Animation: Dragonfly Drone

The concept of this drone was inspired by Star Wars and Big Hero 6. I wanted to convey that this drone had a personality through all of its robotic yet energetic movements. I sketched out the idea and began my workflow moving from Blender for modeling, to Maya for rigging, animation, and UVs. To create a juxtaposition between organic and inorganic, I rigged all of the parts to move independently but allowed for the tail to flow organically. After texturing in Substance Painter, I exported it into Unreal and created a landscape to act as the backdrop. I then added some lighting that would create subtle storytelling, implying that the drone is searching for a beacon in the mountain range. Adding sound effects added another layer of life to the animation, providing a queue for the drone to react and hone in on the off-screen beacon. This project allowed me to advance my rigging, animation, level design, and sound design to the next level.