STRANDED | Blender Short Film
Full-cycle animation project based around a fictional alien character ("Derek") with a focus on character rigging, organic sculpting, and atmospheric environment creation. All aspects were created by myself in ZBrush and Blender, with no external assets used (apart from soundtrack).
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SOUNDTRACK: Silent Turmoil - Myuu.
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Backstory: He is part of a small family of aliens who were stranded on Earth many years ago and reside on an island in the Bermuda Triangle. They have the ability to shapeshift to mimic other animals; currently, they appear as a hybrid between an octopus and a shark. They can breathe on land as well as underwater, allowing them to explore both terrestrial and marine environments.
They each have different responsibilities to ensure the survival of the family; some gather food and protect the island, while others reconstruct the broken spaceship. Derek is involved in this reconstruction, specifically the navigation and communication systems. He searches the ocean for objects of interest and brings them back to his workshop to develop technology.
Final Animation
Side views: Alien ("Derek"). Sculpted in ZBrush and textured in Blender.
Original sketches of Alien Hybrid (shark, squid, anglerfish)
Planning for animation
Breakdown #1: The rig consists of 184 bones throughout the body, head, anglerfish lure and tentacles, with inverse kinematics for realistic arcs.
Breakdown #2: The internal aspects (e.g. corridor) were created in a separate file to allow for increased performance and decreased viewport lag.
Breakdown #3: A displacement modifier was used to create the hill terrain, with a particle system for grass. Grass flattening effect (beneath character): 1. two vertex groups were created on the hill - Grass (all vertices) and Flattened (empty).
2. Dynamic paint on both the hill (a canvas) and character (a brush) with output: Flattened vertex group.
2: Vertex weight mix modifier (subtraction between vertex groups). I.e. as character moves, will create weight paint for Flattened behind it.