3D Designer and animator Jonas Nunes (currently on staff in BUCK’s Amsterdam studio) just dropped us the details for his latest short film, a charming mini-masterclass in character and timing called Somewhere Out There.
Jonas Nunes: “This personal project started with a character Catarina Alves (a senior designer at Buck) designed for a project that unfortunately never saw the light of day. I liked the look of the character so much I decided to build a little story around him.
“At the same time, I was curious to test a few procedural setups I built in Cinema 4D to achieve the folded paper look. It was working pretty well on static frames but I really wanted to see how it worked on an animated character.
“The animation should be worked in a more snappy and less smooth way, aiming for a style that could be easily achieved in the real world, making the whole set more believable.”
“I also wanted to think about the animation as something that could be built with stop-motion. The animation should be worked in a more snappy and less smooth way, aiming for a style that could be easily achieved in the real world, making the whole set more believable.
“Starting a project from scratch and committing to executing all the stages of the process from the idea, rigging, animation, compositing, etc. is already a challenge. It’s even more difficult when a large part of the project takes place in your free time after work and on weekends, which can be tiring and demotivating.
“From a technical point of view, the most challenging part was creating the rigs because it’s an area in which I don’t have much experience. Specifically, creating the rig for the wings and enabling control over their behavior, going from a bendy smooth profile to sharp edges for the moments when they unfold and fold.
“Huge thanks to Buck for all the support and a special thanks to Laurens Lammers for joining us with his sound magic.”
Watch the process reel:
Production: Goodog, BUCK
Director/Animator: Jonas Nunes (aka Goodog)
Art Director: Catarina Alves (aka itsacat)
Sound Designer: Laurens Lammers
