Peach! is a story about Kiki, an energetic little monkey, who finds a giant juicy peach and is eager to have a taste of it. However, a sudden shake makes him fall into a dark forest. As Kiki gets up to look for his peach, an ominous shadow creeps upon him. Startled by the shadow, Kiki quickly turns around to discover a giant panda, Tai, standing over him and ready to lunge at him at any moment. Kiki scrambles to run away but Tai follows closely behind, making it impossible for Kiki to enjoy his peach.
Peach! has won awards at the Hobnobben Festival, Anim8 Student Film Festival, Lulea International Festival, Paris International Festival, and more! Our first award was a Gold Award at the SCAD Animation Showcase for 2021! We have also been nominated for 20+ film festivals.
My main role throughout this year-long project was Co-Producer for Peach!, but I had many other roles throughout the year, including:
Major Roles-
- Character and Environment Modeler
- Texture Artist
- 3D Environment Layout Artist
- Lighting Artist
- Rendering
- Art Book Creator
Minor Roles-
- Concept Artist
- Character Animator(minor)/ Fix Animator
- Compositor
Kiki Model and Textures
Peach! was made to be a 2D aesthetic while keeping the clean look and animation that comes from 3D animation. For Kiki, I used Zbrush and Maya for the modeling, and Substance Painter for the textures. While Kiki has one main texture, we also made textures to differentiate the body from the arms at certain angles. In this case, we made textures for each side of the body that darkened the limbs that were farther from the camera (depending on the shot.)
Peach Tree Model and Textures
The Peach tree is the first main model that you see in Peach!, so we had to make sure it stood out! For the tree, we wanted to create a very strong model that doesn't follow normal tree standards. Typically, peach trees are quite thin, with small leaves but we wanted to exaggerate the attention towards where the peach hangs from, which is at the highest point of the tree. To make the tree model and textures, I used Zbrush, Maya and Substance Painter.
Peach! Lighting/Rendering
For Peach!, I was responsible for 25+ shots of lighting, either on the characters, on the peach model or volumetric lighting(depending on the shot.) The lighting was all done through Arnold AOVs (in Maya) and comped into each shot using After Effects. We aimed to use the lighting to create a stronger distinction between the characters and the background. Lighting was also used to create the "beauty shots" in the story, like in this hug shot.
*Responsible for rendering and specific shot lighting, Composite done by Christina Su*
I was also responsible for many shot renders throughout the whole film. The rendering for Peach! was also done through Arnold AOVs, specifically the diffuse albedo AOV. For compositing, we also rendered out crypto-mattes so that we can color correct and perfect beyond what the render and textures can give. Almost every shot had renders for diffuse, emission and crypto-mattes, while some shots also got renders for volumetric lighting, character-split lighting or special cases where the background had to be rendered in layers.
WIPs of Peach! Models
These are some very early tests that were used to determine if we wanted Kiki to have normal eyelids or have simple dot like eyes. Through this and some 2D concept drawings, we determined that the normal eyelid look would allow for much stronger emotions for the film.
Model Blocking for Kiki
Concept art for Environment Assets (including the main tree),
we ended up going with another artist's concept but we liked the thick base from my concept.
Model Blocking for the Peach Tree- We went through many iterations for the tree model. At first, it started with basing it off of one very simple drawing provided by Doron Goldstein. After the first test, we decided that we wanted to create more visual direction towards the peach for the first shot, so we made the tree's overall silhouette more triangular. Later, we added the stronger swirl and twists in the large branch and limbs.
Below is a brief clip of subtle animation I did for the Peach reveal!
If you would like to see other work for Peach! or meet the crew, you can find it here!