Model
Animation
The Walking Cycle
Concept
EP – Game Art
Game Artefact
Research
The game I decided to research on is Ori and the Blind Forest. I purchased it on steam and played it for about 2 hours. It is a lovely drawn Metroidvania-style game with beautiful journey.
The plot is a fairy tale. The spirit tree in the forest narrates the story of a guardian spirit ‘Ori’. He was adapted by a creature called Naru. Naru died when forest wither came and Ori was left alone.
Ori encountered Sein and began a journey to find three elements to recover the forest. They met two primary characters, Gumo and Kuru. Many moving plots happened during the game. In the end Naru was back, and Ori finally restored the forest.
It shows the connection between natural and life. I like the design of the gates and spirit well in this game.
Thumbnailing and Story
I had an inspiration about a herbalist ‘Illino’ who lives in a forest and planting herbs and cure people’s diseases with her herbal potion.
Ori and the Blind Forest revoked my inspiration about her. It also gave me some ideas about how I could design the facilities near ‘Hidden Spring’ in the forest where Illino grow herbs.
Thumbnailing: a gate of the Hidden Spring, a stele of the spring, a lamp, a kettle and a lotus pond.
I like the idea of the lotus pond the most. It reminds me of the Great Fairy Fountain in Zelda Breath of the Wild when I finished drawing.
Concept Art
When I was researching on water-filled bamboo tubes, I found a Japanese device to frighten away animals. It is called Shishi-odoshi. These fountains are intended to startle any herbivores such as deer or boars which may be gazing on the plants.
So this artefact would be a fountain for Illino to protect her herbs. The water of this artefact comes from the hidden spring.
I took inspiration from this design and created my first concept art.
Model & Texture
I used Maya to model, and used Photoshop to draw the texture.
Render
At First I render it in a normal way with some Arnord default settings.
However, what I really want is traditional ink painting.
I duplicated the mesh to create a outline of the mesh.
Final Outcome
Loops
Mind Map
When the word ‘loops’ first came to my mind, I thought about the repeat complex pattern in nature. The pattern of stones and plants etc.
I did preliminary research and found some topics I’m interested in.
I think the shape of fractal is interesting, so I choose fractal as a node and did secondary research to learn different types of fractals.
Idea Generation and Testing
I generated some 2d fractals using Chaotica at first and made some animations.
However, I think generate fractals in 3D is a better idea, since I can play around with different shaders in 3D software. I finally decided to generate a Mandelbulb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbulb
According to wikipedia, the Mandelbulb is a three-dimensional fractal, constructed by Daniel White and Paul Nylander using spherical coordinates in 2009.
I used a Maya Arnold stand-in plugin to generate the Mandelbulb. I found out that the Mandelbulb was composed with round dots and I could only apply surface shader using Maya with this stand-in plugin.
I switched to Blender on the half way because I found out that I could use volume shader in Blender to create a airy Mandelbulb.
Process
I created the shader using nodes in Blender. There are math nodes in Blender that allows me to create different types of fractals using different formula.
I added a ColorRamp node to color the Mandelbulb. I made it black, red and white to give it a lively cell-like appearance.
The background music is ‘Mind Virus’. I found it on the website ‘Epidemic Sound’.
Final Outcome
The final outcome is a 50 second video showing the change of a Mandelbulb. The value of n shifts between 2-20.
7 Deadly Sins
Research & Mood Board
After researching, I found that 7 Deadly sins is connected with Bible and Divine Comedy. I want to make a character that’s abstract and divine.
Early Sketch & Concept Design
I like the concept of ‘Pride’ the most. I was kind of jumping between different art styles and generated many unconnected ideas. Two ‘Pride’, three ‘Sloth’ and one ‘Lust’.
Process
I choose Pride as the final topic. I was going to us the brush tool in photoshop but finally decided to use the pen tool instead. It was that kind of design which you may likely seen it in a card game or something, so I think it’s a good way to use a vector art style.
Final
Topsy Turvy
Moodboard
I interpreted ‘Topsy Turvy’ as ‘in an disordered condition’. I remembered myself in a dream that I was chased by a monster. I decided to write a story about a dreamy, horror and unrealistic world.
Character & Environment
There was a contrast between two characters. One is a very ordinary, student-looking character. The other one is a cute yet horror monster cat.
Storyboard
Inciting Incident is contained in my storyboard as the first shot. Lock In is where the monster cat appears. Main Culmination is the protagonist running away from the monster. He seemed to achieve this goal, but there is a twist in the end.
Process
I found the sound effects on the internet. The animation happens in a empty city, and has a horror atmosphere. So I used a horror ambient sound to create this kind of atmosphere.
After importing the frame into PR, I set frame for each shot.
Final
Cinemagraph Storyboard
Moodboard
I’m not familiar with photography so I didn’t have much confident on this project at first. I didn’t have much inspiration either. I was intended to make a cinemagraph with a dark atmosphere, but didn’t know where I should began.
Storyboard
I decided to use mostly everyday object and my room as the scene. The story is about a person that’s trapped in its room and couldn’t get out of it.
Process
I studied the Nuke tutorial. I found it to be very different from After Effects. It’s based on nodes. The node system is familiar with the shading node in blender.
Final
Paperwork
Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose
I bought a small lightbox and some animation paper online. I never did paperwork before, so it was a new experience for me.
Bouncing Ball & Ease In And Out
During the course, I decided to switch to computer software because the animation paper I bought was way too small for the other projects.
Walking Cycle & Head turn
I learned the basic movements of walk cycle and head turn. I designed the character first, drew the key frames. It was a quit complicated movement. I was confused half way through by the movement of the hair but finally managed to complete the animation.
Low Poly World
Moodboard
I wanted to create something alien. At first I wanted to create an alien planet. After searching in Pinterest and found some pictures about blood sea, I decided to focus on that idea.
Sketch
While I’m working on the sketch, a few key words came up in my mind. They were cliff, tentacles, tent and black sky.
Process
I learned blender before, so I just reviewed on what I have learned. I built up the model first, added material to them, and animated them in the end. Three moving objects are tentacles, the flag and the sun.
Final
You Are Here
Mind Map & Moodboard
Sketch
Process