"Outsider" Thesis Film
Process and Development
Character designs and Color Scripts
Look progression and development
I wanted to focus on the look and style of my film from the very beginning. I always had an idea of wanting it to somewhat emulate my 2D style. But early on, I couldn’t get it to look how I wanted it to at all. After more experimentation with both the shaders and compositing, I was finally able to achieve the intended results.
I first experimented the look using aiToon, but to no success. I was actually very close to sticking with aiStandardSurface shaders or even attempt to render the film in Blender given how great it is with stylized shaders. However, I feared I may not have the time to learn a new program during the production of the thesis so I gave aiToon another go and was able to achieve the desired results. Below is the final node tree for the shaders of the characters.
Shot Breakdowns / Process
*Programs used for the film: Autodesk Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Nuke, Photoshop
The shot below would be considered as the most difficult shot in my film on a technical standpoint. I wanted to have 2D shadows surrounding the main character as the camera spins around him with the parallax effect. In order to do that, I set up the scene in Maya with planes that constantly faces the camera to create the effect. After that, I imported the alembic of these planes into Nuke, then replace them with my 2D shadows that were made in Photoshop.
