Final Animation

Concept

My Own Design

This project was a great way to tell a personal story that was meaningful an an abstract concept. The idea for this story is a spider’s journey in finding success, where he wants to protect himself from the outside world by covering his home. He finds inspiration from around him and imitates their methods, but find them to be unsuccessful. Only when he embraces his own skillset does he find a solution. This story is a symbol of my own struggles of comparison and to inspire others to find your own strength.

MY OWN

DESIGN

Software Used:

Cinema 4D
Nuke
After Effects

Design Challenge

In a 1 minute narrative animation, this project was aimed to evoke an emotion or moral.

Credits:

3D Modeling and Animation:
Hailey McMahon
Texturing
Hailey McMahon
Audio:
Kelly Warner

Technical process; Material Shader

While creating the material shader, I applied a gradient ramp for the spider with various hues of blue and purple and applied a png of wood so the shader picks up its color variation and applies it to the brush strokes.

I created a simple brush material on a plane, then uses a Cloner to scatter or stack these strokes across a surface. The noise material makes each stroke look slightly different, and the Cloner randomizes their size, rotation, and position so they don’t repeat. Together, it makes the strokes feel like real layered paint.

Technical Execution

Technical Process; Material Cloner

Final Thoughts

This project had a very personal meaning and was a reminder for myself and others to not compare, but to value your own strengths. It is not common to create a piece that has a personal connection, so I enjoyed exploring the narrative approach. Along with experimenting with various methods of texturing, this project has taught me to embrace being my own person.

Anamatic

Style Frames

Research

Pre Visual Plan

Before I created my storyboard, I refined my concept through this structure, where I could narrow down the emotional words, design language, and overall mood. This allowed me to refine the concept in the pre-production phase before defining the render style and story beats.