Look and feel

Hello! I have been working on refining the animation (got my vesicles to work properly, but the final effect will all depend on how well I do with the Shaders...).

I've been really hung up on a couple parts of the animation (e.g. extravasating lymphocyte) so I decided to take a break and work on texturing instead.

I've been having a surprisingly difficult time with coming up with a "look" for my animation. The process went much more smoothly for my interstitial. But I suppose that was only an 8 second animation with a single shot vs. a 5 minute one with many shots.

I tried a subsurface scattering (SSS) look (but still added some AO, which kinda of destroys the SSS effect):

EDIT: Eddy brought up a good point: the dramatic lighting may be obscuring a little too much of the spinal cord, as that will help the viewer situate themselves. Will have to check within the context.

(I think I also have to increase the density of the neurons a bit, they should be pretty packed in the dorsal root ganglion!)

 

But it just does not feel like my work at all. It's sort of my fallback at this point...
Then I tried throwing in some PaintFX toon lines for kicks:

I thought there was some potential, but it does look like a strange mix.

Finally, I decided to go all out and try my hand at toon shading, but it ended up looking like an uglier version of what I would draw. I'm also concerned that it really removes the 3D quality of the work when there is no camera movement and almost looks like a Flash animation (then why spend all that time modeling?! :(  )

EDIT: I've had 2 votes for this toon look! Nooo lol! I know it has potential, but I'm too reluctant to give up the SSS beauty look for this project (Although the crazy 3 minute per frame render times may make me reconsider...). I will definitely work to refine this look (and learn how to get that incredible watercolour feel) in future personal projects. :)

Well, more experimenting to come!

Inspiration log
This animation is probably my favourite 3D film of all time in terms of style! It would be amazing to emulate but I have no idea where to begin! :S This look probably won't fit my content very well, either.


For a more photorealistic style, this series of zune ads are one of my favourites. I love the shallow DoF and colours.


I find many games and anime are adopting an interesting 3D look with contours nowadays, but aren't fully cel-shaded/NRP either. Examples: Catherine game and Tiger & Bunny, both out this year.