Olaf's Afternoon

Watch the Movie
Quicktime (22 mb)
Backgrounds, lighting, and animation were all done in 12 days.

This was an assignment during my Junior year in the Computer Animation program at Ringling.

OBJECTIVE: To have a character do two contrasting takes on one action.
The Action I Chose: Sitting down
1st Take: As if you're discovering an alley you've never noticed, lost in time just enjoying your surroundings
2nd Take: As if you've had the longest day, climbed thousands of stairs, and are totally exhausted

The reference: Having created a Knight that had to be used for this project, I instantly thought of
having the scene take place in a setting like the medievil town of St. Paul, in France. Looking through my
photos I took one summer it was easy to get inspired and motivated to crank this out in such a short time.

The Result: Olaf, our Knight, is coming down the steps with a bounce in his step, seeming as if the sun
had not shown itself in months. He's been walking for a few blocks, and sees the bench there on his left. He decides
to take a seat and enjoy the warmth of the sun, and accidentally dazes off into a nap. He then wakes to realize it's nighttime!! He jumps
off the bench, looks around to think about what just happened...but then realizes he really didn't have to be anywhere. So, he somberly goes
to sit down again and resume his peaceful sleep.

Progression of the Background:

This one shows an overlay of the original wire frame model over the above painted scene.

Here is what I started with - a screen capture of the camera view.
I'll then put a Use Background shader on this geometry in Maya, (and the soon to be updated bench)
to catch shadows for the composite.

The wire frame was blurred, and all the planes were painted over quickly in Photoshop.
Then, I add a color layer, and get down a simple palette.

Here a layer set to Overlay was added, to add some more highlights and saturation.

Here I began refining things, and modeled a new bench.
The back wall with the arches is actually a photo I took, which I painted over to blend it into the style.
The floor is using the same approach (usually having a photo layer set to Soft or Hard Light yields a good started off point).

Here I got rid of the arches to try a different idea. And the bench is now rendered.

Looking better. Very right wall is too contrasting and distractive.
Problem: When character sits down, his head will blend too much into lightness behind him.

Problem fixed: Added the protruding structure with the tiled roof, to throw shadow
behind his head, and also provides some nice shadow shapes that point us to the action, though
that wall behind the bench might still be too bright...


And after nine hours, I've got the final matte painting!