Explore my
Portfolio
Welcome to my Portfolio Page. It's a great opportunity to help visitors understand the context and background of my latest works. Thank you for taking the time to explore my portfolio. It means so much to have your interest and support.
Project 1:
3D Animated Short Film ( Sep.2024 - )
BIZARRE
Project 2:
3D Animated Music Video ( Feb.2024. - May.2024)
CALL YOU ON IT
Project 3:
3D & 2D Animated Short Film ( Sep. 2023 - Dec.2023 )
3D RUSH
Others:
3D & 2D Animation
( Feb.2024 - Apr.2024)
MIND BOXING
STAR GIRL
LUNAR FACEPLANT
Story Animatic
( Mar.2023 - Apr.2023)
2D Animated Short Film
( Feb.2023 - Mar.2023)
BIZARRE
Year of creation: Sep.2024 -
PROJECT 1
*This project is my thesis project which still in progress... But I already have the characters and environments.
BIZARRE is a 3D animated short film about a series of accidents.
Two men and a dog are driving out, and there is a big dark cloud above their heads. Unfortunately, a lightning bolt hits them, and they swap bodies. One of them even turns into a tree on the side of the road. What's worse is that they are in the desert...
Inspiration
I wanted to make the work crazy and hilarious. I imagined what would happen if a person swapped bodies with an animal or plant, and how interesting their interactions would be. I wanted to tell this story through one unexpected and funny scene to another.
For the image and art design, I referenced some popular animated films, including Wreck-It Ralph and Cars.
Plot:
Modeling process:
Although this is a project based on human figures, I want to create a cartoon style, and the use of geometric shapes in character design is crucial.
So I chose to use a more traditional modeling method instead of 3D sculpting. Through a cube, I first created a low-poly model of the general figure. At this stage, I needed to keep the topology of the model as reliable as possible, and then I increased the subdivision to make the model more delicate.
Concept
Drawings
Modeling
And I tried to reduce the number of character textures by using ID maps, which will make the textures more concise and intuitive in post-management.
Dog-man
My idea for the male protagonist is a tall, muscular man with an optimistic personality, but after the soul of his doggy enters his body, he becomes clumsy and funny.
In terms of materials, I used PBR textures to make the surface of the model full of details, and even in a cartoon style, the model has a delicate texture. I tried to add subsurface scattering to make the character's skin have a translucent texture, making them more believable.
Tree-man
Rigging
When rigging the character this time, I used the Advanced skeleton plug-in to help me create controllers and paint weight, which improved my rigging efficiency.
The green-haired guy is a thin and silent person. Later, he exchanges his soul with a tree, and even his limbs become stiff. I designed his head into the shape of an apple to fit his later Tree-man state. His iconic green hair covering his eyes not only reflects his introverted personality, but also relatively reduces the workload of facial rigging.
The green hair is the key and difficult part. I used xgen to create the hair as believable as possible.
Texture
Doggy
The process of generating the dog's fur was slightly different. I used an xgen-interactive groom to generate the dog's fur.
The loyal and naughty doggy becomes funny and full of wisdom after the soul of its owner enters its body. I also wanted to show the huge contrast after the protagonist and the doggy swapped bodies.
In character design and modeling, I tried to bring out the geometric elements of the characters as much as possible, which makes them look more cartoony, which is exactly what I wanted.
This time, the landform generation software GAEA was used to simulate the unique desert features of the western America, striving to achieve realistic 3D environmental visual effects.
Environment
To be continued
CALL YOU
ON IT
PROJECT 2
Year of creation: Feb.2024 - May.2024
CALL YOU ON IT is a 3D animated music video.
I got chance to collaborate with Baltimore based musician Jon Dice to work on his music CALL YOU ON IT. ( It's not a formal MV though, lol )
After hearing the music, what came to my mind was the cold, techno-like texture.
Some keywords emerged in my mind: cold, mechanical, industrial, precise, future, ruins, artificial intelligence.
I hoped to incorporate these elements into my film.
Inspiration
In terms of art design, I was partly inspired by Anyma's music and his stunning live stage effects. I incorporated more industrial elements into this work. I really like heavy, mechanical, and orderly styles.
In the end, they turned themselves off for some reason, and everything returned to peace.
As a music video, it does not have a very obvious storyline. But what I want to show is that these robots, which are usually used for industrial production, suddenly woke up for some reason. They did not choose to continue working, but danced to the rhythm of the music, and dancing is a behavior unique to humans.
Concept Drawings
The Completed Film
In terms of modeling, these robots have hard surfaces with geometric shapes. I think Maya is more suitable for creating hard surface modeling, especially for non-human figures, so I did not use 3D sculpting.
I am very proud of the rigging of the master robot. I controlled its movement through three metal tubes from the ceiling, which allowed the robot to turn its body easily. I created a simple and easy-to-use controller to achieve omnidirectional movement of the master robot.
Master Robot
Rigging Test
Robotic Arm
In terms of materials, I wanted to show industrial traces, so I did not choose a futuristic smooth metal surface. Instead, I made a lot of blemishes on the surface of the machine, giving them a sense of dilapidation, as if they had been used but abandoned for some reason.
To give the robot some soul, I made a beautiful and detailed emission map for the robot's eyes.
Conveyor Belt
For the conveyor belt in the scene, I tried to add a calculation node to make the transmission between the gears and the belt look reliable.
PROJECT 3
3D
Rush
Year of creation: Sep.2023 - Dec. 2023
3D RUSH is a narrative animated short film that combines 3D and 2D production. The film tells the funny adventure story of a 2D man who breaks into the 3D world. I tried to use a lighthearted and interesting artistic approach to explore two different dimensional worlds.
The film, 3D RUSH, was shortlisted for screening at several film festivals, it also won the Director's Choice Award at the Santa Barbara 3 Minute Film Festival 2024.
Collection
The inspiration for this short film came from learning Maya. When exploring the various operating functions of the 3D software, I imagined that it would be very interesting if I could shrink into the world of Maya. So why not make a simple and relaxing animation that can make people laugh?
A 2D man lived in a 3D software and thought the world was flat. Until one day, he broke into and got lost in another 3D world that he was not familiar with...
The Completed Film
This is a series of animations of stick figures created before 3D RUSH. Most of them are 2D animations, but there have been some attempts to use Maya for 3D processing.
These works accumulated good materials and experience for subsequent projects.
I adjusted the focal length of the camera to reduce the perspective effect as much as possible to flatten the image.
Storyboard
燈飾
COLLABORATIVE
PROJECT
Year of creation: Feb.2024 - Apr.2024
STAR GIRL
Star Girl is a collaborative project, where students from MICA's animation department teamed up to create an animated short film.
The final film was used as a background video to accompany the performance of students from the Montclair State University Dance Academy, completing a work of art.
I was mainly responsible for the 3D part of this project.
The theme of this short animation is games, and the video creates different game art styles.
From the initial Pixel Art of the exterior scene, to the PS1 style when entering the Casino, and finally back to Pixel Art.
Animation & Dance
I wanted to achieve a beautiful 2D pixel-style city building complex through 3D. I first built a lot of rough building models. Then I used the Toon Shader and adjusted it to not allow the light source to cast shadows. Next, I reduced the rendering accuracy to make the entire building complex look more pixelated. At the same time, I gave each shader a ramp to control their shadow color.
Casino Exterior
Casino Interior
I created a very low-polygon model to achieve the PS1 Style. I intentionally lowered the resolution to make it look unclear to simulate the picture effect of the PS game.
Billboard
Drifting Car
The drifting car looks simple, but I still need to carefully study the steering structure of the real car. Then I use Joint in Maya to achieve the flexible drifting movement of the car.
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
Year of creation: Feb.2023 - Apr.2023
LUNAR FACEPLANT
This is a collaborative project. Under the guidance of NASA experts, animation students at MICA worked in teams to complete short animations about the moon and other topics. My main responsibility for the LUNAR FACEPLANT project is storyboard and environment design.
On behalf of our team, I gave a two-minute presentation on the stage of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Astro-Animation
Concept
Drawings
The Completed
Film
Concept Design
Vehicle Design
Architeture Design
Environment Design
STORY..
Year of creation: Mar.2023 - Apr.2023
MIND BOXING
Story Animatic
MIND BOXING is a
about heroes and dreams.
Character Design
Andy is an inconspicuous bank clerk who lives a monotonous life. He passed through a dim alley after get off work and encountered a tall "attacker". Andy thought about how to deal with it, but the result was somewhat unexpected. . . In fact, Andy is an underground boxer. . .
Concept
Design
In terms of character design, in order to reflect the character's professional background, Andy is portrayed as a thin, hunchbacked guy who always wears a pair of glasses and carries a briefcase, looking lifeless. But in the boxing ring, he is like a completely different person.
Boxing Ring
A dim alley
Environment Design
Layout
