Circe's Cauldron (2020)
Circe's Cauldron is a 3D animation to showcase all the basic skills learned which is modelling, rigging, animation, and rendering.
The animation tells a story of a young witch who struggles to bring a cauldron she ordered into her kitchen.
The animation tells a story of a young witch who struggles to bring a cauldron she ordered into her kitchen.
Pre-Production
First off, we had to present our story ideas for our lecturers approval. Since it is supposed to be a short film that showcases our animation skills of our character lifting, pulling and pushing, the story had to be relatively simple and possible to execute for our level. The story that ended up being approved by my lecturer is a story about a witch who struggles to bring her cauldron inside her kitchen.
Continuing on, we arrive at the design process. This is absolutely my favourite part of the whole process, I had a blast during this stage of production.
In a story, pacing and flow is important. Storyboards determine how the story goes, shooting board determines the framing and transitions of the film, while animatics determine the pacing and time of each scene.
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Production
Here we arrive at the 3D process. I particularly enjoyed the modelling part the most, and had the most trouble with rendering as my skills on that part was below par.
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The most challenging part is creating the rig for the character. As shown from the character design, the witch Circe wears a dress with a long skirt. At this point, I haven't learned 3D Simulation yet, which means I had to figure out how to rig her skirt.
It was definitely a challenge. There are very little tutorial videos on how to rig a skirt, as most of it are simulation videos. After watching many non-English speaking videos and suspicious tutorials of creating a rig to move clothes on a body for a video game, I figured out how to create a rig for the skirt. Miraculously, it turned out really great.
It was definitely a challenge. There are very little tutorial videos on how to rig a skirt, as most of it are simulation videos. After watching many non-English speaking videos and suspicious tutorials of creating a rig to move clothes on a body for a video game, I figured out how to create a rig for the skirt. Miraculously, it turned out really great.
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For the animation, I would say I did pretty well. I managed to properly convey the weight of the cauldron, and the character's struggle in pulling, pushing and lifting the object.
Admittedly, I was going through a rough time during the latter half of the project. The end result is not the best, but I am proud that I still finished it despite everything. I would like to thank the people who still gave me a chance even when I messed up, and to the friends who helped me go through this project along the way.
Thank you for reading until the end.
Thank you for reading until the end.