Pre-Production

This character sketch, by Wyatt Hollister, was used to guide the modeling of the aliens in Maya. During this first stage of the animation pipeline, I used Adobe Premiere Pro to assemble an animatic video with sounds effects and static storyboard drawings.

Modeling and Rigging

I modeled the meshes for the alien characters, as well as assets including the clipboard, cacti, buttes, and tree. I sculpted the alien’s head in Mudbox, then constructed a high-fidelity face mesh using Maya’s “Quad Draw” tool. I also built the skeletons and controller rigs to be used in the animation of the full alien bodies, and created “blendshapes” to facilitate animations of facial expressions.

Shading

I shaded the aliens and several assets. The color, bump, and roughness textures were created in Substance Painter and Photoshop, and combined using RenderMan shaders.

Animation

Some of the animations I worked on include the truck stopping in the desert and the delivery man walking and handing off the package. I also animated several shots of the aliens, including the mechanical part being grabbed and lifted out of the package, as well as facial expressions and eye motion.

Lighting and Post-Production

The atmosphere of a desert at dusk was achieved through RenderMan lighting, as well as compositing of the final renders onto some beautiful backgrounds, painted by Brian Lo. Dust, smoke, and abduction effects were also composited in Adobe After Effects. Finally, I edited the sound design to match the final cut of the movie.