freestyle #2
3D ANIMATED EXPLORATIONS
THE PROJECT
Freestyle is for me a capital part in the renewal of my creative process. Blender is actively developed by hundreds of people around the world. All of them are united by an interest to further a completely free and open source 3D creation pipeline. The possibilities are astonishing. 6 frames per second is bold and allows in a few keyframes to express the idea of movement.
This animation style became a trademark and is part of the identity of this graphic series.
Design, modeling, shading, lighting & animation: Thomas CHARIER.
Get them with sound on instagram!
~ 2020
surreal lotus
Freestyle as its name suggests is a purely experimental work. In this series I push my graphic research around composition and colors into a surreal exotic theme.
The creation of short loops allows me to develop a visual language with an abstract narrative as the posts progress. Each visual exist alone but also complete a story.
“get thanks, get fresh, praise the coconut”
All this work is done within Blender. The research was developed around concepts and sketches designed with GreasePencil technology.
The objective was to find the limits of the 3D creation pipeline in a single software package. This study highlights a new approach to the graphic process.
This mixture of 2D and 3D animation combine to bring the viewer into a unique universe, rich in color, on the border of the abstract.
Broken shapes disrupt figurative objects and characters. They allow me to play, assemble and decompose elements at my taste like I could do with modular graphic work.
The first intention was to experiment with contrasting colours. The result exceeded the expectations of the initial approach. The original idea was transformed into a series of tryptics mixing traditional animation and 3D composition.
“the key to sucess, rare item!”
As with any creative project, there were twists and turns throughout the production process. I started with solid color shape without lighting to finally end up with plastic materials with pathtracing lighting.
The plastic textures remain very simple — but detailed for closeup shots — while preserving the graphic spirit of the flat areas of colors.
technical breakdown
As Freestyle #1, I pushed the creative stages into 3D space again.
For this second try at Blender’s workflow, I can say again that it’s a huge potential for animated 3D illustration. For this series I keep the animation really simple, to match my graphic intention that emphasizes composition.
This technique allowed me to draw shapes directly on a previous sculpt. I played with symetry and face curvature to create the main 3D extrudes. Then I separate surfaces (panels) with various thickness and colors.
Grease Pencil makes possible a new interaction between traditional 2D drawing and 3D meshes.
The addition of 2D animation in a 3D space is usually a recurring problem for artists as tradionnal animation is always done from the camera field of view.
Thanks to Grease Pencil I can bend these 2D animation in 3D and add an animated handmade touch to the visual.
I tend to say that people empathize more with traditional animation because of the skills it involves.
Craftmanship is key!
