Skin Shading

Using a combination of hand-drawn and procedural layers in Substance Painter, I created the skin textures of both characters. For Jon's face and hands in particular, I used light-based generators to create dry and sunburnt looking areas. I also used masked displacement layers to sculp the details on the ears, fingers, and more. I then put together a RenderMan shader network using these textures. In fact, I built a PyQt-based tool to speed up the workflow of setting up a RenderMan shader using textures from Substance Painter. In RenderMan, I added subsurface scattering to give the ears and fingers some translucency, and to make the skin more life-like overall. All textures and renders were executed in linear workflow using the ACEScg color space.

Particle Effects

I generated the sand particles for Lila's disintegration using Houdini. First, I animated multiple geometry masks in order to spread the extent of disintegration over time. I then used a POP network, first to generate particles with randomized transforms, then to simulate the particles as they flew through turbulent wind. Additionally, I generated sequences of grayscale presence textures, used to animate the disappearance of Lila's body and clothing meshes. The data from body animations, Vellum cloth simulation, and particles were transferred between Maya and Houdini via USD and Alembic cache.

Animation

In Maya, I worked on the animation of the run, hug, and disintegration sequences. From the bounce in Jon's hips to the bending of each finger, each layer of motion required iteration and attention to detail.

Lighting

I also set up most of the lighting for the hug sequence. For the shot above, three-point lighting produced the highlights on Lila's nose, the warm rim around her hair, and the soft fill on her hand. I used a small, light-linked sphere light to bring out the vibrance of Lila's ring gem. Additonally, I animated the brightness of an HDRI dome light to gradually bring on some darkness as Lila disintegrated.

Rigging

I worked on the rigging of Jon's face, mainly using blend shapes to create facial expressions. Each control drove the motion of a particular section of a lip, cheek, eyelid, eyebrow, or some other muscle in the face.

Ring Modeling and Shading

I modeled both rings, including the gem and metal components. Lila's braided ring was an exciting challenge for me, testing my hard-surface modeling skills in Maya. Like Jon's skin, I textured the rings using generators and brushes in Substance Painter, then brought these textures into a RenderMan shader.