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THE CALL

Software :  UE4 | Maya | ZBrush | Substance Painter | Procreate

Role :  Director | Environment Artist | Modeler | Rigging Artist | Animator

Team Size :  1 ( Solo Project )

Project Duration :  3 Months 

Brief

The Call is a 3D animated short film talking about family affection. In this film, a phone call carries the old man's miss of his daughter and the dog's concern for the old man. The film is my personal work and it won The Third Prize of the 6th Beijing College Students Animation Design Competition.

Inspiration

The film's inspiration comes from my thoughts on the relationship between parents and children nowadays. As the younger generation leaves home and struggles for their future, more and more older
generations are undergoing empty nest lives. They feel lonely and become sensitive. What they need most is not the material wealth, but the love conveyed from children's contacts from time to time.

Character Design

Using silhouette helps me find interesting character's outer shape in a very short time

The square face can show the old man is a little bit stubborn and it's hard for him to express emotions

The clumsy dog is the only one who accompanied the lonely old man

Storyboard

Since his daughter grew up, the old repairman lived alone at home, and the only one who accompanied him was a little black dog raised by his daughter. After the daughter left, the old man became depressed, and every day he expected that his daughter would call and talk to him about recent situation, but more frequent calls were about the repair work outside. The old man became more and more silent. Even if he saw the dog trying to play with himself, he often can't lift his spirit. The days go by, until a strange thing happened in the house caught the old man's attention. He found that when he came back, the house was always messed up by the dog, and the telephone receiver was knocked over to the ground every time. He seemed to understand something, and he entered his cell phone number into the telephone, then removed all the buttons to leave only the redial button. Sure enough, when the old man went out again, he received a call from his home. After the call was connected, there was the dog’s excited gasp from the other end of the phone. The old man finally smiled with tears, and a warm stream rushed into his heart.

*Note : the final video only contains parts of the story marked with yellow text

Working Process

The basic tone of the room is warm, which is more suitable for the soothing rhythm of the whole story. meanwhile, this closed space also gives people a feeling of depression.

there are many 20th century furniture in the room, as well as many repair tools and old paper boxes.

Environment

Layout

Reference

Environment 1

Environment 2

Sculpting and Rigging

Character Look Development

Making of

Summary

I believe a good piece of animation can impress audience of all ages and countries, so I chose to discuss the theme of family. In this project, I tried to completing the whole 3D animation process, including modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and rendering. In addition, I also focused on learning the placement and movement of the camera to better express character's emotions.

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