Demo Reel Breakdown

1. I Need My Monster Student Short Film: Jan 2013-May 2014

Software Utilized: Autodesk Maya, Arnold Renderer, ZBrush, Mudbox, Motionbuilder, Photoshop, After Effects

Responsible for: Lighting, Rendering, and Compositing. This film is based on the children's book called "I Need My Monster." I'm showcasing the Lighting that I worked on throughout the film. I'm also responsible for creating color scripts for the film to ensure continuity from one sequence to the next. I completed many jobs such as story boarding and character shading supervisor, but I am most proud of the final renders achieved with my lighting. It was important for me to achieve lighting that was condusive with the visions of our director I worked closely with the director to ensure that continuity.

2. Passages Wallpaper: May 2013-Jan 2014

Software Utilized: Autodesk Maya, Mental Ray, ZBrush, Photoshop, After Effects

Responsible for: All elements. This piece was inspired by an illustration. This project gave me a lot of trouble such as long render times, difficulty with flickering and making multiple aspects "fit" together in the scene. Using mental ray I was able to simplify the scene and render out the objects in separate passes which took my render times from around 3 hours (with all objects assembled) to 20 minutes when rendered separately. I used a combination of Particle systems and stock footage to create volume objects and achieve extra depth in the scene.

3. Groggy Cello Lighting: Dec 2013-Jan 2014

Software Utilized: Autodesk Maya, Arnold Render, After Effects

Responsible for: Lighting, Rendering, and Compositing. In this shot I was responsible for lighting, rendering, compositing, and character shading. I downloaded an open source character named Groggy, a very Quasimodo type character. My main goal was to take this guy and use only lighting to bring appeal and a sense of delight to this image. I used Arnold as the render Engine and modeled/shaded the cello that is out of focus.

4. "Max 3D Comic Book” Jan-Feb 2014

Software Utilized: Autodesk Maya, Arnold Renderer, After Effects, Photoshop, Zbrush

Responsible for: All Apsects. One big suggestion that I received when sending my reel to industry professions was to find some beautiful artwork and replicate it in 3D with not just characters, but environments as well, and to concentrate on that integration. I achieved the illustrative style through the use of procedural textures used in areas like diffuse colors and specular colors to create “sketchy” illustrative surfaces to capture the style in the artwork.  They eyes were the most important aspect so I spent the most time on them making sure that you could relate with Max at a greater level.

5. Bonnie "Cello Player:" Nov 2013-Dec 2014

Software Utilized: Autodesk Maya, Arnold Render, Photoshop, After Effects

Responsible for: Lighting, Rendering Compositing, and Animation. I've spent a lot of time tweaking the animation on this project. The lighting reference scenario was based off of a live concert and I found the use of practical lighting to be beautiful enough to replicate in 3-D. Using Arnold Render engine it was difficult to transfer all the shaders from Mental Ray (default Character) into the Arnold shading network. This sequence was rendered on one 16 core machine overnight and composited with volumes in aftereffects.

6. "Plant Creature” Feb 2014

Software Utilized: Autodesk Maya, Arnold Render, Photoshop, After Effects, Shave and a Haircut

Responsible for: All Aspects. Upon looking for more artwork to replicate, I found this beautiful piece of a small plant creature walking over a moss ridden log. I was instantly intrigued by the simplicity of the design as well as the volumetric light. Arnold Render has a good grasp on volumetric lights so I was able to achieve the god rays effect by simply creating a plane with faces missing. It was a quick and easy way to affect the light in an interesting way. There were a totally of 5 million hairs (with grass and little leg fuzzies) created through shave and I had to really optimize my scene so that I wouldn’t hit a ram cap.