While studying abroad, I had the opportunity to create a short film along with 9 other students in just 8 short weeks. During that time, I wore just about every hat in the production pipeline to get us across the finish line. My main role was to keep us on schedule as the producer and to keep our project goals grounded while still going for the highest quality possible. I also worked as the storyboard lead as well as the modeler and facial rigging artist for the main character, Crouton. It was a lot of fun getting to exercise my organization, leadership, and technical skills while completing this project. I hope you enjoy our hard work.
The Storyboard
With only 8 weeks to create a film from start to finish, creating a story that is quick, entertaining, and engaging came with challenges. The greatest challenge for me was brevity. We had so many ideas that were great, but we decided to create a chase scene based on the village, Lacoste, that we lived in for the 8 weeks.
Crouton Model
Referencing the 2D turnaround made this a quick and simple rig. I decided to model on the body parts that were seen to save time.
Crouton Facial Rig
The face rig uses a combination of blend shapes as base and controllers to add a bit more expressiveness to his emotions. Speed was the driving force of the decisions made, but it made for an effective system to help the animators meet deadlines quickly while still having a bit of control.
