We Have a Deal
A serial gambler loses everything, including his marriage as he pawns his wife's wedding ring away. Realising his mistake, he prays to a god of gamblers, who offers him a lifeline with a catch. Can he win it all back?
01
Concept and Character
Design
In this collaboration project, I was in charge of developing the script and storyboards. My team had decided to create a CGI god that was overpowering the gambler in all aspects. The god would have to be imposing and strong, taking on the role of a punisher.
02
Environment
I also designed the overall atmosphere, lighting and architecture of the temple, where the story takes place. This sketch allowed me to plan the layout of the temple altar and scale according to our actor.
03
Storyboarding
I planned out each shot according to the script I had written. This process took me a few weeks of adjusting, as I had gone back and forth between scriptwriting and storyboarding.
04
Animatic
The animatic was challenging since I did not have a physical background to overlay my drawings on. On the other hand, it gave me more freedom to attempt different angles and shot types.
05
Model rig
After receiving the modelled and textured character (right), I was able to add the skeleton and rig the model.
I was also in charge of transferring the model facial blendshapes between our different files. It was a challenge because my team members all have different workflows in MAYA, and approach modelling and rigging very differently.
06
Environment Model
Working in Unreal Engine 5 was a delight, since I could see the way the lighting affected my textures and models in real time. I made sure to create a layout that would translate well visually in terms of scale with proportion to the live actor.
07
Filming
Using the greenscreen was new to us animation students, so we followed the lead of our Broadcast Media teammate. Through a bit of self-directed learning, we figured out how to get useable and trackable footage for post-production.
08
Animating
This is a compilations of the scenes that I was in charge of animating. In addition to animating, I was also in charge of lighting and rendering all of the scenes for the project. It was challenging, since I could only render the animation and camera movement according to what my teammates gave me, which resulted in shaking and sliding in the composited footage.
09
Post-production and Compositing
The team worked together to key out the green screen and composite the live footage with the animated footage despite the tight deadline. Although the final cut is meant to be edited and submitted by the Broadcast Media student on our team, I was tasked with producing the final cut on short notice due to the member being unable to meet the deadline. This is my version of the final cut.