19th Jan 2023 | Pet Projects
Francesco Siddi
Producer
After devoting over one year of focus to the topic of realism with Charge, it’s now time to move in a new direction! Aiming at the holy grail of hyper-realism is not the only way to push the boundaries of what is possible with Blender. There are many more avenues to explore, many more workflows to cover. So what about a highly stylized, light-hearted animated episode?
This was the pitch presented to the Blender Studio team: let’s create something cartoony and serializable, so that the design language and animation style could be re-used consistently across multiple stories. This would be a good framework to go back to when the studio is in-between larger productions, and a useful foundation for artists to explore storytelling.
The first episode of Pet Projects is being directed by Rik Schutte, with art direction by Vivien Lulkowski, and story and editorial support by Hjalti Hjalmarsson, with the whole team at Blender Studio involved in the production.
Here is the idea: An uptight engineer gets an unwelcome visit from a enthusiastic wannabe-pilot, causing both of them to be launched into the air inside an out-of-control space shuttle. Or, as Ton mentioned once, "developers are cats, artists are dogs"!
Given the target size and pace of the project (around 2 minutes of duration, around 4 months production cycle), technical challenges will be limited, with more focus on workflows and documentation. Sharing production knowledge is one of the key goals of Blender Studio!
There is potential for more extensive Grease Pencil use. As a matter of fact, the team has already been using the Story Pencil add-on to board the first versions of the short!
After a couple of months of development, Pet Projects is currently in pre-production and the progress can be followed here on the Blender Studio website.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Francesco Siddi
Producer
16 Comments
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Rik Schutte
20th January 2023 - 11:29
second <3
Vivien Lulkowski
19th January 2023 - 20:06
first
Jakub Steiner
20th January 2023 - 13:51
Mean cats? I'm IN!
Al Sande
20th January 2023 - 17:51
Great news! I always learn so much from the production lessons so it's good to hear there will be a focus on workflows and documentation in this one - techniques I learned from previous films, especially Sprite Fright, have showed up in many of my projects since. I'm particularly looking forward to learning new ways to integrate more grease pencil techniques into my 3d workflow...
Adam Earle
20th January 2023 - 15:48
yep have to say that I am jealous of the people who are working on this one. I really do wish it was me.
Helge Maus
20th January 2023 - 16:28
YES :-)
Matt Jordan
21st January 2023 - 15:09
So many great projects but this might be my favorite one yet. This is right down my alley.
shmuel lowenbraun
22nd January 2023 - 04:56
nice!
yujiaxin
22nd January 2023 - 15:37
adorable!
Pedro Chaves Martins
22nd January 2023 - 18:55
I liked it 😀
Michael Carella
25th January 2023 - 10:04
This is going to be awesome, looks like it could have a 'Bad Guys' type of 2d/3d hybrid, would love to learn more about the process similiar to that. Either way, it'll be great.
Weston Jones
25th January 2023 - 16:21
wow! beautiful as always. can't wait!
Leslie Solorzano
26th January 2023 - 19:02
Super exciting! I'll get my popcorn ready haha
Kreessan Exinor
28th January 2023 - 23:39
Super excited for this!!
Iván Rojo
29th January 2023 - 03:26
Awesome, I really like that style!!
Craig Wieland
4th February 2023 - 22:36
love it!