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Croaked! is an award-winning film about a lonely crow detective investigating the murder of a frog.
I directed a team of ten to bring the 3-minute animated story to life. My responsibilities included: writing the script, illustrating concept art, establishing 3D camera layouts, animating several shots, editing the weekly animatics and final film, assigning weekly tasks for everyone, providing feedback with detailed draw-overs, co-leading meetings with the producer, and more.
PITCH
I developed a short presentation to explain the story, characters, and overall mood of the film.
CONCEPT ART AND MODELS
As you can guess, a lot changed after the initial pitch!
Once the film was greenlit, I assembled a team, began writing the script, made 3D layouts, and created several concepts and models to capture the look and feel of "New Yolk City".
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ANIMATION
After we finished 3D camera layouts, I was responsible for animating eleven shots from blocking to polish. In total, my shots took up around one-third of the film's length. All animation was done in Autodesk Maya.
​Below are some of my favorites. Please refresh the page if they do not appear!
I utilized a mixed-media approach to accomplish the frog "gross-up" splash frame. First, I sculpted the model out of clay, then I painted it with gouache and acrylic paint. While the sculpture was still drying, I brought a photo of it into Procreate and digitally painted over it. After the digital paintover was finished, I composited the frog into the 3D scene and sent it down the pipeline to be color-graded by John Oleniacz.
FX, LIGHTING, AND COMPOSITING
During the post-production stage, I was responsible for lighting, rendering, and compositing multiple shots. We used Nuke for compositing.
​Below are some of my favorites:
I was responsible for a few FX in the film. I animated them in Procreate, except for the explosion, which was simulated in Blender.
​Below are some of my favorites:
In the film, various items are emphasized with a sketchy outline. I was responsible for creating the scribble lines in every shot they appear in, and I developed a process to achieve this unique look.
First, I would bring the required animation from Maya to Blender as Alembic files. In Blender, I added grease pencil outlines to the props and exported the lines as transparent image sequences. Then I added additional distortions in After Effects. Finally, these lines were composited in Nuke over their shots.
Here are a few examples of the lines isolated from the animation:
MORE INFO
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