MARIA & PANCHITO
"Maria Y Panchito" is a piece I hold dear to my heart. Looking at this scene brings me back to Mexico and all my happy memories of growing up there. I wanted to represent a piece of myself and my love for Mexican handcrafts as they tend to be so beautiful and bold in color. I wanted to show these my characters under a new light.
The goal was to create a night scene where Maria could be lit in beauty lighting, establishing her as the main character. I keep Panchito, the secondary character, more in the shadows as he takes a chance to approach Maria with a flower gift and conquer the ladybug for her.
My inspiration for this new lighting setup, I took these screencaps from Toy Story 3, by Pixar.
As I started learning the art of lighting for animation and its essential role in storytelling, I decided to go back and give Maria and Panchito a chance to create a story of their own.
For this new scene, I took time to consider the composition of the pieces and their relevance to their story. The goal was to create a world where the characters would fit in their own space. Therefore, creating an environment where the rest of the assets were also artisan crafts was essential.
These were the tasks for the project.
I 3D modeled and UV mapped my assets to allow the addition of the detailed textures I needed.
I used Vray material, painted some textures, and made maps in Photoshop to merge with the shader inside Maya to achieve the look of painted wood pieces.
I had to learn how to rig and pose my characters.
I created a new lighting set that could give them life and story.
I used heavy depth of field, which was also crucial in my piece to emphasize being a world of toys.
I composited in Nuke to create softness and diffusion on the characters making the look of a magical moment.
I was responsible for all aspects of this scene - concept, layout, modeling, rigging, shading, lighting, rendering, and compositing.
Software used: Photoshop, Maya, VRay Renderer, and NUKE.