This reel has been updated to showcase projects that are out of NDA.
Please note that I am unable to provide a Youtube link at this time due to aggressive algorithms that will block copyrighted shots containing my work. This is I am providing a google drive download to the video file as an alternative. You can reach the video by clicking the image above, or by clicking here.
Soul Reaver was originally the second game in the cult series Legacy of Kain released in 1999 on PC and Playstation developed by Crystal Dynamics.
This project is our re-imagining of a portion of that game. It has been produced in 7 weeks total by a team of 14 of various trades.
My tasks for this project were varied, but mostly consisted of:
Basic player mechanics and world interactions.
Specific camera behaviors.
A shader system that support specific alterations on the world switch and per-world-state vertex painting palettes for effects.
Modifications to the 3ds Max standard biped for additional limbs and physics support in engine.
General Technical support for both the level art team and animation team.
While as someone usually focused on Rigging/Animation, our needs for this project were simple enough that we saw no need for fully featured custom bipeds in our pipeline, but rather small cosmetic alterations on the 3ds Max biped such as facial features support, extra limbs and NVIDIA Apex cloth setups. This way we ensured the animators would have as much time as possible to polish for such a time-restricted project. I coordinated with the character modelers for our needs and proceeded to skin the final meshes and did the entire integration process as well as physical asset setup.
This is the final version of Raziel integrated in the engine. Complete with cloth simulations and the wings are physically simulated bones.
Raziel was built off a 3ds Max Biped, with aditional bones for rigid bodies and simulation. some basic eye control was added to at least give him some expressions.
The use of NVIDIA Apex cloth was put on the essential parts of the model.
The wings were boned in a way that the torn part would always be simulated and weighted in a way that they would be rigid enough when gliding, but otherwise as flappy as the original title on Playstation.
Raziel was built entirely in Unreal Blueprints to drive everything from basic controls and abilities to the handling of post process effects.
The shaders were straight forward, this is a sample in-engine towhat was possible. The artist would decide if he needed the material to have custom "spiritual" effects, and could override the default maps with any that would suit the material better. The handling of the spiritual switch was done in a Material Parameter Collection and tied directly in the gameplay blueprints for a global gradual swap.
When the player toggles world, the post process effects of the camera will smoothly switch between states, modify it's FOV in the same way to give the spiritual world an eerie feel. The shaders on the environment are also toggled. The blue glow is vertex painted by the artist as needed.
On this project, I was in charge of rigging and animating the first person character, I was also in charge of setting up and implementing the matinee elements to some key events.
This is a project that is currently on hold, a group effort to make a mythical corgi and integrate it in the Dota2 Workshop!
This was the first version of the Ascension character in the prototype that preceded it. The character was used here in there out of context and ended up being a fine mascot!
This one is old, but still reliable, the simplest rig I've made and somewhat functional, it's center of gravity is at the "pelvis" but the front works independently which made for easy animation.
This was a small project, but with many opportunities to try things, for starters, cartoon spaghetti legs that could be completely solid or curve as we wanted them to replicate the tv series run-cycles, aliens with animated testicles, their double articulated legs setup in IK.
We went for a "mobile look" just because it was suited to the look of the series, since it saved us some time, we managed to make an Easter-egg where we included a full scene with the characters even though they weren't made for it. We might have made it to make Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon laugh!
Ascension is the result of 12 weeks of production, through a collaboration of NAD and UQAC students to produce a playable vertical slice of a game based on mechanics designed the previous semester.
Ascension is a technical platforming title where the player must navigate hazardous fantasy environments to reach the top of the mountain, and possibly reach Valhalla.
My tasks for this project were varied, but mostly consisted of:
The biggest challenge I faced on this project was to handle the character dynamic features. It was a great learning experience in Unreal 4's handling of them on a custom rig specifically, as the documentation was sparse and it involved a lot of trial and error. I am happy to report that getting my hands dirty in this matter did pay off!
This flashy mess is all that drives this character, as a rule of thumb, the colors of the helpers and bones is related to the features.
Blue: FK, Orange: IK, Green: Right side, Purple: Left side. Other colors are for their own features.
This is the skeleton that is exported to the engine, it is constrained to the rest of the rig to prevent conflicts, it holds the character skin and also doubles as a Motion Capture rig. I can pull the Motion Builder data from this rig and reapply it to the controllers.
A few of the effects that were required for the game.
A "myhthical dissolve" when the player would die and respawn at the last checkpoint.
A frost that would gradually cover the player when it would go through blizzard areas.
Those tests were my own creation, they have been used to debug the rig and test a few features.
Animators
Antoine Demers
Vanessa Roy
Character Artist
Raphaëlle Deslandes
Concept Art
Raphaëlle Deslandes
Level Designer
Janick Fortin
Joëlle Landry
Game Designer
Guillaume Couture
Level Artists
François Grégoire
Weidi Kang
Miguel Hernandez
Louis-Michel Lebeau
Leo Ferland-Dallaire
Nabil El Biad
Technical Animator
Gabrielle Marcheterre
Programming
Frédéric Bolduc
Mikaël Senneville
Bernard Audebert
Alexis Lessard
Fréquences is a musical journey of a fictional musical instrument that was made by 8 students from the NAD and a sound designer. The project has been built to be played like a short movie, but in real-time and rendered through Unreal 4. Everything you see is straight out of the engine, animated by combinations of blueprints and matinee elements.
“Fréquences is a project that wants an immersive experience through a surreal world uniting sound and image to live an emotional experience.”
My tasks were to both rig and animate all of the contraptions that had been designed.
Fréquences was my first formal experience with purely mechanical designs. While I came in thinking this would be a cakewalk, I'm happy to report that I have had to learn quite a bit about instruments behaviors, how to achieve convincing results even though this was an imaginative piece, and come up with solutions for some unforeseen situations.
All in all, I have enjoyed the puzzles and the creativity I've had to use to produce my part of the project alongside very talented individuals!
The bows were pretty straightforward, it simply needed to move freely where it was designed to move and he restrained in movements where it would collide with itself.
The only special touch that has been added was to have the bow conform to the strings and it's pressure on it. When the bow was animated, it was then possible to put some resistance in the wooden parts of it.
The piano hammers were most likely the easiest part to rig and animate, for there is only one way to make them work.
I was tempted to automate them, but in the end simply animating them by hand came to be more cost effective in this timed production.
This was the tricky one!
I came in the project later when some of the modeling had been made. Unfortunately for me, the modeler had not kept an earlier version of it to make the rig conform to the shape of the bed, so I had to improvise!
I've made a universal "key rig", where you would basically duplicate it , then align (snap) 3 control points on the square ends of the keys or pedals. That would automatically be position the bone and controler in the right angle, ready to skin and sych to the melody!
This music box was driven entirely by expressions to get the final speed to sync with our soundtrack. Once I had a good timing on the metal carrillon, I simply duplicated that bone and timed it to the song with minor adjustments.
The xylophone needed to be automated and the proper notes played in the right order. It also required a visual feedback of the notes being pressed and the balls being squished. Added a visual feedback on the tie in front of the camera where it would react to the keys being pressed.
Wolrd Cultures - Professionals
1st Place: Best Film North America
2nd Place: Best Film
Award of Recognition
Experimental Student
ART DIRECTION & LIGHTING
Andréanne Drolet
MODELING
Andréanne Drolet
Laurie Durand
Anne-Sophie Labelle
Audrey Poulin
Rui Sequeira
TEXTURING
Andréanne Drolet
Laurie Durand
Audrey Poulin
RIG & ANIMATION
Gabrielle Marcheterre
FX ARTISTS
William Belley
Francis Bouthillier
MUSIC
Éric Cadieux
RESPONSIBLE PROFESSOR
Dave Hawey
