Frozen Lake - Rebelway FX Challenge

Let's talk about simulations.

First, I have to decide the best workflow to break the ground, and as usual, I did some tests. For the time, I prefer use SOP than DOP. 

Well, let's discuss about this video I posted above. I NEED of constraints, and I have to think about the path of cyborg's running at the end and keep it safe. The pieces are going crazy, and I did some changes until get this result:

I'm happy with this. Not too breakable, not too rigid. Let's move on!

Firstly, I think that every porject like this needs a storyboard or animatic to works, and keep at artist's mind what he has to create, and what feeling to share with the scene.

Thinking about this, I created some keyframes in the video and I want to share with you.

This is the start of my project and I'm happy to show my workflow.

At beginning, I'd like to show the environment and presentation of characters. Nothing too robust, because I want to spend more time creating the FX.

The ideia is to create a frozen lake, where the beast blows up in middle, fracturating the surface radially, and show the water slightly under that. This will generate a nice ground effect merging flip and RBD sims.

Following that, I want to create some flip sim to seem like spit, coming from monster mouth.

Let's go ahead.

At this point, I want to show these sparks from the cyborg body, as soon as he sees an upcoming attack from the creature, to create an shield to repel this. I'll talk later about my references, but I have a good idea to show how this ability will interact in this situation, following the beast moviment and the force this character is applying to hold back it.

After that, we got another moviment from the beast and fall, generating some ice particles flying away.

And finally, the climax. I think I'll keep it that way because it makes more sense. After concentrating energy and firing this electrical discharge, the beast is more dejected than I expected. Well, electricity expands in the water, right? Remember that the beast is still on there.