CT5ANIGP - Wendigo - Production: 3D background models

University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 2 - Animation Group Project

Because I was the first one to finish my animation, and because the deadline was approaching quickly, I started working more on the backgrounds.

I started making the first scene, as I was supposed to animate it anyway.
Some of the assets, like the trees and rocks were made by the other team members, and I only had to create some textures and set up the renders.

In one of the lessons we have been told that we have strayed away from the original concept art. That was a good remark and determined me to redo some of the items. 

Render times were one of my biggest concerns. For that I had to cheat as much as possible, so for the elements further away from the camera, like trees and hills, I reduced the poly count and compensated with textures. 

3D trees:

After receiving the 3D models, I have textured them in Mudbox.

Tree planes:

I rendered the trees and used the resulting image on basic poly planes to quickly populate our backgrounds.

Ledge:

To create a little more height, which could help in hiding the lack of the actual ground plane, i created some ledges. These were mostly placed on the sides of the hunter's walking path. 

Distant Hills:

Mountains:

Sky:

Final environments:

To make sure that the continuity of the animation will not be broken, I made 4 complete environments. Those included the background elements above, but also the necessary lights. The environment's lighting changes throughout the animation so i had to carefully think about that evolution.