Another exciting year, another thrilling collaboration with Viz! It's an absolute honor to work with such prestigious brands, including the legendary Naruto franchise.
As the director of this exciting project I had the privilege of bringing together this piece. My task was to work on the Sasuke keycaps that Team Liquid was set to release, and after my last successful keycaps project, I knew I had to exceed expectations and push my creativity to the same/new heights.
My ultimate aim was to take a fresh approach to Sasuke's unique abilities and powers, creating something innovative and different, which would not just be another item on the market but rather an inspiring piece that would engage and attract our community and fans. Speaking of fans, what's the best thing about being a Team Liquid fan? Well, you get to be part of my videos!
In our last Valorant video, we included an Easter egg featuring one of our fans. This time around, I wanted to take it even further and showcase one of our biggest fans, Kyber, in 3D! More about that down below, enjoy the behind-the-scenes!
still frames:
This project was a true technical feat, with a significant amount of geometry. This made me realized that its probably time to fully utilize houdini for rendering. The keycaps was given to me with no interior, just a block so I had to model their inside and texture it before i sent it to Joao. Joao, played a vital role in making the keycaps simulations and some smokes, especially for the first main wide shot where we had to create the effect of clouds following the blast. It was a challenging task, but Joao's expertise and attention to detail ensured that we achieved the perfect result.
While Kyber was not the main focus of the project, we knew we needed a character to serve as a trigger for the entire video. That's where Kyber came in! In order to bring Kyber to life, I had to create an outfit that matched the aesthetic of Sasuke. To make the outfit come to life, we had to ensure that both pieces, the skirt and trousers, were animated correctly before I sent the alembic model to FD so he could sim the jacket on top!
I had an idea to incorporate a jacket that we were selling into Kyber's outfit. I wanted to ensure that the jacket matched Sasuke's aesthetic again, and to make sure that everything in the video fit seamlessly with the Sasuke keycaps. That's when FD stepped in and helped bring the jacket to life. That not only looked great on Kyber but also served as an additional way to showcase our merchandise.
One of the most ambitious aspects of this project was bringing Kyber to life in 3D. We didn't have a scan of his face to work with, only a few pictures taken at different focal lengths. The process of creating Kyber's face was a long and challenging one, with constant back and forth between Xvolil and myself to ensure that we were capturing the essence of Kyber's character. Xvolil utilized both ZBrush and Substance Painter to recreate Kyber's skin, paying close attention to the photos we had to ensure that every detail was accurate. Xvolil was also in charge of creating the simulations for Kyber's hair in Houdini. In the end, all of Xvolil's hard work paid off, and we were able to bring Kyber to life and give him a special place in this project. It's these little details that make a project truly memorable and worth celebrating, and I'm excited to share this aspect of the project with our fans.
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