DreamWorks Animation: Summer Industry Course
Character Groom
Maya | Houdini | Renderman | Substance Painter
Moonstruck Short
Our team 3D animation short made for the DreamWorks Animation Summer Industry Course 2022 at Texas A&M University. I was responsible for character grooming, surfacing (polaroid camera,
crayons, and rubik's cube), and prop modeling. I studied under the mentorship of Megan Walker (Character Surfacing Supervisor) and Alex Timchenko (FX Supervisor), and Caleb Kicklighter (Texas A&M Professor).
Character In Scene
Animation Short Layout/References
Logline: A wolf toy awakes and follows flickering lights towards the glowing moon-lit nighttime sky.
Setting: Treehouse in the 1980's
Main Character: Wolf Stuffed Animal (Fur is Worn, Matted, Fluffy)
Groom Progress - WIP
This was the initial groom. After receiving feedback on it, I adjusted my workflow which allowed for more control on getting the directionality to work.
For the groom, I am using Houdini and tube grooming to create realistic short-fur on our stuffed animal. Throughout the process, I have been receiving feedback from Megan Walker on how to create the look we are trying to achieve. The workflow is using Houdini to generate the fur and Lama Surface to shade it.
Throughout the process, I worked on trying to make him appear more fluffy like a stuffed animal. I added in clumping on him to mimic the real-world material. I also, removed some areas of harsh pinching to make the fur more realistic.
Substance -> Houdini Workflow
The general workflow I am following is creating density masks in Substance Painter and then importing the UDIM masks into Houdini. From there, I am generating the fur and then directing the fur using Guide Process nodes and noises in the Attribute Vop node.