UndAR the Sea
An AR aquarium created for Verizon Media’s Take Your Child to Work Day
The name UndAR the Sea is credited to our Project Manager Daryl. There was a list of ideas like Aquatic Grotto AR, Tiny Aquarium AR, ARquarium, etc...., but none were as fun as this one.
The Experience
UndAR the Sea was a pitch idea for Verizon Media’s Take Your Child to Work Day . It was inspired by my child who loves turtles and aquatic creatures, and anything under the sea. Thinking about all the experiences we have worked on and done, I wanted to have something to relate to the free flowing idea of pointing a camera and having the experience be a part of our own environments, and not being locked to just a specific background we create. We can have the aquarium anywhere. The First Nations project was an influence to create UndAR the Sea because of the great feedback we received on seeing the giant whale Migaloo travel through the world in AR.
I wanted this project to create that same feeling and be even busier. To keep the viewer engaged and searching for more things within the scene. Who knows, maybe there's something hidden? Aquariums have always brought intrigue to a confined set space and with that same idea you will never know what else will show up as you keep looking around and searching.
Credits
Christina Douk (Director/Artist)
Guen Goik (Head of CG /Animator)
Daryl Chong (Producer)
Prabuddha Paul (3D Artist)
Alexandra Boden (Animation Lead)
Erik Lohr (Sound Designer)
Ben Skinner (Additional Tech)
Thorsten Bux (Additional Tech)
Ricky Baba (Art Director)
Nigel Tierney (Head of Content)
Planning and Sketching
Sketch and concept
With the references from pinterest, I experimented with the shapes trying to see what characters and silhouettes come out. After running through the designs with the team, we narrowed it down to 5 main creature types, Crab, Octopus, Narwhal, Turtle, and Fishes( this one broke down to 5 fih types total too) Then if we had extra time we would be able to make color variants of the creatures.
I did quick paintovers to get the idea of what color each creature would be and where my starting point for the environment as well. This helped with visualizing the final product before the models were made. And from here we could start modeling and adjusting the look as we kept moving forward.
Some Model sheets were made to help with the 3D phase in the earlier stages. We were creating models and R&Ding at the same time it was a lot of trial and error to figure out which method worked best. So for the first several creatures it took some time to get the visual look down but this allowed for the following creatures and fishes to have a smoother process in the next weeks.
Style Choice
After a first discussion with the team we came to a conclusion to go towards a soft vinyl toy look which is something we have not done yet on a project. It was a perfect fit for this experience and made this cute little world almost feel tangible to hold and squish. With that in mind there were some stylistic choices to follow like adding seam lines as if they were manufactured, creating a material so the light reacts off of the geometry to imitate a toy look, sculpting in small details to define the shape, and adding painted designs to some areas for extra cute appeal.
Challenging the Artistic and Technical limits
Artistic Direction > Technical Limitation
Technical issues tend to always inhibit us from thinking about how much we can actually show in a scene. With this project we flipped the switch. I did not want to have to limit the look or the design because of the medium, and instead I wanted to encourage the creativity and make time to have it all work. Of course this would all have to be a reasonable trade to get it to work. Because of past experiences we have worked on, I saw the range and ability to push our modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, and layout of the scene to see what we could get.
I love clutter. I live in clutter(not proud of that part), and I wanted to make sure that we kept to a jam packed busy environment, which in this case is what I mean for clutter. Clutter to me always tells a story, no matter what is in the room. And so I love the idea of Search and Find environments, as they are very visually appealing to me. It makes me think and ask a lot of questions of what, when, who, where, and why an object in a scene. So to jam pack this scene with as much beautiful imagery we could possibly add was a big focus on this project.
Throughout this whole process there was a lot of testing everytime we had a new technical test or model coming in, this allowed us to see the range of where the experience file size would be and because of the constant checking throughout the project, that allowed us to adjust and be within budget the whole time. There were some hiccups at the end, but I'll go through those more in depth in a different section.
Materials
Creating a Material that represents Soft Vinyl
Creating this base shader allowed for us to keep the models all cohesive when texturing and made for quick execution after the first couple of models were done. This shader contains the correct roughness, height, and AO information that can easily be carried over by just applying it, changing the colors, and filling in the masks where needed. In the write up I go into detail on how to import the shader and adjust it per creature.
Creating a Material to cut lines
I made this material later on when I was working on vegetation. It came up when I noticed I had to paint cut lines for every piece of geo in the environment, and I wasn't about to do that. Creating this material was simple to add on and it saved a lot of time because it would cut lines around each UV shell. Fortunately the UVs were laid out pretty well for most of the scene which worked in my favor. For the next time if we do some vinyl toy idea again, I would implement this earlier on to save time on cutting lines and spend time focusing on getting a good UV layout.
Octopus
The wiggly and squishiest one of the bunch. A fun little octopus just practicing their jumping and falling with style
Octopus Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Narwhal
The floppiest one of the bunch. Minding their own business and cruising the sea enjoying their best life.
Main Fishes
These are in the Small/Medium creature group, which were made to add more to the ambience of the environment. They are all Geometry animated and have a 10k triangle limit with a 512px map limit. Most ended up being 256px map in the end.
fishAngler
The grumpy one of the bunch.That darn turtle! This fish just wants to sleep in peace.
fishAngler Modeled by Christina Douk
fishFancy
The elegant one of the bunch. They live in a world of just them, glamorous and fabulous.
fishFancy Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
fishHeart
The smoochiest one of the bunch. Its a heart fish that only has eyes for their their other heart
fishHeart Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
fishLong
The meditative one of the bunch. Roaming around doing their own thing bopping to the sound of their own music.
fishLong Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
fishTriangle
The swooshy ones of the bunch. This school of fishes loves to play and follow the leader.
fishTriangle Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Bonus Creatures
Bonus Creature Lineup
These were added in since we had the capacity to add some variants for little side stories.
fishHeartPink
The lovingest one of the bunch. A heart for a heart. Smooch Smooch.
fishHeartPink Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Starfish
The devious trickster of the bunch. Nothing better to do than to make a crab freak out.
Models
Main Creatures
These characters have more details, are higher resolution mesh and have a rig that is animated. They are the stars of the scene. Their budget ranges from 15k triangles to 30k for Geometry depending on their animation complexity with textures not exceeding a 1024px map
Turtle
The flippiest one of the bunch. One of my non negotiable characters on the project, and the main inspiration for creating the whole experience. This flippy spinny little one waddles and paddles around loving every moment of their life.
Crab
The snappiest one of the bunch. This fast moving little creature who lives in the cave minding their own home until they notice a funny little starfish.
Crab Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Final Project Specs
Duration: March 4th - April 22nd ( delivery on April 19th)
Animation: 480 Frame cycle
Texture files are no larger than a 1k map
Final Assets:
4 rigged characters (108 Joints Total)
Animated Geo
13 fishes
1 starfish
3 sets of bubbles
Treasure chest
2 coral
2 tall seaweeds
3 sets of seagrass
One Static Cave Environment
Programs Used: Maya, Blender, Houdini, Substance Painter, Photoshop
If you made it this far with reading, I commend you haha I didn't expect to make this 37 pages long. There's a little easter egg in the scene for the team, because you are all amazing and this experience couldn't have been made without you all. Thanks for reading!