This is the beginning of the sequence which shows how planets are formed. This is a mix of practical nebula effects comped with CG clumps with 2D animated faces
The small clumps and faces are just adorable! Huge shoutout to Chris O'Hara, and Erin Kim for their amazing 2D Animation for this sequence.
There were a lot of rocks, so I had to come up with a method of procedurally texturing, shading, and "stopmotion-ifying". Using a combination of Substance Designer and some clever scripting by our Technical Director Jinchul Jung, we came up with a system.
It starts with the rig, which I did the RnD for. It needed the flexibility of clay, but also the ability to combine with other rocks and grow in size. I ended up using a particle system hand-animated with clusters, then converted to geometry.
Then we did a proof of concept to test out the method and look. Because the mesh is dynamically generated, each frame had some "boil" to it. So instead of finding a workaround, we used it to our advantage and doubled down on the stop-motion look.
This system worked surprisingly well for our modest time frame and budget.
Once the clumps got big enough, we added some craters to make the scale look bigger.
Even the Storybots are stunned....
This was a very unique sequence to work on. We wanted to make the planets forming using stopmotion, but the sheer amount of animation, shooting, and compositing that would be needed would have been too much of a strain on our 2-man stopmotion team. We ended up developing a look that captured the "feel" of stopmotion, while also allowing for the aesthetic advantages that 3D Graphics provides. I think the sequence came out great!
I did the CG Technical Direction, Lookdev and Lighting for this sequence with:
Liana Krakirian - Clump 3D Rigging and Animation
Aron Bothman - Nebula Clouds Practical FX
Sarah Yoo - Lighting Help
Jinchul Jung - Scripting
Erin Kim - 2D Animation
Chris O'Hara - 2D Animation
Check out Ask The Storybots Season 03 on Netflix
(C) Netflix. I do not own Storybots.
