A Cryptid Meet-Cute

Overview

This was my final project for Marist College's 3D Animation course that I took in the spring semester of 2022. It was animated in Blender, but I had done most of the modeling work in Maya. The project's requirements were to create a sixty second animation featuring sound effects, camera motion, & our own rigged models. I utilized a mothman model I had made earlier and added an armature to a flatwoods monster model I had made for an earlier 3D printing assignment. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and I learned a lot about the process of going from idea to storyboard to animatic to final animation. I had planned to animate mothman falling out of his perch on the tree but due to time constraints I cut it and stitched the two scenes together with a fade to black, sound effects, and a screenshake effect. Looking back at this a year later, there's a lot I would have done differently with what I know now. Regardless, I still am quite fond of this little project. 

What Would I Do Differently?

This being a final project for a college course, I wish I had more time to work on it. I wanted the Flatwoods Monster to appear alien in her movements but watching this back now I think she comes off more rigid than I would have liked. With more time I would add more polish to her movements, like adding more neck and head movement to the animation of her turning around around the 0:40 mark. There was more I could have done to bring more life to her character without going as far as I did with the Mothman model.

I also would have put more time into the environment if I had more time. It was mostly constructed out of game assets but I would have loved to have constructed a more detailed, higher poly environment to match the characters.

Models Breakdown