Mia Dator

Context: On one of their days of adventure, these two unlikely friends stumbled upon a friendly giant who took the longest naps during the day! They happened to have seen it wake up once and ever since then they've been trying to catch a glimpse of it again. It was snuggling right up at the base of mountains so maybe this spot would be where it's taking a nap today?

For this project, we were tasked to produce a creative piece based on our chosen specialisations to be showcased on the Yagan Tower.

For my specialisation, I have produced a 3D animation centric piece.

To step up my goals and skills from last project, I aimed to animate both a biped and a quadruped creature interacting with each other. So far I have only animated one or the other solo in a scene.

Considering the rules of Yagan Square and what we couldn't do/show, I had to tone down my animation for this project. Nothing crazy or overly dynamic movements. It felt like a more scenic/environment heavy piece will be a better choice to emphasise on the tower instead of a character-focused video. I would've wanted to show a more challenging and dynamic animation but because it might disorient viewers or drivers on the other side of the tower we can't show fast-moving content or even change in camera angles or shots.

Right away, I knew that I wanted to have these two characters in a large open field with a massive creature in the background as the 'main event' that happens within the animation sequence.

Since the piece I am producing is going to be consumed in a superficial manner by passerby-ers, there won't be a deeper or hidden meaning for adult audiences to potentially dissect - it will be purely for aesthetic pleasure. Something light that can be consumed quickly and in its most superficial form would be good to present to the audience who don't have time to stop for more than maybe a minute or who won't be giving much thought about what they're seeing.

That's why I focused more on the aesthetics of my content rather than a "deeper" message.

In saying that, my primary objective for this project is to provide a 'feel-good' vibe through the story told in my animation that highlights a wholesome time with two friends emphasised by the bright and open green landscape. Nothing deep, nothing too complex. It's a 'take it as it is' kind of story that hopefully leaves the viewer in a lighter mood as they walk past the tower toward their intended destination.

Style moodboard

Cell shaded styles like (quite impressionistic style textures):

• 3d ghibli style

• Genshin Impact

• Ni No Kuni

• Persona 5

• BotW

Having this type of impressionistic style I feel like it would help impose a light-hearted feeling/vibe within the piece.

Rough photo-bash

Taking inspiration from the moodboards, I did a quick photo-bash of how I'm going to layout my composition. The golem would originally be coming in from the left side of the screen making its way all the way to the right.

To keep a playful vibe, I wanted to keep the characters young and quite cute. The rigs I chose below are Dragol which was modelled and textured by Tri Nguyen and rigged by Truong, a CG Artist from Vietnam, and Ystra rigged by Christoph Schoch, modelled by Kellie Lautier based on the concept by Alexis Pflaum.

From the start, I envisioned this story to take place in an enchanted forest. And because I was also planning on rendering this project through Unreal Engine, I started my search in the vast resources that Epic Games offered.

Luckily I snagged an awesome environment from Epic Games' free content for the month!

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/dreamscape-nature-meadows

The style of the environment was exactly what I was looking for - almost cell shaded and not too realistic. There were so many nooks and crannies where the set up looked absolutely beautiful like the little camp below.

I originally wanted the characters to walk through the environment and end the video when they've reached the top and have seen the golem. But the lateral movement would've been quite tricky to pull off on the tower since it couldn't be too fast and not much camera tilts.

So instead I just opted for an open space where you can really experience the breadth of the environment. I decided to level out a space on top of the mountain where the characters can set up camp.

(quick screenshot process of setting up the composition)

When I finalised my environment I created a very rough storyboard of how I wanted the animation to play out.

WK9 11/04 - Blocking

Week 11 25/04

Extra Animation (Rough)

I had done some very rough animations for my fellow students. The below animation was for Quan Tran who created The Violinist - Zoei.

The below was my polish for Naomi Herman's Mermaid Princess. I unfortunately didn't get to work on her animations as much as I wanted to due to time constraints.