Making of the Watch
Personal Project
Narrative:
A fallen sapphire crystal descends from the sky, crashing into a surreal volcanic landscape. Amidst the elements come together forging a watch through abstract visuals.
Goal:
I wanted to explore how I can convey the process of making a watch through abstract visuals and learn new techniques, such as using Volume Mesher and Builder, and trying the new terrain FX by Insydium for the landscape. I aimed to create the crystal in a more organic way, so I decided to dive into ZBrush to see how I could add as much detail as possible, as it was one of the highlights of the animation.
Process:
So much work goes into a project like this. Often, months are spent fixating on small details. It was a challenging project, moving between software and exploring new techniques. It has been great fun working on this project.
Storyboard:
I had a clear idea of what I wanted to convey in the animation, but creating a storyboard helped me understand how to structure the animation and develop the composition of each frame.
ZBrush:
ZBrush was the perfect tool to create the crystal, as I wanted to add as much detail as possible in an organic way and manipulate the polygons as I liked.
Cinema 4D:
I used TerrainFX from X-Particles to help me create the landscape exactly how I wanted it, with the most control. I used X-Particles to create particle simulations throughout the animation. I used Redshift to texture and light the entire animation.
After Effects:
I rebuilt the animation through a range of passes to match the beauty of my Redshift viewport. I did this to have better control over the strength of the rrender passes. If there is an artifact in the specular pass, I can mask out the bits from the specular without having to re-render the whole shot again.
Credit:
VDB smoke explotion in shot 6 from JangaFX: https://jangafx.com/software/embergen/download/free-vdb-animations/
Audio for the main animation is by GregorQuendel from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/music/suspense-cinematic-trailer-music-02-cinematic-orchestral-action-trailer-114618/