Almost a Boss Fight
Almost a Boss Fight was my quarter-long project for my Previs class. We started with a concept and worked our way through a beat sheet, storyboard, animatic, and finally the finished product.
The goal of this class wasn’t to create a fully rendered project. Instead, we focused on creating something that could be handed off to another animator and still be clear enough for them to understand, improve, and build upon.
For this assignment, my main goal was to demonstrate my ability to integrate a 3D asset with live-action footage. I wanted to focus on making the two elements feel like they belonged together while also telling the same story I established in the original concept.
Originally, we had a full minute for the project. About halfway through the process, we were told to cut 15 seconds, which meant reworking the project into a 45-second video. Even with the shorter runtime, I was able to tell the same story from my original concept.
If I had more time to continue developing the project, I would put more focus on the bricks falling off the beast. The bricks are an important part of how the creature ultimately falls apart at the end, and I think giving that moment more attention would make the ending feel stronger.
Overall, this project gave me a chance to work through the entire previs process while also experimenting with combining live-action footage and 3D elements. It was a great experience in learning how to communicate an idea visually while leaving room for the project to be developed further.
For my breakdown, I chose to focus on Scenes 4 and 9. The 3D model used in these scenes was created in Mecabricks. The design was based on a real LEGO set, which I recreated using the digital LEGO bricks and tools available in Mecabricks.
Once the model was finished, I downloaded it and imported it into Blender, where I animated and rendered the scenes using Cycles. After the renders were complete, I brought the clips into Nuke to begin the compositing process. In Nuke, I worked on integrating the 3D renders with the live-action footage and adjusting the colors so the elements felt more connected to the environment.
These two scenes show the process of taking a digital LEGO model from its initial creation in Mecabricks through Blender and finally into Nuke for compositing and integration.
