Rennie Chiu 2023 Portfolio

Showreel 2023

I graduated from 3dsense Media School's Motion and Graphic Design course in July 2023. Had lots of fun during this 1-year course. Thankful to all who had supported me throughout.

Seasons

This was done as a submission for 3dsense’s Jack of All Trades motion design contest.

The template given was a camera rotating around a cube; we could modify the cube as long as the box position, size, and rotation are fixed for the first and last frame according to the template.

I wanted to do a loop and the eternal loop of nature’s 4 seasons came to mind. Every time the cube rotates, the season changes. Like nature, I designed the loop to play seamlessly, to show the beauty of each season and the natural progression from one to the next.

Taking inspiration from games that feature the 4 seasons like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, I researched and found references about the elements and colours that represent each season. I decided to use a Rubik's cube and not just a whole block because I wanted to animate different layers when the cube rotates and I also liked the lighting on the cube.

Sound Design by Adrobski

Show Promo - Parasite

For this title sequence project, I decided to do my favourite Korean film 'Parasite'.

Key purpose is to intrigue the viewers by showing different scenes and I wanted to edit the video such that it gets more and more intense like in the film.

Some design elements I incorporated to enhance the dark ambience were light rays, volumetric fog, dust particles, slow camera movements and depth of field.

For the last scene, I reused the 3D house asset from the Parasite title sequence I've done in my previous school. It had minimal details. I had to find a balance between showing enough to see the silhouette yet not showing too much because of its bare design.

TVC - iMac 24-inch

A group project done with Hamizan.
My role - team lead, art director, editor, designer and animator.
In charge of dark, orange, yellow and purple scenes.

While choosing a product for this project, we came up with a few keywords - sleek, elegant and multiple colours. We narrowed down to a few options and chose Apple's iMac.

We wanted to highlight the key features of this product which include vibrant display, thin screen, its sound system and 7 colour options. We brainstormed ways of how we could show those features metaphorically through abstract 3D objects and animation. Each scene is monochromatic to show the 7 different colours. We decided to go for a surreal dreamscape style to fit the elegant mood. 

Music: The Untold Story by Féry

The process of building a scene and trying to make it look good with lighting and rendering is what I enjoy most.

Red Velvet Lightstick

A group project done with Rena.
My role - art director, editor, designer and animator.
In charge of bright scenes.

As avid fans of Red Velvet, we created a mock commercial video to promote Red Velvet's lightstick. We have bright and dark scenes to portray the identity of Red Velvet through the dual concept of 'Red' (bright and vibrant side) and 'Velvet' (sophisticated and mature side).

This was done as a passion project on top of whatever we had to do for school. Execution was done in a week.

Music: Red Velvet "In My Dreams" (Small Orchestral Cover) by SeviMixes

GUI Infographics - Nintendo Switch (OLED)

A group project done with Hamizan, Vanessa and Rein.
My role - team lead, art director, editor, designer, animator.
In charge of the joycons and switch features scenes.

We wanted to show the Switch as a versatile and immersive console - 3 different play modes while highlighting the key features which are the joycons, 7-inch screen and game cartridge - all in Mario-themed scenes. 

Channel Branding - Mnet's M2

In this assignment, I chose a channel that I consume K-pop content from regularly. I was leaning towards the 3D stylized, simplified shapes in a bold colour scheme, with fun and playful animation, an art direction which was common in Korean television channel branding idents. I did a 20s ident and made a graphics package while reusing the elements.

M2 (Youtube) is Mnet's digital channel where they upload 4k 60fps fancams, relay dances and other content in both vertical and horizontal formats.

In the main ident, the Mnet logo character does activities in different scenes, showing the joy of music and broadcast.

My aim was to brand the channel as fun and playful through the colours, elements and animation.

Isometric City

Inspired by the Monument Valley game, I came up with the concept of a playground to show the idea of fun through elements and colours. First rendered using C4D's standard renderer then switched to Redshift materials and renderer after learning it.

The frames below were created using C4D's standard renderer.

36 Days of Type - R

Inspired by the Alphaputt series and this project by Jonathan Lindgren, I wanted to use basic shapes (forming a letter R) to create a course for a ball to travel through. This can be looped.

XMAS TREE

I came up with a Christmas tree made up of abstract 3D objects and random geometric shapes. 

I was interested in testing out SSS material. Together with the lighting and simple scene, my aim was to put focus on the tree.

3dollarvase

I started a series featuring a 3 dollar vase my mother bought in Norway. I am using this series for my exploration of lighting and materials.

For the first few renders, I wanted to try incorporating typography where I could add some storytelling. However I realized it limited the composition.

Thanks for viewing!

Incredibly grateful for my mentors and classmates at 3dsense as the 1 year made me reignite my passion for motion design.