soar
a 3D animated short about the story of a young girl named Angie and her mother, Joy, and their adventure into space. Join them as they SOAR into a world of possibilities.
team:
andrea chau
paul kim
forrest csulak
01
roles
director, writer, and project manager
worked on:
preproduction,
modeling of the characters and the scenery,
shading and lighting of the short,
animation,
composition and sound of the short.
software/tools utilized
Autodesk Maya
Pixar's Renderman
Adobe Photoshop, Premier Pro, After Effects
Procreate and Storyboarder
02
animatic
In the beginning process, I first started with making character designs to get a feel for the story that I wanted to make. I wanted to tell a story that had the message: "there is no limit to imagination."
Once the story was complete, I pitched the story as an animatic. This story was later chosen for the final short film that our team of three made.
03
modeling and shading
Since it was a really small team, we all took part in building different parts of the story. From the very beginning, I learned how to build the landscape for the rocket ship with Paul helping me shade the landscape and the VFX.
I took a lot of inspiration from modeling and shading things that were found around my house. From a small Asian stool that is always commonplace to orchids, picture frames filled with past art pieces I've done, and also family photos, I wanted the place to feel like it was my house.
04
final result
After a strenuous 10-week process and with the work of my two teammates, we were able to finish the short film and have it rendered in Pixar's Renderman.
This is the story of a mother and daughter on their adventure into space.
05
final thoughts
The reason I decided to make this story is I realized there were certain shortcomings I had, but I wanted to prove that I can get past those. With the power of imagination and storytelling, I realized you have the power to do anything. It's just a matter of putting yourself out there and doing it.
I took a lot of inspiration from modeling and shading things that were found around my house.
From a small Asian stool that is always commonplace to orchids, picture frames filled with past art pieces I've done, and also family photos, I wanted the place to feel like it was my house and also everyone else's house but in the 90's.