The Monster of the Underworld

FINAL ENTRY!

This project was challenging. Very challenging. There were a lot of obstacles during the project, such as the collisions of the ground, the interactions of the magma, the particles and its lighting, and the insane rendering time.

Yet, I've been working on this project consistently (and quite painfully, haha) and figured out many solutions for each major problem. I'm very glad I was able to do this project and gaining the experience. I definitely learned a lot about the workflows of a professional VFX artists, where to get resources, troubleshooting, and more importantly, how to stay motivated and persevere.

Although I did learn a lot about this project, I did feel a little overwhelmed whenever it came to balancing personal life with professional life. I found myself stressed not only from this project, but school assignments and other personal life issues. I think a big mistake I made during these months was to set a massive and unrealistic goal for myself, and as a result I had accumulated a lot of stress. Next time though, I will know better and instead of looking at the whole picture, I will take things one step at a time.

Again, thank you to everyone for providing this opportunity. 

COMPOSITING

After finishing rendering, I started on compositing, and I combined all the passes and layers together. I mainly used Blender and Houdini for compositing.

RENDERING

Unfortunately, I did not create an update for when I started to render the animation. I started around Feburary 15th, and finished in April 15th, the day the FX is due. I wanted to save as much time as possible rendering the animation, so I started immediately after the effects were finished.

MAGIC EFFECT ATTACK!

In this shot, the character prepares what looks like an "icy" fireball. After he charges up, he then shoots his ice powers towards the monster, wounding it.

For this effect, I used two particle simulations and combined them together. The first particle effect was the fire that emitted from his hands. The second particle effect was the beam that shoots of his hands towards the monster.

SHIELD EFFECT

In this shot, the character tries to defend itself from the monster by creating a magic shield.

I added two particle simulations. One simulation goes around the character and the other simulation revolves around the contact between the monster's claw and the shield. And using dissipation, I managed to make the shield disintegrate effectively.

Smoke + Flip Fluids + Particles Update

Pretty big update here.

I added another RBD simulation nearby the cyborg so that way the hydralisk's claws would affect the ground more.

Along with that, I added smoke and dust that would emit based off the Velocity of the RBD simulation

I also added a Flip Source underneath the RBD simulation and a Flip Source when the Hydralisk spits all over the cyborg.

All of this took several hours of simulating and tweaking.

Soil Destruction RBD

I created different layers of soil and combined them together. And after making several tweaks on fracturing and constraints, I came up with this result.

Timing Reference

Using Blender's Grease Pencil, I've added some 2d animation FX. This will be used as a Timing Reference for the Real FX.

These are some Color Thumbnails that I have completed. 

A big goal I wanted to focus on was the dramatic entrance of the Monster and the shift of colors of the environment. (Similar in the Disney Movie Moana, Where Ti Fiti emerges from the ground.)

For the FX, I wanted to focus on 4 Main Effects:  Lava, Smoke, Lightning, and Ice

while maintaining a clear silhouette for each of the characters.

For this project, I wanted to collect as many references as possible. My main inspiration comes from the movie Moana, since it has vibrant colors and great looking effects.