Turduck-In
Turduck-In is a 3D animated origin story of how the turducken- an American Thanksgiving delicacy- first came to be. Created by Sydney Christensen as her senior thesis at Ringling College of Art and Design.
Turduck-In
Turduck-In
The animated origin story of how the turducken- a Thanksgiving delicacy- first came to be.
When a turkey doesn’t weigh enough to be transported off the farm, he takes matters into his own wings to try and rapidly gain enough weight before the transport truck drives off. Unfortunately his first few attempts fail to pass the scale, and with time ticking, he has no choice but to try a desperate endeavor if he wants to get out and have his “freedom”. A student thesis film from Ringling College of Art and Design!
Sorry, the film will be password protected until it completes its festival run. Enjoy some process work below in the meantime!
Stills
Rig Breakdown
In order to achieve the level of cartoony posing I wanted from my turkey, I had to add some extra features to a standard Advanced Skeleton rig in Maya.
His feathers were quite a challenge to get right- I tried everything from a texture to a MASH network of individual feather curves before finally settling on the use of Xgen!
Animation Breakdown
See how this shot goes from layout all the way to final animation!
To achieve his weight gain at the end of the film, I use a combination of different techniques. First, I had a blend shape attached to my rig that blew him a size or two up. Next I used a circular sculpt deformer that only affected his body, which allowed me to animate fat shifting. For places where the fat would be interacting with other objects, I used lattices. To polish it all off I added a jiggle deformer to his body, and now my turkey was plump and perky!
Shot Breakdowns
From storyboard to Maya to Nuke, here's how I achieved the final look of each of these shots!
Character Design
See how these birds got their feathers!
Thank you!
Be sure to follow the official Turduck-In account on Instagram for updates on the film's festival run and public release!
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