Part 1 - My involvement here was helping on the animation pipeline side. As well as any animation rigging that was required.
Part 2 - This was one of my episodes. This was a lot of fun. For this I modified the ship to appear derelict as well as lighting the entire scene and working on the VFX using existing sprites.
Part 3 - I mainly supported with the animation pipeline side of things as well as implementing the handheld camera.
Part 4 - Support on the animation pipeline side with the characters animated camera.
Part 5 - One of my episodes. I worked on all the shots as well as taking care of the animation pipeline. The Ambulance scene was passed to another artist.
Part 6 - Support on the animation pipeline as well as rigging the crabs!
Part 7 - Another episode I worked on. In this I also animated the vehicles and re-used my cyclone rig from the Mercury projects.
Part 8 - One of my episodes. This was a fun one as I was able to dress and light the ship and the hangar.
Part 9 - Support on the animation pipeline side and initial blocking.
Part 10 - I worked on the expo hall and supported on the animation pipeline side on the rest.
Up until here the Carrack trailer was my favourite project. However this topped it by a long way!
During this project I was given the opportunity to look after the animation pipeline and how it interfaced with the cinematics team from initial previs and layout all the way to polish!
The high number of moving parts was combined with a fun script and some fantastic work from everyone involved, making it a blast to work on!
Here is a breakdown of my involvement.
Motion Capture:
Scene blocking and layout - Blocking out all of the scene with scratch audio and placement then running by directors for blocking approvals.
Volume Study - Figuring out how to shoot everything and stitch together in one unbroken take. Working closely with the CIG Mocap team to map out all the environments for the stage so the actors had a 1:1 representation of the virtual space.
Virtual Cameras - Many of the scenes were filmed with a "handheld" camera. For this we tracked a prop the size of a small camera which I ensured matched up with the characters in the game engine.
Pipeline:
A big role I had was figuring out the practical "how are we going to get this done" side of the animation pipeline. Working closely with three separate animation teams (body/face/mocap) to ensure that everything is clearly labelled so that no cine designers had to think about what was required and that all assets were delivered in the most efficient way possible.
In many cases much of the animations had to be stitched together before clean-up, this was also something I was responsible for.
Animation:
In places I did some minor clean-up for the body and face eyelines. I also fixed up the animated cameras, which used the motion capture data where needed,
On the animation side I also created many animation rigs for the various props and environments that the characters interact with (I found a lot of joy in Jax leaning on a railing in episode 10!). Oh yes, I also rigged the crab for animation!
Cinematics:
I was tasked with working on episodes 2, 5, 7, 8 and the expo hall parts of 10. Which consisted of the usual blocking, lighting, vfx and environment work!