Idea machine
The Cheese Factory 8 seconds of loopable animation was created in 12 days from ideation to finished renders for Yellow Mouse Studios, UK.
Nov 1 | Brief from YMS
Of a "cute" factory /machines with simple moving parts, conveyor belts, maybe a few cogs turning or pistons going up and down. maybe a few lights popping on and off. (Easy with the glow functions in evee, maybe?)
Your cheese idea was cool. I liked that a lot.
Candy colours, possibly candy versions of my logo colours.
Nov 2 | Ideation and Thumbnails
Cheese as a power source. a. As a engine block that goes into a car b. As a battery that makes the eyes of the robot glow (switch on)
Cheese as a heart a. Makes normal things into fantastical things after inserting a cheese into it (horse turns to unicorn)
Cheese as a coin that we put into a wending machine which is full of fantastical things and one object falls down
Playing around with Penrose triangle / impossible triangle / visually like monument valley game. The sides of the triangle are conveyer belts and each corner has a tower.
Cheese as treasure a. Having assorted cheese in a treasure chest. Going all King Arthur mode on this.
Feedback: Elaborating on the 4th idea for now.
Its an impossible rectangle of sorts. The source is like a gum-ball machine with cheese in it.
one cheese cube rolls out on the conveyor belt and enters through the first box. There are three boxes it passes through before going back to gumball contraption.
Every time the cheese travels through a box shaped contraption it changes shapes.
So first time we see it as cheese,
The second time we see it as a horse,
The third time we see it as a unicorn.
And it goes back to the gumball tower.
Proof of Concept
sketched the idea and searched online for potential existing tutorials/add-ons to create an impossible geometry inspired from monument valley experience.
Found a Blender Add-on called Paradox tools.
Research
researched online to find authentic/unique landmark of the city.
including google street view of the actual studio and an architectural structure called The House that Moved.
Used the design language based on the two structures to create the blocked out proof of concept.
Nov 3 | 3D Modelling
Now that the idea was approved. I moved on to modelling the first building based on a lot more references that i could find online.
This set the style and the level of detail for all the consecutive models.
Replaced the detailed model in the block out to see if it worked out as planned, or needed changes.
Nov 4-5 | Rest
After an intense creative troubleshooting and pathfinding, decided to take a break, and planned out how i would approach the rest of the project to finish on time.
Nov 6 | 3D Modelling
Modelled the central tower and rest of the background elements
Nov 7 | Rest
knowing when to stop is half the battle to keep the projects sustainable.
Nov 8 | Colour and Shader Explorations
Now that the models was approved. I moved on to colour blocking the model based on the logos of the company.
I explored slightly muted colour options from coolors.co which a fantastic website for colour palettes, but went for trial and error model by the end of it.
As shaders and lighting would affect the final colours in Blender3D.
Nov 9 | Exploring Cheese
Used booleans and remesher along with subsurface scattering to model the cheese elements of the animation.
Nov 10 | Exploring Colours
As the plan was to have both day and night scenes, tried to explore colours that would suit both lighting conditions
Nov 11-12 | Particles, Animation and Lighting + Rendering
The place holder for smoke coming out of the chimney, and the amber coming out of the shops was replaced by particle emitters.
Added glow and animation to stars, buses and other objects to finish the loop.
The entire project took 12 days from ideation to final render.
Production days - 9
Rest - 3
The 12 days also included research and learning new aspects of the software for the first time.
The final concept tries to show the evolution of an idea as it is shipped out of the studio.
A simple block of cheese refines into a horse, which further develops into an unicorn as it boards the iconic double decker from Devon.
The vertical central tower is a slice of how the studio building actually looks.
Hope you liked the final output.
As the impossible geometry is a camera trick, there was a visible cut in the central tower that was easily fixed in post as the camera was static.
DAY 13 REST !!
