Above is an updated version with different shot angles, adjusted animations on dragon, and playblasted within maya using Arnold textures and lighting.
Here Be Dragons
Animated in Maya
Rendered in Maya with Vray
Models & Rig: Mad Graham by Kiel Figgins, Jaemin Dragon by Troung CG Artist.
Environment: Medieval Catsle Kit from Render Crate
Breakdown Process
My first approach to this was similar to completing a bird’s flight cycle. Gathering references, with the love for high fantasy, I was inspired by movies like the “Lord of the Rings,” “The Hobbit”, “How to train your Dragon”, and “World of Warcraft” cinematics.
Taking elements from these films and cinematics, I compiled those shots together and began to story board the major beats with images. After the storyboard was cohesive I began to work on the dragon flight cycle.
Approaching the cycle first would get one of the more challenging things out of the way, animating a fantasy creature. I watched flight cycles on birds of prey, bats, and other dragons animated by artist. Once the cycle was complete I would create a new scene to reference this animation.
Breakdown Process
The next part I wanted to try my hand at animating the barrel roll into a back dive that is inspired by the World of Warcraft, Dragon Flight cinematic. I set up the environment and then I created a nurbs curve as a motion path for the dragon to attach to. Once the speed of the dragon was finalized on the curve I would go in and create the poses, overlaps, and more natural feeling mechanics for the barrel roll and dive.
The camera work was a bit challenging as it played a huge role keeping the audience engaged, making sure its not noticed, affecting the feel and speed of the animation, and making sure it was not having a jarring affect. Thankfully I had Mauricio Hoffman and Hunter Grant as my teachers to guide me through the process of how to make things work and why. Making sure the dragon always led the camera and there were no “ping-pong” motions happening with the camera, abrupt stops, or anything too jarring.
Animating the fly by and landing was much easier, just making sure that speed, energy, screen space, composition, and poses of the dragon were cohesive enough to the previous shot.