Team Liquid Keycaps

3D alienware blue Computer futuristic Gaming keyboard keycaps keys team liquid

Team Liquid x key company Keycaps

I had this amazing opportunity to be apart of this project with Team Liquid and Key Company. Originally the plan was to create a minimalistic product ad highlighting the key caps however I pitched this idea which would provide the viewer with experience. Adverts are meant to not just show the product but show the consumer what it can do for them, in this instance these keys have the power to take your PC set up to the next level. Made solely using CGI I had to be a director, 3D artist, cinematographer, editor and sound designer to create this project within a really tight deadline, one week. Excluding Render times it took me around 84 hours to create the project where I had to use my skills in storytelling, animations, cloth simulation textures and cinematography in able to create this work.

STILLFRAMES

concept

I wanted the room to be clean and modern however it must be recognizable enough to the viewer as an office/ gaming room but more importantly, the room must have elements a team Liquid Fan would notice I.e Valorant Team Montage Poster, Blue Plushie, Alienware PC and Secret Lab chair. The music is chosen to guide and enhance the piece creating everything from scratch means music is a huge inspiration for me and really inspired me in the initial stages.

Assets/modeling/textures

Assets that were already part of the Liquid and keycap brands such as Alienware hardware, the Liquid chair and the keycaps were provided to me and I had Devin draw the sketches for me which I then put into the 3D environment. Due to the time limit, I found most of the big assets in the room like the desk and sofa pre made and modelled the smaller objects myself. If you want to see how I modelled the Blue Plushie look here. The biggest tip I can give to anyone creating realistic environments is to add imperfections and flaws to the assets. The walls, table, keys, papers everything needed different types of specular, roughness, bump and displacements. Even the Key Caps which are meant to be shiny and new I added a tiny bit of bump, dust particles and hair to have some sort of realism into it. For lighting, I used shape, noise and volumetric lights primarily in my project and ofc add blue and white lights to match Liquids brand.

Animations/Clothing

The hoodie was made in MD and is actually a model I had leftover from a side project I did just for fun after being inspired by the creativity in the Liquid Apparel. Adding this to the project helped with creating the realism and tying the character into the Liquid Brand. I used wind with some turbulence to make the cloth move while the body is floating in space. I am still learning animation and appreciate that really great animation can take weeks to look realistic and with the limitation of time I had to be clever with the movements I would make. For reference, I filmed myself to understand how our hands look and move while touching a keyboard. I also made the movement lighter to imply a ‘feminine touch’ (this is to make the woman’s hoodie I had modelled) although in the final product the character is pretty androgynous. The hardest part was going to make the ‘flying animation’ due to the time crunch I decided to use a mixamo animation and then manipulate it so I had the backbone of the movement but I adjusted it to how I wanted it.