Programs used were Maya 2022, Procreate, Unreal Engine 5, Surface 3D Painter, Photoshop, Nomad Sculpt, Davinci Resolve, Houdini & Nuke. Rendered using Renderman 25.
Roles: Lead Project Manager, Concept Art Lead, Rigging Lead, Character Modeling Lead, Rendering Lead & Co-Modeling Lead.
Other Contributions: I also assisted with Environment Modeling, Surfacing, and Animation.
Project Management Documentation
This was a independent project in which I contacted 8 other students to work on this short. The production lasted around 1.5 years, where we worked on and off during school.
The entire short was rendered using the Visualization Texas A&M University pipeline with Deadline. Using Google Sheets, Google Slides, Discord, Canva, and in-person meetings to meet with the team, I was able to coordinate what tasks needed to be done and by when.
Concept Art
Modeling & Surfacing
Scrunchie the Kitten
Scrunchie was modeled using Nomad Sculpt and was retopologized for rigging in Autodesk Maya. Their skin was surfaced in Substance 3D Painter and the groom shader was made using the LamaHairChiang in Renderman..
While modeling him, I had the keep it mind the anatomy of a cat, as his animation will be used as a blueprint for the grooming artist. I also modeled additional tuft geometry that would serve as a curve guide for the groom in Houdini.
Groom created by Anthony Juarez
Animation
Shot 7 Animation
I was responsible for all aspects of animation for shot 7. By setting a parent constraint to a locator on Angelo's gloves I was able to translate Scrunchie the Kitten without the need for multiple keyframes.
Rigging
Scrunchie the Kitten
Scrunchie would be my 3rd quadrupedal rig I've completed, next to Holly and Hope from Antic Antiques (2024). This would also be my first time rigging eyes! He comes with an FK/IK switch for all of his legs and tail, a ribbon spine, as well as having the capability to be scaled.
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This project would be my first time creating a bipedal rig. During the initial character designing stage, I made sure to have hands that would be easier to rig, which that's why Angelo's model has gloves. I also design his character to not have any eyes as I would be preoccupied rigging Scrunchie's eyelids for when he blinks in shot 06. This made rigging much faster with 3 other rigs to complete.
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Angelo the Chef
1970 Fiat 500
The 1970 Fiat 500 that dumps the kitten out during the short would be my first car rig I've worked on. Since it won't be on screen for too long and doesn't have any advanced animation that's very close up, I decided to lessen the amount of controls it had.
Box
This would be my first time rigging a hero asset prop for an animated short. For Alley Amore the box would need to be rigged as well to be opened from several different positions for ease of animation. To save time for animation I had the bottom flaps already closed and created an FK based rig for it.
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