This project was concepted, animated, compiled, and rendered in the span of around a year, working with a core team of 9, while additionally leveraging outside connections and resources to truly bring this project to life.

Some highlights of my work include:

PILL BUG TEXTURING & VFX

I textured the pill bugs and solved a key technical problem: getting a convincing mossy shell effect to work inside Unreal Engine. Mesh sampling with point scattering (PCG) wasn't compatible with the engine, and overly detailed moss models hurt performance. My solution was low-poly moss clusters strategically placed across the model, creating a Chia Pet-like final product!

PROJECT LAYOUT

I handled nearly all 3D layout for the Unreal Engine integration. I reworked imported Maya camera animations, or more often rebuilt camera movement and framing from scratch, guided by our original storyboards and adjusted only where Unreal’s environment forced changes. I also imported and placed character animations, tweaked MOCAP data, built out environmental design with our 3D assets, integrated foliage, and adjusted lighting.

MOCAP INCLUSION

Using Drexel University’s MOCAP studio, we captured a real ballerina’s choreography for our character’s final dance scene. I helped lead the shoot and did the in-Unreal cleanup that smoothed the transition between traditional animation and MOCAP data.

FIREFLY VFX

I built the fireflies’ glowing lanterns as an in-engine light source, using Unreal Engine’s node-based material graph and an alpha mask on a looping timer to create a realistic emissive effect.