Shark Bait
In March 2022, I had the opportunity to compete in the 48-Hour Animation Blitz, an annual competition put on by the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (ATEC) at the University of Texas at Dallas. Six teams of three competed to create a 6-second animation in no more than 48 hours based on a prompt which we were given at the start of the 48 hours. The prompt consisted of a piece of concept art (shown below), and an action and texture which were unique to each team ("jump" and "polka dots" for my team). We won second place.
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While my teammates and I all did a little bit of everything, my main contributions were modeling the scuba diver and jellyfish, and doing most of the surfacing.
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Our software of choice was Blender 3.0, rendered in EEVEE.
Concept Art
This was the concept art given to all the teams.
Artist: Dom Scruffy Murply (https://www.instagram.com/scruffyshenanigans/?hl=en)
Scuba Diver
Modeling, Surfacing, and Rigging
I created all of the texturing 100% procedurally within Blender's node-based shader system (except for the bottle texture, created by my teammate Christine Vo). A fake rim light/outline consisting of fresnel-driven emission was added to major parts of the character where it helped with form readability.
Jellyfish
Modeling, Surfacing, and Deformation Rigging
Similar to the Scuba Diver, the surfacing is mostly procedural, the only exception being the polka-dots, which I painted a mask for by hand. The deformation controls were each made with a Wave modifier.
"Shark Bait"
by Chris Gauthier, Christine Vo, and Andrew Duarte
Scuba Diver
Model/Texture/Surface/Rig: Chris Gauthier
Animation: Andrew Duarte
Jellyfish
Model/Texture/Surface/Procedural Rig: Chris Gauthier
Armature Rig: Andrew Duarte
Animation: Christine Vo
Monster Fish
Model/Texture/Rig: Andrew Duarte
Animation: Andrew Duarte and Chris Gauthier
Supporting Fish
Models/Textures: Christine Vo
Animation System and Animation: Chris Gauthier
Bottle and Seaweed
Model/Texture: Christine Vo
Surface/Rig/Animation: Chris Gauthier
Cage
Model/Texture: Christine Vo
Surface: Chris Gauthier
Animation: Andrew Duarte
Bubbles
Chris Gauthier
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Layout
Chris Gauthier
Shader and Look Development
Chris Gauthier
Background
Christine Vo
Lighting
Christine Vo