Sketchbook: Alex Bruno

Boogaman

Hey everyone!

I've been in my career for 10 years and in my current role for the past five as the Lead Animator - and sole animator -  at my company. On-going constraints at my company have lead to a portfolio I'm not entirely proud of and I'm here to fix that! I use Max but I'm currently in the process of learning Blender. Since I don't get constructive feedback at work or the ability to "talk shop", I'm coming here to learn, get feedback, throw out art pieces that have nowhere else to go.

Here are some recent works:

Boogaman

WIP

Boogaman

A few days ago, I decided to put together a submission for the current Pwnisher challenge. The goal is to create a sequence inspired by the final fight sequence in "Dune: Part 2". The main Fremen character will be vaulting over a stabbed Sardaukar in the middle of falling. I've never attempted anything of this scale before, let alone in Blender, so this is bound to be a great learning experience!

I've never used geometry nodes before so last night I setup a basic running crowd to understand the process. The running crowd will be mostly replaced with duels happening between Fremen and Sardaukar. The task tonight is to get the Fremen rigged and in the shot. Tomorrow, I will be setting up a variety of fight collections to begin building the battle.

Current plan:
8/22 - Rig Fremen and add collection to shot. Determine if additional mesh/texture optimization is needed.

8/23 - Add weapons. Setup multiple fight collections (at least 3). This will be done using Mixamo, for now. If I end up having additional time, I'll mocap myself.

8/24 - 1. Block animation of Sandworm, Sardaukar ships, Emperor's Pyramid, and Ornithopter.
           2. Begin working on sand FX (6 in total).

8/25 - 1. Use "Sand Solver" plugin for Sandworm path.
           2. Finish all sand FX.

8/26 - 1. Begin explosion FX for Ornithopter and Sardaukar ship. (possibly use existing VDBs for time).
           2. Animate the fight the main character interacts with.

8/27 - 1. Texture ground and light scene.
           2. Replace block out mountains with prefab assets.

8/28 - 1. Add atmospheric effects.
           2. Final check on entire sequence.
           3. Tweak then render.

8/29 - 1. Color correction.

8/30 - Submit!

Boogaman

I'm making solid progress but my timeline ended up being way off. I ran into a number of challenges and snags early on with rigging as it's my first time. While I've solved those issues, it ate a large chunk of time. This will still be finished by the submission date of Sept. 1st. I did a rough paint over in the image below, adding the sand plume to understand how the final simulation should like - both stylistically and size. 

Currently Done:
1. Background army fighting.
2. Animation of Sandworm.
3. Texturing of Sardaukar transport.
4. All VDBs for sand and explosions are gathered.
5. Background mountain assets gathered.

Tonight:
1. Continue animating the unique foreground fights the main character will be running past.
2. Continue sculpting the Sandworm.
3. Build texture for ground terrain.
4. Add displacement to ground terrain.
5. Place the mountains in the scene.

Tomorrow:
1. Finish the sandworm.
2. Finish Sandworm.
3. Place sand VDBs in scene.
4. Run sim of the sandworm destroying the transports in the distance.

If I manage to squeeze in some time, I'll add the ornithopters and missiles. Stay tuned!

Boogaman

Cutting some corners for time but I'm happy with how this is turning out, especially considering it's my first project in Blender. Doing this project last minute has been a fantastic crash course on the tool. I have a long list of items I'd like to spend more time working on but this will do for the Sept. 1st deadline.

Final Tasks:

1. Replace the main Fremen with the fixed UDIMs version.

2. Replace the temporary box swords with the Sardaukar sword and crysknife.

3. Add a whole bunch of dead Sardaukar bodies in the bare foreground.

4. Insert the footstep and body impact VDBs.

5. Create simple shaders for the skin and eyes of the main Fremen.

6. Render mountains separately to save on final render time.

6. Render and CC