THE BIG DAY
My goal for this short was to create a lighthearted and endearing take on the competitive spirit, shifting the focus away from winning and instead highlighting performance as a form of personal expression. I started by creating a few sketches for the storyboard to visualize how to set up the scenes. I decided to split the plot into two parts, preparation and performance, to create intrigue and build suspense leading up to the final act. I have never been too fond of the realistic animation style, so I knew that I wanted each visual component to be a bit more stylized. I decided on a cartoony looking avatar for Fred and used Blender to create two outfits for him—one for his preparation and another for the performance.
The main settings in the short are Fred’s home, specifically his bedroom and outdoor porch, and the competition grounds. Each setting was custom-made in Unreal Engine using a mix of modelling tools, downloaded assets, and my own Blender files. For his house, I used a neutral color palette paired with small decor and green plants to give the place a serene feel before heading off into the competition grounds. There, the energy is a bit more stimulated and built with grandeur in mind. I used tall bleachers, an elevated stage, and a large “BIG DAY” sign to emphasize the pressure of performing on stage.
All of the animations used in the short are from Mixamo, with the exception of the balance beam routine. The beam routine was made in a motion capture studio with an Optitrack camera system and then brought into Autodesk MotionBuilder to retarget the animation and make edits before transposing it onto Fred’s body. I realized later that the routine of movements I recorded were a bit difficult to translate onto a non-humanoid avatar (hoping this can be fixed in the second iteration!), hence the staggering between movements.
After preparing the assets, avatars, and animations, the final step was putting them together in Unreal Engine’s sequencer. I used a system of virtual cameras to create different shots for each scene—by repeatedly adjusting and testing the positions of the cameras using keyframes, I was able to create shots that matched the tone of the plot. The house scenes were relatively simple in relation to the latter half where the energy begins to ramp up and the movements become more dynamic. The last few scenes also required the most amount of assets which caused me to rely on hacky methods to move them out of the way during certain shots (ex: toggling the visibility of the bleachers and audience on and off during side shots of the balance beam) and figuring out how to animate multiple avatars for the audience in a staggering manner, such that it gave the illusion of confused spectators.
From there, all the scenes were stitched together in Adobe Premiere and overlaid with a bit of last minute audio as a final touch. The songs/sounds were as follows: beeping sound effect for beginning alarm clock, “Here Comes the Sun” (Instrumental) for the wake up sequence, “The Flower Called Nowhere” for the exercise routine, “Challengers Main Theme” for the competition grounds reveal, “The Embassy Waltz” for the beam routine, cheering/clapping for concluding scene. This project is currently in its first iteration and will be further developed to include minor scene changes, colored avatars for background characters, sound, and fixed animation bugs. Check back soon for an updated version.
This work was created under the guidance of Todd Bryant at NYU.
Using: Unreal Engine, Blender, Mixamo, MotionBuilder, OptiTrack Motion Capture, Premiere Pro