Making of 'Balloon Tale'

3d animation

This is the behind-the-scenes look at our first try at making a 3d animation. We used 3ds Max and V-ray for the whole project, rendered with the help of a small render farm and lots of trial and error.

Storyline: Suddenly lost in a grim unfamiliar place, a discarded toy balloon unexpectedly becomes the source of happiness to a lonely young girl.

Pre-production

Our storyboard rough sketch.

animation storyboard

Character drawings

animation storyboard

Story animatic. All done in Toon Boom Studio.

2d animatic

Mood and color sketches

character color sketch

Production

Modeling, texturing, and rigging.

3d character models 3d car models

Environment modeling and texture

3d character models

Animation

We used 3ds Max' bone system for facial animation and CAT system for body animation.

3d animation

Testing out the face and body rigging systems. Some facial expressions and walk cycle trial and errors.(Click image for video clip)

3d animation walk

Animating the balloon. We used 'spring magic' 3ds Max script for the balloon's string animation. Source: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/spring-magic

3d animation balloon string

Post-production

Compositing everything from image sequences with Adobe After Effects. Color grading and sound effects were kept at minimal.

3d character models 3d character models

And now the final movie (click image below to see the video):

Balloon Tale