This project allowed me to explore both storytelling through animation and the technical aspects of lighting and compositing.
For the audio, I used a hilarious line from Matt Damon because it felt like a perfect fit for the quirky and ironic scenario of a gorilla in a police station.
To animate this shot, I used a layered workflow. Unlike the pose-to-pose workflow, where you start by defining the key poses with most of the rig's controllers in stepped mode to create clear, readable "drawings," the layered workflow focuses on building the animation's energy and timing by working on one curve at a time directly in spline (on 1s), starting with the curve that impacts the final performance most.
At first, I didn’t try to make every part perfect—just "close enough" to adjust the timing early on. Once the main movement looked solid, I added the next set of curves and refined them as they danced together. I repeated this process until I had all the necessary controllers animated, gradually shaping the performance.
I learned a great deal about this workflow through personalized mentorships with Michal Makarewicz, a former Pixar veteran with 20+ years of experience.
For the environment, I arranged KitBash3D assets to support the shot’s final composition, ensuring the environment worked seamlessly from the camera’s perspective.
I handled the lighting and rendering with Arnold. The composition was done in Nuke, where I fine-tuned the details to achieve a cinematic look.
