3D Modeling & Animation

Planning & Storyboard

Wicked Chicken

Asset & Prop Design

Concept and Story Development

1.  Wicked Chicken is a fantasy game inspired by the prompt ¨Whispers in the Study. The player will explore the Witch's magical study, interacting with enchanted objects to uncover hidden secrets. A seemingly normal chicken lives here. She seems calm at first, but as the player disturbs the magic of the lair, the chicken's true importance is revealed, showing that the power is not in the player's hands but rather in the chickens.

2. The purpose of the cutscene is to demonstrate to the player the chickens' connection to the study's magic after the player has interacted with several magic objects, causing chaos with candles flicking, a pot bubbling, books and papers flying. Revealing that she is the true guardian of the lair and emphasizing the consequences of disturbing the magical environment by controlling when the magic will stop.

3. What makes this character unique or expressive? My character is a chicken, specifically a hen. This character is unique because chickens are rarely given personality in stories or media, but in this animation, she will be portrayed as having awareness of her surroundings and a sense of authority over her home. Her movements, such as hopping off her perch, flying to the table, and jumping onto the floating crown, are expressive and purposeful, showing her reaction to the player's actions and her connection to the magic of the study. Helps communicate the importance of her role as the guardian of the lair.

4. My cutscene tells a story through the changing room. At first, everything is still and in its place, but as the magic is disturbed, the environment transforms: lighting flickers, the pot bubbles, books fall, papers fly, and the crown begins to float. When the chicken realizes, she hops off her perch to settle the crown, and the room becomes calm again. This quick shift demonstrates the chicken's control and power over the room, restoring balance without any dialogue needed to tell the story.

Asset and Prop Design

1.  I will need to model a room for my scene. I will also model the main object, a magical crown. It will be gold with jewels, so it pops when light reflects off it. I will model a round table for the center of the room. The crown will rest there until it begins to float. The main model I will create is my chicken, who is the scene’s character. She will be my biggest challenge. I will most likely have to incorporate many skills from previous lessons to model her. If I have time, I will create some simpler objects to fill the space, such as a bottle, a candle, or another trinket. The rest of the scene will be filled with free online models to save time. 

2. The chicken will require detailed modeling and be pretty challenging to make. I want it to look pretty accurate as it's the main focus of the scene. So getting its many distinct features down will be tough. Some features include: its beak, wings, head, neck, legs, feet, nails, comb, wattle, and tail. I hope the finished chicken will help bring life into my scene and keep people engaged.

3. The only object that should need to be rigged is the chicken; she will need to be rigged to allow her wings to flap, legs to walk, beak to talk, head to bob, and feet/toes to perch on her wood stand, table, and crown. This helps to bring more life to the scene by giving the chicken many different points of articulation.

4.  The chicken's design reflects her role by contrasting with the environment around her. In a room full of magical, glowing, enchanted objects, her simple appearance stands out as being important. This contrast highlights how her importance to the room is initially hidden, only becoming clear as the story unfolds.  

Environment and Layout

1. Where are the key objects placed? My scene is laid out so the main focus of my scene in in the center like the prompt suggests. I have placed the chicken and perch off to the side but so you will still be able to see it in the background when looking at the center table. Around the walls of the room I have shelving, tables, dresser, and a desk which helps to add more to the space but still be simple enough to keep the main focus in sight which helps frame the room well. I will also have lots of props placed around such as the cauldron, crystal ball, candles, skulls, etc. This will hopefully help the scene feel more natural, full, and seem more lived in. The open space surrounding the center table will allow for enough room for the animation of the magic and movement of the chicken to take place. 

2. I have two cameras placed so you can see a wide view of the study while still being aimed at the center table, so you get a view of all aspects of the room from multiple angles. Another camera is aimed directly at the chicken so we will be able to easily follow its movements when it begins to react to the magic taking place. This will also allow you to get a better view of the chickens details by being up closer so you are not watching from far away. 

3. The layout will support the flow of the scene by first displaying the entire room so you see what the environment is like. You also can see how certain parts that have more movement that will be taking place are more empty than other parts such as near the chickens perch the only thing next to it is a cauldron so it is not cluttered to the point of begin distracting. I also made the table empty besides with the crown so your attention is only on it so it does not distract from it. All of this should hopefully help the scene feel more organized and planned out visually.  

Artifact 1

The main challenge I experienced while modeling this chicken was getting the legs and feet to look good. I had issues where the leg was supposed to connect to the foot and keep it from looking to blocky so it still has a semi realistic feel to it. I was able to solve this by attaching a cone on top of the foot so that there is not just a straight cylinder coming out of the foot so it gradually increases in its size better. The part o

Artifact 2

Artifact 3

Artifact 4