UndAR the Sea
An AR aquarium created for Verizon Media’s Take Your Child to Work Day
UndAR the Sea was a pitch idea for Verizon Media’s Take Your Child to Work Day . It was inspired by my child who loves turtles and aquatic creatures, and anything under the sea. Thinking about all the experiences we have worked on and done, I wanted to have something to relate to the free flowing idea of pointing a camera and having the experience be a part of our own environments, and not being locked to just a specific background we create. We can have the aquarium anywhere. The First Nations project was an influence to create UndAR the Sea because of the great feedback we received on seeing the giant whale Migaloo travel through the world in AR.
I wanted this project to create that same feeling and be even busier. To keep the viewer engaged and searching for more things within the scene. Who knows, maybe there's something hidden? Aquariums have always brought intrigue to a confined set space and with that same idea you will never know what else will show up as you keep looking around and searching.
Credits
Christina Douk (Director/Artist)
Guen Goik (Head of CG /Animator)
Daryl Chong (Producer)
Prabuddha Paul (3D Artist)
Alexandra Boden (Animation Lead)
Erik Lohr (Sound Designer)
Ben Skinner (Additional Tech)
Thorsten Bux (Additional Tech)
Ricky Baba (Art Director)
Nigel Tierney (Head of Content)
The name UndAR the Sea is credited to our Project Manager Daryl. There was a list of ideas like Aquatic Grotto AR, Tiny Aquarium AR, ARquarium, etc...., but none were as fun as this one.
Style Choice
After a first discussion with the team we came to a conclusion to go towards a soft vinyl toy look which is something we have not done yet on a project. It was a perfect fit for this experience and made this cute little world almost feel tangible to hold and squish. With that in mind there were some stylistic choices to follow like adding seam lines as if they were manufactured, creating a material so the light reacts off of the geometry to imitate a toy look, sculpting in small details to define the shape, and adding painted designs to some areas for extra cute appeal.
Sketch and concept
With the references from pinterest, I experimented with the shapes trying to see what characters and silhouettes come out. After running through the designs with the team, we narrowed it down to 5 main creature types, Crab, Octopus, Narwhal, Turtle, and Fishes( this one broke down to 5 fih types total too) Then if we had extra time we would be able to make color variants of the creatures.
I did quick paintovers to get the idea of what color each creature would be and where my starting point for the environment as well. This helped with visualizing the final product before the models were made. And from here we could start modeling and adjusting the look as we kept moving forward.
Some Model sheets were made to help with the 3D phase in the earlier stages. We were creating models and R&Ding at the same time it was a lot of trial and error to figure out which method worked best. So for the first several creatures it took some time to get the visual look down but this allowed for the following creatures and fishes to have a smoother process in the next weeks.
Challenging the Artistic and Technical limits
Artistic Direction > Technical Limitation
Technical issues tend to always inhibit us from thinking about how much we can actually show in a scene. With this project we flipped the switch. I did not want to have to limit the look or the design because of the medium, and instead I wanted to encourage the creativity and make time to have it all work. Of course this would all have to be a reasonable trade to get it to work. Because of past experiences we have worked on, I saw the range and ability to push our modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, and layout of the scene to see what we could get.
I love clutter. I live in clutter(not proud of that part), and I wanted to make sure that we kept to a jam packed busy environment, which in this case is what I mean for clutter. Clutter to me always tells a story, no matter what is in the room. And so I love the idea of Search and Find environments, as they are very visually appealing to me. It makes me think and ask a lot of questions of what, when, who, where, and why an object in a scene. So to jam pack this scene with as much beautiful imagery we could possibly add was a big focus on this project.
Throughout this whole process there was a lot of testing everytime we had a new technical test or model coming in, this allowed us to see the range of where the experience file size would be and because of the constant checking throughout the project, that allowed us to adjust and be within budget the whole time. There were some hiccups at the end, but I'll go through those more in depth in a different section.
Materials
Creating a Material that represents Soft Vinyl
Creating this base shader allowed for us to keep the models all cohesive when texturing and made for quick execution after the first couple of models were done. This shader contains the correct roughness, height, and AO information that can easily be carried over by just applying it, changing the colors, and filling in the masks where needed. In the write up I go into detail on how to import the shader and adjust it per creature.
Creating a Material to cut lines
I made this material later on when I was working on vegetation. It came up when I noticed I had to paint cut lines for every piece of geo in the environment, and I wasn't about to do that. Creating this material was simple to add on and it saved a lot of time because it would cut lines around each UV shell. Fortunately the UVs were laid out pretty well for most of the scene which worked in my favor. For the next time if we do some vinyl toy idea again, I would implement this earlier on to save time on cutting lines and spend time focusing on getting a good UV layout.
Planning and Sketching
Planning and Sketching
Octopus
The wiggly and squishiest one of the bunch. A fun little octopus just practicing their jumping and falling with style
Octopus Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Narwhal
The floppiest one of the bunch. Minding their own business and cruising the sea enjoying their best life.
Main Fishes
These are in the Small/Medium creature group, which were made to add more to the ambience of the environment. They are all Geometry animated and have a 10k triangle limit with a 512px map limit. Most ended up being 256px map in the end.
fishAngler
The grumpy one of the bunch.That darn turtle! This fish just wants to sleep in peace.
fishAngler Modeled by Christina Douk
fishFancy
The elegant one of the bunch. They live in a world of just them, glamorous and fabulous.
fishFancy Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
fishHeart
The smoochiest one of the bunch. Its a heart fish that only has eyes for their their other heart
fishHeart Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
fishLong
The meditative one of the bunch. Roaming around doing their own thing bopping to the sound of their own music.
fishLong Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
fishTriangle
The swooshy ones of the bunch. This school of fishes loves to play and follow the leader.
fishTriangle Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Bonus Creatures
Bonus Creature Lineup
These were added in since we had the capacity to add some variants for little side stories.
fishHeartPink
The lovingest one of the bunch. A heart for a heart. Smooch Smooch.
fishHeartPink Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Starfish
The devious trickster of the bunch. Nothing better to do than to make a crab freak out.
Models
Main Creatures
These characters have more details, are higher resolution mesh and have a rig that is animated. They are the stars of the scene. Their budget ranges from 15k triangles to 30k for Geometry depending on their animation complexity with textures not exceeding a 1024px map
Turtle
The flippiest one of the bunch. One of my non negotiable characters on the project, and the main inspiration for creating the whole experience. This flippy spinny little one waddles and paddles around loving every moment of their life.
Crab
The snappiest one of the bunch. This fast moving little creature who lives in the cave minding their own home until they notice a funny little starfish.
Crab Modeled by Prabuddha Paul
Environment/Layout
During a critique meeting we talked about what we can adjust for the silhouette, about what each character would do, and how to make it more visually interesting.
With those notes I did a more thorough sculpting pass playing with shapes and seeing where this environment would go.
I took a look again at the references gathered in the pinterest board to see what direction I wanted to take the piece. In the pitch it was originally a sand castle, but as I looked at more “reeference” images and more on rock formations underwater, I thought it would be more interesting to see a cave structure instead. In home aquariums there are a lot of beautiful sculpted faux reefs and I wanted to keep to that idea because this was a little aquarium for us and it also was a way to add in more of the vibrant vegetation that lived on reefs too. So from there I did some adjustments to the model.
This was a good base model to start with for use in animation and layout tests. So while working on layout, everything else was in the works simultaneously with modeling, texturing, rigging, and animation and it was just a matter of updating the scene as each model and animation pass as they began to come in.
After the first paintover was done to get the color selection down, I gathered more references to create a mood board to help define more of the shapes of each asset and add in more details to the scene to fill it up.
There were probably around 75 iterations of this layout, but these were the major milestones that we went through from start to finish. With the continuous updating of the scene we could easily get a grasp where we are with the project and what parts we need to polish and edit along the process.
Image of the environment Model in grayscale and with finished textures
The first layout that I did was a test to see if this what this may look like in AR. It was crude and I repurposed the migaloo asset to see how a rigged character would act in this scene. With this we were able to gauge a little bit more on how we would continue with the shapes and adjust the scene to make it better with every pass.
Rigging
We wanted to challenge ourselves to learning Houdini Kinefx for rigging as it looked promising for bipedal characters and we have been looking at it for bringing in mocap as well. We had a bit of buffer time at the beginning of the project where Guen tested out some rigging on her octopus model and when Prabuddha finished the creature model she transferred her work to there. When a couple of the other creature models were done, Aly and I took a chance at trying to learn the process as well. We spent a week more on looking at how the rigging system works in houdini on the crab and turtle, but it began to be a real challenge. We ran into many bugs and issues, and the tutorials we had been using were outdated and not at the standard of what Houdini could offer.
There were many issues that arose and lack of resources on how to solve them, and we were starting to cut it close on the time, so we decided to take a step back and move everything back into Maya.
Houdini Rigs
These are some of the rig tests that the team worked on in houdini.
Guen Goik’s Octopus test with movement
Aly did a test with the Crab and ran into skinning issues
Hack rig of turtle by Christina
The tutorials we were using were outdated, and not using Houdini to its potential, and the process moved to using the Rig Doctor, which was more promising with the rig setup but we needed more information.
This would still require some additional R&D and trial and error with all the rigs, and this became a little risky with the time frame, as we still needed to Animate and test the layout out to make sure everything worked. So due to this, we made the choice to bring everything to Maya since we know that would work.
Maya Rigs
These are the final rigs for the 4 hero creature models in the scene
Crab
Crab Rig made by Aly Boden
Narwhal
Narwhal Rig made by Aly Boden
Octopus
Rig made by Guen Goik
Turtle
Turtle Rig made by Aly Boden
Animation
Very thankful for having a kick ass team to do animation, I was leaning on Guen and Aly for all their skills for this part. I tried hahaha but it's not my forte, so I am very appreciative of having these amazing artists on the team and working on this part of the phase for both rigging and animation. These are the final animations for the rigged characters total cycle 480 frames.
Crab
Animation Blocking notes
*Crab will be interacting with starfish
- (Start frame: 48) crab will come out the cave while the turtle waves.
- the crab will scuttle to the left
- scuttle to the right
- scuttle around the starfish
- (End frame: 144) goes back into the cave
- (Frame 144- 240) starfish will pop up and taunt
- (Frame 240- 360) After the starfish lays flat again, the crab will scuttle out to the starfish and hover
- (Frame 360- 408) Starfish will pop up fast and jump up and spin then land flat again
- (Frame 360- 480) Crab will react and jump up in shock and scuttle to the left and then back into the cave from frame
Final Anim Gif
Final Crab animation by Aly Boden
Narwhal
Animation Blocking notes
- (Frame 0-480) The Narwhal will be swimming and circling the top of the seaweed.
There are a couple of points where the Narwhal can dip down and come back up, but never pass the top of the cave.
Final Anim Gif
Final Narwhal animation by Aly Boden
Octopus
Animation Blocking notes
- (Frame 0-72) Octopus starts on the back side of the cave, bottom right on the ground, and wiggles legs
- (Start Frame 72 -168) Octopus will swim up up up above the cave towards the left side
- ( Frame 168- 264) Octopus freefall sways from side to side down with legs curved up onto the ground and lands on the left side ground
- ( Frame 264- 384) Octopus will swim up up up above the cave towards the right side a little higher than the first jump
- (Frame 384-432) Octopus freefall sways from side to side down with legs curved up onto the ground and lands on the right side ground
- (Frame 432-480) Octopus sways side to side and resets to start position at frame 480
Final Anim Gif
Final Animation by Guen Goik
Turtle
Animation Blocking notes
- (Start frame 0-72) The Turtle is waving
- (Frame 72-96) Turtle jumps up and dives
- (Frames 96- 192) flip towards the viewer camera
- (Frames192 - 240) spin as it takes a turn along the side of the cave
- (Frames 240-360) Cartwheeling as it goes to the last turn around the cave
- (Frame 360 - 408) does one more flip or spin
- (Frame 408-480) waddle back into the start position and waves
Final Anim Gif
Final Turtle animation by Aly Boden
Geo Animation
All of the fishes, the treasure chest, the bubbles, and some vegetation were geo animated to add in more movement without the adding more to the file size with joints and rigs. This was a good
compromise to add some life to the characters that were secondary in the scene.
Fishes
fishAngler
fishFancy fishHearts
fishLong fishTriangle
Starfish
Vegetation
Bubbles
Sound
Erik Lohr is a mastermind and I really had no critique on the first pass as it was amazing! The sound added a nice touch to really immerse you into the world.
Compilation
We used Maya/Houdini/Zbrush for the modeling, UVing, organizing, rigging and animation, Substance for texturing and Blender for the final compilation and export.
Every asset either static or with animation was exported out of Maya then imported into blender as an fbx/gltf. I appended the shader that I have built previously for the wiki template file and replaced those files with the newly created textures from substance painter. I imported the environment first to make sure there weren't any visual issues. After, I brought in each creature one by one and tested an export as I kept going. By using this method for compiling, it allowed for very easy updates and changes as each new pass on an asset or animation came in. There were many issues that came up along the way which is listed in the troubleshooting section, but overall the blender setup worked as expected for putting the scene together.
Optimization
Squish them kilobytes! Since we had to switch back to no draco compression in the end, it became a challenge in the final moments of the project. The file was originally at 9mb with compression on, and once that was turned off the file of course jumped back up to the whopping 16mb. This is something that we could have gotten ahead of knowing if we knew that this was the fix we needed for object culling.
Draco compression reduces a lot of areas of the files especially for geometry, textures, and animation, which I did lean on quite a bit during the whole process. We could have higher resolution models and textures as well as more creature animation without worrying too much on file size limitations. But in the final week, because of the culling issues that changed everything. We had to squeeze all of the kbs out as we could. I didn't want to have to redo any of the hero creature models/skinning/animation, so I made sure to keep those as is, and adjust everything else around.
Texture files were the first thing to reduce as it drops the file size down fast, and visually it isn't too big of a loss. Next was to reduce whatever triangles we could from the static or geo animated meshes. Every little bit helps. Next was to remove any skinned meshes that weren’t the main creatures, specifically the vegetation, and convert that to being geo animated. After that it was whatever else I could pull from, reducing some ORM maps, diffuse maps, some triangles here and there, removing some inbetween animation frames, anything really.
By the end the file size came down to 12.5mb with no compression.
Final Project Specs
Duration: March 4th - April 22nd ( delivery on April 19th)
Animation: 480 Frame cycle
Texture files are no larger than a 1k map
Final Assets:
4 rigged characters (108 Joints Total)
Animated Geo
13 fishes
1 starfish
3 sets of bubbles
Treasure chest
2 coral
2 tall seaweeds
3 sets of seagrass
One Static Cave Environment
Programs Used: Maya, Blender, Houdini, Substance Painter, Photoshop
If you made it this far with reading, I commend you haha I didn't expect to make this 37 pages long. There's a little easter egg in the scene for the team, because you are all amazing and this experience couldn't have been made without you all. Thanks for reading!
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