Memories of the Snow

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  Animals Side View in Blender

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  Mountains and Planets in Blender

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  Croc Rigging in Blender

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  Dog Walk Cycle in Blender

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  Lamb being Brushed in Blender

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  Flying Cat Painted in Substance Painter

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  Adobe Aero Location Preview

Inspiration

When I first moved out of my family home a few years ago, I was walking to the new place in the dark and suddenly it started to snow. It was the most incredible experience as it was so silent and there were only streetlights lighting the way. I started to think about how I’m always excited by snow and I think most people feel that way. I’ve had similar experiences seeing it through a window as a child and sitting on a ski slope on Christmas Day (while getting sunburnt!). I started to realise that some people will never get to see snow because of where they live and so I wanted to find a way to create an experience that could be shared and placed in different locations to recreate the feel of snow while also adding some extra magical elements that surprise and delight.

What it does

'Memories of the Snow' guides the viewer through an enchanting reimagining of what it feels like to experience snow. They are greeted by two large dogs and animals come to life by tapping the 'Tap' button next to them. Animals might dance, bounce, play, eat, or splash in puddles. There is even a cute little lamb who you can brush. The animals also have extra surprises, the lamb thanks you with hearts, the bouncing animal (I call Suus) has sparks flying around it, and the hog is messy, food flies all over the place! There are some crazy planets and some majestic mountains in the background as well as other scenic features such as a bench, a tree dropping coconuts, and a toy dispenser. When the viewer presses the last tap button, a giant dragon appears from behind the mountain, floats down from the sky, and rests in front of the mountain. Snow falls around him and two wild cats whizz about in the sky.

How we built it ## Challenges we ran into ## What we learned

Through this project, I learned that I’m really interested in animation. I mainly just make 3D models and print them or just keep them as files but this time trying out animation and experimenting with it, gives extra life to my work. I had been meaning to use Substance Painter for ages and it was great to spend a few days painting and texturing in a way that I would normally do with physical objects. I actually was quite surprised with how much I got done within the short space of time and think that I could expand on it if I had more time, maybe more particles, but you can always do more. I built the project using Blender, I’ve been using Blender for a few years and it’s just reliable. I made most of the animations in there which meant I had to rig the animals and then keyframe their movements. I had to do this for several other items including the planets. I don’t normally rig things as I find it too hard but it was easier to rig the animals versus rigging humans which is what I normally do. The dog animation is the first animal walk cycle I’ve ever done, it definitely needs adjustment but I think it’s quite quirky and almost looks like stop-motion animation. The snow took a few iterations to get the look I wanted. Lots of keyframing strips of snow and then getting them to fall at different speeds. I think I might like animation after all. I also really enjoyed making the brush for the lamb, the brush movement looks really natural and I think the design is similar to a fancy Mason Pearson brush. I wanted the textures to look like a 3D print I made recently that I printed in resin and coated in UV resin. It kind of had this bumpy but glossy look and I thought it was more interesting than having a smooth texture so I used the Smart Material, Fabric Suit Vintage with a Glossy White Paint Fill on top to recreate this look in Aero.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I think I'm really happy with the splash animation for the crocodile as it's been a long while since I did any form of hand-drawn animation and I didn't have a lot of time so I just went for it. I made it in Procreate and it is 14 frames in length. I'm also really proud of being able to strategically reduce the file sizes as I have so many elements but I wanted to ensure that keeping the file size low would mean that a wider audience would be able to access it. The total file is under 35MB.

What's next for Memories of the Snow

There is a breathing animation that I have for the dragon that was secondary but I ran out of time as it gets dark here at 4 pm so I had to let it go but once the dragon lands it gently breathes in and out. I would spend time adding that plus tweaking some of the animations. I think it's pretty much done and I'm really happy with the outcome which I rarely ever say about a project.

About the Video The Video can be watched in 4k on Youtube in the link provided.

Built With

• aero
• geospatial