Romanian cross stitch

Traditional Romanian stitching patterns and other motifs I looked to incorporate in my designs. I wanted my work to truly communicate the ethos of that culture and speak the most primal traditional language, that of the symbolic embroidery. These patterns in themselves stand for different elements of the countryside life and put together tell stories of the local customs.

Traditional symbols from different regions in Romania

“Light and warmth, wealth and hospitality, were symbolized with the help of the yellow color — a symbol of fruitfulness and richness of the earth.”

–Behind the Colours of Romania

You will find that these symbols and colours were adapted to suit the identity of each Forest Child in the flashback section of my short.

 

VR as an experience

“The canvas of virtual reality cannot be the external world—it has to be your body.”

https://www.wired.com/story/jaron-lanier-vr-interview/#

http://www.abigailayersart.com/blog/2019/1/28/12719-quill-to-unreal

Oculus Medium, Google Tilt Brush, and how virtual reality is redefining traditional art making.

“The caliber and quality of the work that’s being made with Medium has far exceeded even what I thought the tool was capable of.” Medium founder Brian Sharp

Some of the more technical processes were achieved with the use of resources like these:

How to Open Quill FBX exports in Maya

ADJUST YOUR VR PAINTINGS COLORS IN MAYA WITH THIS UBERSHADER

Unreal Engine: Is there any way to import vertex colors?

Jess’ UE4 Tutorials

Unreal Engine 4 Stylized Rendering Workflow

Learn how to render your Quillustrations using UE4

I didn’t start the project with my mind necessarily set on Quill, but doing some research and comparing it with other VR software, I reached the logical conclusion that it has the best tools. I have not been proven wrong yet. Since I started the project, Quill has received 2 updates, one of which was a game changer!

Alternatives to Quill by Story Studio

Stylised painting for 3D

Here are a few examples of projects that inspired my artistic approach to the Lost Forest animation.

How these 3 video games created their striking handmade look

Amanda Cheng ⇓

https://amandacheng.artstation.com/projects/gmBWG

https://stylizedstation.com/article/world-of-warcraft-texture-painting-philosophy/

I found The Saga of Bjorn to be a beautifully inspiring short. Loved the story, style and animation overall! It has the same painterly style that I was going for in my short animation and I would have built the hair in a similar manner if I wasn’t doing XGen simulation.

Romanian animations

To better understand where my project fits in culturally, I watched what 3D Romanian animations I could find online. As the animation industry isn’t well developed there, it was difficult to find many animations outside of marketing.

 

Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG

Animation in Context: A Practical Guide to Theory and Making

Furniture

This is a short collection of furniture and interiors that helped me design my project environments. I was looking for a hobbit / tree gnome style with Romanian influence. As that doesn’t exist, I had to come up with my own unique look.

I took elements from hobbit inspired rooms, fairy houses and traditional Romanian cottages and put them together in a treehouse where my boy character would live.

As you can see, hobbit houses have predominantly clay coloured walls and furniture, which is quite different from the high contrast Romanian bedrooms full of bright patterns and dark wood. Because of that, I struggled to find a balance that wouldn’t compromise the cultural influence or story continuity.