BREAKDOWN:
- “Juno and Baby Ninka” | “Intrepid” Thesis Film:
The Ninki Nanka is a giant lake dragon and is a major character in my thesis film, “Intrepid”. This dragon originates from Gambian mythology in West Africa and is said to have the neck of a giraffe, features of a crocodile, belly of a hippo, and 3 horns. When adapting this concept, I wanted to stay true to the mythology of the swamp dragon while keeping its terrifying nature. The creature in this shot is a baby version of that dragon.
This character was modeled with Zbrush and Maya, and I wanted to capture the baby dragon's quick and nimble movements so I used a 2d animation that I created as a guide for understanding it's line of action. I had fun with this shot, and used different references of cats to detail its personality while also giving it the heavier weight of a dragon. For the film, we wanted to make sure that the baby dragon felt curious, nimble, and fast in its personality while also being slick moving like an aquatic creature. Find out more about Intrepid here!
- "The Sewing Machine" | Personal Project:
This project was a fun project where I worked to match a real reference as close as possible in this project and going for realistic textures and lighting! After matching the original reference, I created my own spin on the reference, creating a night time variation of the lighting. This project was modeled in Maya and rendered in Arnold, with Zbrush used for folds in the sewing machine fabric, and Substance painter used for texturing.
- "Project FunkStar" | Personal Project:
In this project I wanted to practice pushing expressions with through modeling and rigging, and used Maya, Zbrush, and Substance Painter. I also took some inspiration from Kpop Demon Hunters when creating my blend shapes for the face and making some of the expressions.
The groom was created with Xgen in Maya and I had fun modifying the hair to match a curly hair texture!
This is based on a concept by Lou Hill.
- "In-Between" | Pixar PUP Short Film:
“In-Between” is a group short film created by the Pixar Undergraduate Interns in the summer of 2023! In this project, we were given 2 weeks to create a 30-second - 1-minute short film with our team of PUP Interns. In this project, I am responsible for modeling and shading the props on the train along with all of the clothes for our character, “Eliza”. We played with experimental ways to model and shade throughout this project and wanted to collectively create a painterly style that was non-photorealistic. I am also responsible for the character animation in some of the shots in this film, and shot-sculpting for the character’s clothes in each shot, along with partial modeling on parts of the train like doors and tables. Find out more about "In-Between" here!
- “Juno Fleetwood”/ Houdini Hair Tool| “Intrepid” Thesis Film:
Juno Fleetwood is the main character of my School of Visual Arts Thesis film, “Intrepid". This character was modeled in Maya and Zbrush, and textured and rigged with Substance Painter and Advanced Skeleton. His hair setup was created using Houdini and Substance Painter.
The goal for Juno’s hair setup was to find a way to create curly hair in 3D without using heavy curves and simulation. For this, I decided to texture and model one hair curl with transparency using Maya and Substance Painter and then used Houdini to procedurally scatter these hairs along a proxy hair mesh for the character. After this, I created hair variants with different textures to create some randomization in Juno’s afro.
Find out more about "Intrepid" here!
- “Poshy Baby”| Commercial Ad:
For this project I was responsible for all character aspects and animation and had a lot of fun making all of the fun baby doll accessories!
- “Ninki Nanka” | “Intrepid” Thesis Film:
The Ninki Nanka is a giant lake dragon and will be a major character in my thesis film, “Intrepid”. This dragon originates from Gambian mythology in West Africa and is said to have the neck of a giraffe, features of a crocodile, belly of a hippo, and 3 horns. When adapting this concept, I wanted to stay true to the mythology of the swamp dragon while keeping its terrifying nature.
This character was modeled with Zbrush and Maya, with flat geo cards created for its hair. To resemble the references, I gave it a long neck with spikes along its back and tail to resemble both a giraffe and a crocodile. I also gave it a purple/grey, green, and orange color palette in concept art to match this as well. The glowing marks and scales along its body were created with Zbrush. Find out more about the Ninki Nanka here!
- “Bonabon Seymour”| “Intrepid” Thesis Film:
Bonabon is one of the protagonists of my thesis film “Intrepid”. I am responsible for all aspects of this character and created the concept art, model, and custom rig. This character was modeled in Maya and ZBrush and textured in Substance Painter.
I wanted to push the boundaries of the types of characters that can incorporate a world in this project and took inspiration from Vietnamese culture in her design along with koi-fish when creating her skin. I find it interesting to use animation to create characters with more fantastical features along with humans, integrating them as I’ve seen in media throughout my childhood. Find out more about "Intrepid" here!
- “Catfish Bay Creek”| “Intrepid” Thesis Film:
The Catfish Bay Creek is one of the environments from my thesis film “Intrepid”. I am responsible for modeling, texturing, and compositing, and created the concept art for this shot. Models were created with Maya and ZBrush and textured in Substance Painter and Photoshop.
I wanted to push the really push our stylized, painterly style with this shot and painted many custom texture cards to detail the trees with different paint stroke textures. I also created a stylized leaf creator in Maya using a mix of maya's toon shader, color jitter, and emission functions. It was really fun pushing the style in this shot and since there were so many trees, I used compositing to break this shot down into layers that could be lighter for render time. Find out more about "Intrepid" here!
