Dream Walking
6'05"
Independent Animation
I have to say that it is not an easy and enjoyable task at all to produce independently such a 3D animation. However, after a long time commitment and efforts, when I finally finished it, I have benefited a lot. Besides, I have also made it clear what I will do in the future. This independent animation is a very important step, because it has given me self-confidence to become an animator, and also made me realize my advantages and disadvantages. I will continue to learn hard and try.
Ballet
Ballet is an assistant robot of Mike, an astronaut, responsible for the ordinary space station system operation and maintenance. Integrating many high-end technologies, Ballet has certain independent thinking ability. However, due to not well-developed technology, Ballet’s IQ is only equivalent to that of about three-year-old children. Even though, it can still help Mike solve many problems.
Because Ballet is a robot, during my design, the image of WALL-E always comes into my mind. Finally, I feel that to take wheel as drive is more realistic, but I hope that the whole effect should be different from that of WALL-E. As the name of the robot is ballet, I therefore designed a fine waist for her, which is much closer to the structure of the human body scale, with top-heavy characteristics, so as to give it a bit more dynamism.
Mike
In the very beginning of my design for Mike, I wanted to add a spacesuit or something similar to it, but when I referred to some photos, I found out that astronauts also wear very ordinary inside the cabin. So, I thought to myself that it would be better to just make a dress that can obviously show his character rather than a spacesuit full of sense of science and technology. Therefore, I designed a small vest and a pants with a loosely fastened belt.
As an astronaut, Mike’s body could be considered as moderate, but his slightly bulged stomach revealed his lazy state of life. With his long-term stay in the outer space environment, his hair had gone a lot, so he shaved himself, with only some mustache left. Because of his somewhat self-conceited character, his mouth often tilts high, and his eyebrow often rises .
Mike is a lazy astronaut, idiotic, a little bit self-conceited, and especially fond of sleeping. He works in a space station, usually receives and sends some goods, and lives in leisure. Inside the space station, there is a robot named ballet as his companion.
During later rendering, due to machine performance and capital restrictions, unfortunately I could not render the product grade quality, and details such as skin texture and hair etc. could be visible only during a close-up shot.
Scene
This is a scene I have designed. It could be said that design of this scene is relatively free, for I did not comply with the existing space station requirements. I referred to some real photos, and also drew some references from the scenes of the spaceship in “Wall-E".
Although I did not imitate too much the realistic style, I tried to find some characteristics of the spacecraft, and to continually modify my scenes to make it believable. I feel it is not necessary that the real thing we mold should be completely the same as the real thing, for me, creativity and dialectical thoughts are equally important. I will think of the content I want to refer to, accept or reject, modify, and then use it in my own things.
In the specific process of production, I feel that the most difficult are still the texture design and the lighting. Because this animation is done by myself, I must try as much as possible to be economical in terms of workload. As a result, there is almost no much workload for hand-painted texture, and what my texture shows are some color pieces and mechanisms. At the same time, I can also use the AO map to emphasize my texture's details and shadows etc. as supplementary.
Overall, I’m relatively satisfied with the scene effect, for the scenes still appear very complex with a layered sense when there is almost no hand-painted texture as support
Color
AO
Z_Depth
I have to say that post-production synthesis had played at least 50% of its role for the frame. In order to reduce the rendering time, I adjusted the light tone quality very low, which caused the directly rendered color actually not that natural. Therefore, using AO layer in combination with the NUKE collor correct function, I realize color and light shadow optimization. In the right drawing, the yellow part is the AO '"color correct part, and by making skillful use of AO as the matte, I made separate adjustment towards the light and shade, and finally superimposing the AO layer to emphasize on light and shade and structure.
Script
This is the script I used, but in the actual production process I have already made many changes, and many things are no longer the same as the script. I feel that when it is made individually, one can enjoy relatively more freedom in terms of contents. For whatever new ideas I have I can always have it fully implemented. I have to say that this kind of freedom is what many artists are longing for.
