Kicking Around an Idea
What began as a proof of concept became our project called Turf. Over the summer, one of our Animals did some motion tests as a side project. It started simple, as a patch of grass and a soccer ball, then the grass came to life and kicked around the soccer ball. When we reviewed these fledgling renderings we immediately realized it had the potential of a great story. Bringing our imagination to an empty soccer field, after everyone was gone and the lights go out, we asked, what really happens here? And, how do we show it while capturing the speed and drama from a soccer game? With our objectives in mind we ambitiously made some more renderings in Cinema 4D. We looked at our tests. They were good. Yes, it had speed and, yes, it definitely had agility. But we also saw what was, well, a flying hairy pickle. Sure, it provided with some entertainment here at studio, but if we wanted to make our project happen, we had to reexamine our strategy. Setting aside our furry cucumber we went back to the drawing board, literally drawing.
We present you, The Flying Pickle
Sharpening the Pencils
Those initial renderings confirmed what we could technically accomplish in 3D but we had yet to find the project’s personality. It needed a character that was like the 3D model but also feels alive. And to make this happen we had to go back to basics, meaning, we had to sharpen our pencils and sketch out some character designs on paper. Looking to animals that possessed agility, speed and streamlined forms we studied images of whales and dragons. They inspired us to change the body to look more like an animal. We gave it a head, a wide midsection ribcage and a narrow end to represent a tail. The references also guided us to structure the body with a back represented by a grassy topside and a belly by the underside of dirt.
We named our character “Spike”, and gave him a grass “haircut” to fulfill his name. To give him even more personality, Spike has a distinctive stripe across his tail that is a piece of marking from the playing field. So that Spike has a buddy to play with, we created a second character called “Winger”. Winger has a skunk-like stripe mark down the length of its back. He also has a split tail so that his two flailing ends would whip around as he flew and kicked the soccer ball.
Character sketches of “Spike” and “Winger”
Brushing Grass Makes it Purty
When our character designs finally felt real, we were ready to model them in Cinema 4D. To give you some technical details on how we made the models, we used HAIR to create the grass. HAIR is an add-on module in Cinema 4D that is useful for generating grass, fur and, of course, hair. The result is a post-effect so you do not see the result until it is rendered out. Until then, the program makes lines that represent the hair or, in this case, the blades of grass. The key to making the texture look like grass is keeping the Rigid checkbox selected. It allows the hair lines to sway somewhat stiffly because, after all, a blade of grass is thicker than an actual hair. We also used the Brush tool to comb back areas in different directions. By varying the direction we mimicked the effect of luscious fur.
We wanted a rugged texture for the dirt belly. To make this we used several Noise Shaders. To make a Noise Shader, go to the Shader Properties and then add it under the Layer Shader. The black and white patterns in the Noise layers indicate the bumpiness of the dirt texture. The white areas advance and black recede into 3D space. We used several Noise layers with different settings to add randomness to the texture.
Shader settings for dirt. (Click to view enlarged screen capture.)
And what would dirt be without roots? Therefore we left some roots straggling off the underside dirt, using Cloth in Cinema 4D, where each root was a piece of cloth. When our creatures jump-start into life from the field, they pry themselves off the earth, severing the roots that ground them. We wanted a realistic root-yanking effect in this scene so we applied belts to various points on each cloth to make it spring as the root snaps apart. Then duplicated, varied the lengths and velocities of the snapback and you have a nice effect of grass being pulled off the ground. Adjusting the snapbacks took a little tweaking as our first attempt at roots had a weird spaghetti-like stringiness.
Before: Spaghetti roots
After: Non-pasta roots.
We wish you could have been there during the birth of our new creatures. Check back for the second installment of this blog on Turf when we discuss animation. Watch us make ‘em move.