The Little Florist was created for Scad’s collaborative class, the point of the class was to mix multiple different majors. Our team was composed of 2D and 3D animators, story and concept artists, and technical artists. This was our first time working with people of different majors.
Although I was not initially appointed as co-director, my communication and collaboration skills with the team led to me being approached for the position early in the production of the film. I was a big proponent of making the project as hybrid as possible. Which entailed integrating various elements of 3D animation and simulation, 2D characters interacting with 3D props, and utilizing a 3D camera. Despite the original plan only including the use of 3D backgrounds with 2D characters.
During the early stages of development, a fellow animator and I collaborated to test the pipeline for animating a 2D character alongside a 3D animated prop. Although the results were rough, I was pleased with how efficient the pipeline was and knew that we could improve upon it.
The director, producers, and I got together immediately in production, we established a detailed production schedule and utilized Dropbox to streamline our workflow as well as organize our assets. In addition to my directorial duties, I also took on the role of primary editor, overseeing the assembly cut and preparing daily footage for review. As the project progressed, I assumed responsibility for the film's visual effects and compositing, ensuring that every element of the final product was polished to the best of my ability.
I had the pleasure of contributing to the film's animation through rough animation, clean-up, and color for multiple shots. The examples above showcase my skill set and my ability to utilize references effectively. Note, that the final stages of clean-up and color were completed by separate artists.
Out of all the stages of production, post-production was my favorite. We managed to complete it in a mere week and a half. Even though I was still relatively new to After Effects at the time, I took charge of overseeing all the visual effects and compositing. It was a trial by fire at times, but I enjoyed the challenge and was proud to see the final results come together bit by bit. Working with the 3D team was also a great experience, as I got to ensure that all the 3D elements were properly rendered and ready for comp. Overall, this step of the production not only helped me expand my skill set but also gave me a deeper appreciation for the intricacies of post-production.
This shot above is a good example of how I composited 2D characters interacting with 3D objects. It was a bit challenging to make the flat 2D character blend in with the 3D environment, but I managed to do it somewhat convincingly. I also had to carefully mask the character to make sure they interacted seamlessly with the prop. Overall, this was a fun and rewarding shot to work on!
This particular shot was quite a challenge for me. Originally, it was supposed to have a digital camera movement, but then a skilled 3D animator introduced me to this dynamic 3D camera movement. I decided to take up the challenge and see if I could track the original 2D character animation to the new camera. The results were better than expected. However, this shot ended up taking the longest to comp out of the entire film. The final renders we used caused some slight displacement, which meant that I had to manually track Basil the cat back to the counter. I also had to mask him and his shadow to fit the new render. At some point during production, the counter was shrunk, which meant that the cash register and glove were now directly in the character's path. I had to separate them from the scene, and then composite them back in, matching the lighting and shadows, before finally tracking them to the camera. Overall, this shot was quite challenging, but it provided a great opportunity for me to exercise my problem-solving skills in post-production.