REEL BREAKDOWN
1. Goat Plushie
This was my first time exploring X-Gen and grooming! I've been meaning to work on a grooming project, especially after working on the feature film where I first experienced Yeti and X-Gen through lighting. I wanted to start with a prop, so I chose a plushie! I gathered some references for this character and created a mixed design of different goat plushies I found online. It was a very fun project to get started with grooming, and it was also an interesting project to work on from a look development standpoint, exploring more fabric shading and making sure he looked extra fluffy!
2. Passion Fruit and Mango Cheesecake
I wanted to improve my shading skills with translucent materials and SSS since it has always been one of my biggest struggles in CG. I decided to challenge myself to work on a photorealistic piece, aiming to recreate food. I chose a passion fruit and mango cheesecake because I love passion fruit! It was my first time using V-Ray and compositing mainly with shader AOVs.
3. Teleportation Device FX Test
This is the teleportation device for my thesis project! I was responsible for the look development, effects, and compositing. I started working on some basic scripts for the FX during the summer, where I was able to develop the globe simulation. I animated a noise and used SOP and VOP networks to add the particles to the surface and tweak their look.
4. Character Development
This is Gabriela Carvallho, the first human character I ever modeled! I did her character design during my Junior Year, when I was creating a personal thesis idea, "PIXO," where she was the main character. I wanted to do a project to go through the pipeline of developing a character. I was able to get familiar with Advanced Skeleton since that's how I rigged her body and face, and also learn Marvelous Designer! Once I have time, I want to revisit this project to try a little bit of character animation.
5. "Open Mind Open Heart" Short Film
"Open Mind Open Heart" is a film directed by Avery Pendleton. I worked on this project as a lighter and also helped with some environment textures. I created the lighting rigs used in both environments in the film and was also responsible for some shot lighting! I textured the lockers in one of the sets, where I was responsible for painting the diffuse map.
6. Silly Guy
The main goal I had for this project was to get familiar with procedural shading using mainly Substance Designer. I created all the base materials for the character in Designer and then used Painter to do some fine detailing.
7. Chiquito
This is Chiquito! The other main character for my thesis project is named after this little guy. I was responsible for texturing the armadillo as well as creating the whole look for the film. Additionally, I did some final topology clean-up in his skin's geometry. The modeling was done by Lesely Marroquin.
8. Steampunk Props
Created in Maya, textured in Substance Painter and Designer, and rendered in Arnold. The assets were downloaded from Substance 3D Assets. I was responsible for set dressing, texturing, and lighting. The main goal I had with this project was to create a realistic piece. Since I usually tend to do very colorful projects, I wanted to step away from that and try the opposite!
9. Stylized Props
I wanted to explore a painterly style in this project and also PBR materials. I wanted to create a balanced blend between a realistic interaction with lighting and a painterly base color. I was able to play around with metalness, roughness, and normal map values to build on top of the diffuse map without overshadowing the painted look completely.
10. Still Life
I was responsible for set dressing, shading, and lighting. This project was inspired by a painting made by Alexei Butirskiy. The colors he used captured my eye immediately, so I wanted to do my own reading on it! I wanted to combine hints of red, green, blue, and orange, but still make sure I had a balanced look.