orthographic designs but also actually had the correct volume when turning in 3D space.

I did, however, love diving into all the small details of the clothing.

✦ Sam the Bug Catcher - Character Study

One of the final projects was to create an image that would tell some aspect of your character's story. I decided to portray the moment that Sam finds the fabled beetle she's been searching for. This meant that I would need to create additional assets to build a forest environment as well as design and model the beetle.

I started out by creating sketches and mood boards for slighting different takes on the same story idea. I then combined the mood from the first concept with the high-energy posing from the second concept's sketch and from there went into creating lighting keys and designs for the beetle. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to have a look at my work! 

If you'd like to keep up with what I'm doing, check out my artstation