A puppet and a mechanical butterfly, soulessly suspended in darkness. But when given a glimpse of hope, they begin to move. Reaching out not only to exist, but to live.
Concept & Inspiration
The idea behind A Reach Towards Life goes back to a Holloween Sketch I did about 2 years ago. It is about a lifeless puppet sitting on a spool, wondering about life.
Butterfly, a symbol of life and hope, yet mechanical and emotionless. The design is inspired by Eva Pringault, redesigned to match the style of the puppet.
Lighting & Compositing Breakdown
Puppet Breakdown
Butterfly Breakdown
Scripting - AI Experimentation
Curve Points Randomizer
In order to create the natural look of threads on a spool, Chatgpt was used to generate a MEL script which allows users to randomize Curve Points to create a more naturalistic look of the thread in spools.
Achievement & Award
Best of Term in Spring 2025
Texturing & Shading
See the animation from the official Gnomon website here
Credits
Responsible for all aspect. Rigging by Jie Chen
Software Used
Maya
Substance Painter
Vray
NukeX
Zbrush
Marvelous
Designer
Photoshop
DaVinci
Resolve