Tahu 2001 Animation Recreation (90th Anniversary Form)

One shot was never enough. 

With real life kicking in and my specializing in a different field, I honestly thought most of Blender was behind me, outside the occasional test or minor project. However, this is probably my most advanced full-CG Blender project yet! I'm really grateful to learn that life doesn't have to put an end to projects like this.

In any case, this was a full, multi-camera project rendered in Eevee (although the mask in the final shot was rendered in Cycles), and it used no small part of everything I'd learned (and some I hadn't yet): HDRIs, shape keys, multiple cameras, animated procedural texturing, and even gravity/collision physics. (I still don't dare attempt fluid simulation; the lava in the second-to-final shot used up to 6 shape keys to imitate both generic "waves" and its reaction to the falling rock.) In the meantime, I used After Effects for some minor compositing, sound, all of the final shot outside the mask itself, and the BIONICLE logo at the start (its distortion comes from Turbulent Displace, with some Turbulent Noise in the background).

Also, I'd already appreciated it, but this project made me realize just how good the 2001 animation is. Beginning my project, I thought it would be (relatively) easy to imitate a CGI short done on a toy budget 21 years ago, but it's still far beyond anything I can do with modern software. (In case you haven't seen the animation, here it is.)

Also... do I really need to render that final shot in 8K? 

Nope. Yet here we are.

Sleep well, everyone. I know I won't.