Slip to Slumber - Animation
First iteration of the Slip to Slumber series made in Maya and Blender
Timeline
Oct 23 - Dec 23
A short animation that acts as the opening sequence about a interactive first-person game called, Slip to Slumber. The primary goal of this project was to fully explore the new medium of 3d modeling and 3d animation and translate the visuals in my head to the 3d space. In hindsight, the scale of the narrative exceeds what I can cover within 30 seconds; therefore, I was afraid it would be hard to follow for the viewers. However, I appreciate the amount of experimentation and skills I attained within the 7 weeks.
Here is the premise of the game in a short narrative: you (the player) is a new employee in this not-so-normal cafe, Sip to Slumber. After a few weeks into the job, you found out that there is more to this job than just looking after the place. During the day, it functions just like a typical tea cafe, but at night, you receive 'special visitors.' After the guest finishes their tea, they drift into a deep sleep, and you are able to enter their dreams. You navigate through the person’s subconscious realms and unveil the underlying causes of their insomnia or night terrors.
Process
First proposed storyline for the short 30 seconds animation. This animation is a proposal or an introductory film for a game I have been planning on developing. I wanted to introduce the main characters of the game and the general narrative of the game; however, I had a lot of story I wanted to untie within the short time limit. Therefore, for the first animation I decided to focus strictly on introducing each character.
Animatic was created after editing the storyboard to resemble an opening sequence of larger storyline.
Note: This was my first time articulating a 3D animation, so I searched Pixar Side-by-Sides for reference on Youtube.
Based on the animatic above, I started with the layout on MAYA using basic shapes and lighting. I wanted to roughly plan out the camerawork and position of the models. The layout process was especially important for this project because being first person perspective, the camera working was crucial for the delivery of the animation.
