Anandhu ML shared a breakdown of recreating a scene from the movie Rorschach, explaining setting up the land using a complex shader with variations and noise to create the natural patterns and discussing the rigging and animation pipeline.
Introduction
Hello everyone, I'm Anandhu (Blender_Aashaan), a 3D Generalist, VFX Artist & Trainer from Kerala, India with 10 years of experience in the CGI/VFX industry. I currently work as a Senior 3D Generalist in the home-improvement sector, and I also teach students in CGI and Blender.
My journey started in childhood. I always loved drawing and filmmaking. After school, I joined an Animation & VFX academy and completed my post-graduation there. During my second year of study, I got the opportunity to work in their studio, and that moment became the real starting point of my professional 3D career.
The studio was working on a home-production project with a newly formed team, and I was lucky to be a part of it. I got hands-on experience in modeling, texturing, lighting, building large-scale environments, 3D scene layout, and camera animation. Blender was not very user-friendly back in 2014–2015, but those challenges helped me build strong fundamentals.
After around five years of studying and learning, I created my first showreel, which helped me secure better opportunities. Later, I worked at an EdTech company for about 3.5 years, where I further developed my skills in environment creation and animation. After that, I joined an advertisement agency, and that experience helped me refine product visualization, a clean, polished, minimalist visual style.
Today, in my current role, I focus on home-improvement visualization. Creating ultra-realistic patio and interior scenes. These projects often go through multiple revision cycles, requiring precise realism and detail. Projects: Playing it Cool, ISRO Space Mission, Inertia (Shot film), Kunjalimarakar (Shot film), ICC promotions.
Rorschach
In my version of Rorschach, I've combined my passion for both forests and cars. Rorschach is a Malayalam movie, and the main actor is Mammootty. In the film, the hero is fighting the ghost of a dead man who killed his wife. And I recreated a 3D version of a small part of that movie.
Unlike the original movie scene, where the protagonist walks toward the house, in my recreation, I made him stand outside and call the ghost out instead. I also created a skull-shaped cloud in the sky to amplify the atmosphere and mystery.
Since I personally enjoy cars, I added more car shots to give it more prominence, and I purposely kept the car undamaged, unlike in the original. I also included a line that emphasizes the hero's resilience, showing that he is not as vulnerable or helpless as he appears. Overall, this approach creates a richer, more immersive experience for the audience, blending my artistic interests with the essence of the original film.
I began by blocking out the scene, focusing initially on creating and rigging the car. Once the car was ready, I moved on to establishing a basic environment layout with minimal geometry. To help guide the overall pacing, I set up a timeline in After Effects and integrated the music, allowing me to create a basic previs.
This previs was crucial in defining the video's pace and structure, and it served as the foundation for adding more details later on. In short, the previs played a vital role in shaping the entire project.
The entire movie and its forest setting served as my inspiration. I was captivated by the atmosphere and wanted to bring that essence into my work. I aimed to further hone my environment skills, building on what I already knew. This project was an opportunity to polish my craft and push my boundaries even further.
I created a comprehensive library of frames from the movie to understand the landscape and atmosphere. By gathering numerous reference images, I ensured that the environment matched the movie's aesthetic. This allowed me to create additional scenes and shots that seamlessly fit into the original world.
I planned the composition by first analyzing the reference film, which had a solid composition. My goal was to replicate the same composition, ensuring the camera and objects were placed exactly as in the original version. I also optimized the camera movements to ensure efficient rendering and to avoid any performance issues.
For setting up the blockout, I started by creating the car model with its rig and then established the blockout using basic geometry. I ensured all key elements were positioned correctly, and I created an animatic to visualize the scene before finalizing the details.
The car model was originally sourced from Sketchfab (free licensed version by Ddiaz Design). I reworked and remodeled certain parts of the car to make it match more closely with the vehicle shown in the movie.
The entire environment was built by me from scratch. I sculpted the base terrain in Blender, added additional details using Quixel Megascan assets, and enhanced the vegetation using add-ons such as Forestation, Botaniq, and Biomes Reader.
For the cloud element in the sky, I used Tim Masin's Cloud Asset. To save time, I used instances for repeated elements instead of the original geometry. This significantly reduced render times and improved performance. Additionally, I optimized the project by monitoring VRAM usage to ensure smoother rendering and quicker performance.
Creating the Environment
I created the environment by modeling the land and road from scratch. The land used a complex shader to achieve realism, with variations and noise to create natural patterns. For the road, I applied a texture with an alpha mask along its edges to blend seamlessly with the ground texture. I used multiple texture variations to avoid repetition and added a particle system with grass and fallen leaves around the edges for added realism. This helped create a natural and cohesive environment.
For complex surfaces, the main ones were the floor and the car. The floor had a complex shader with multiple texture variations and noise to create a realistic land appearance. The car shader was also complex, incorporating dust, dirt, and various overlays to give it a realistic look.
Animation and VFX
For the animation, I started with the car rig, using the "Launch Control” add-on to ensure accurate physics and gravity. I set up keyframe animations along a defined path, which allowed the car to move realistically. Additionally, I rigged the character and added subtle movements to avoid a static appearance, such as slight motions in the arms and the hammer.
For the VFX, I used particle simulations in Blender to create effects like leaves flying when the car moves. I also incorporated rigid body physics for realistic interactions and added dust and dirt elements in post-production to enhance the atmosphere. I also included a slight camera shake using the Shakeify add-on to add more dynamism.
I used keyframe animation for precise movements. For the car, I employed a rig with controls to animate it along a path, ensuring realistic movement. For the camera, I followed the reference closely and animated frame by frame to match the movements accurately.
- Camera Work: The camera was carefully keyframed, and for scenes where the car moved quickly, I employed the Shakify add-on to introduce subtle, random shakes. I also used smoke simulations and added fog and dust particles in the final scenes to create depth and atmosphere.
- Lighting: For lighting, I used a combination of spotlights and lighting gobos to replicate the shadows of trees in most scenes. For different shots, I relied on HDRI environments and additional light sources like area lights and sun lamps to create the desired mood. In the final scene, I incorporated a mix of lighting techniques to enhance the overall atmosphere.
For rendering, I made sure to optimize the scene to stay within the limits of my hardware. Using a laptop equipped with an RTX 3050 GPU, I carefully controlled the poly count to ensure the project didn't exceed the GPU memory. This allowed me to maintain smooth rendering times, typically around three to four minutes per frame.
The entire rendering process took several weeks, and I rendered different layers separately to facilitate easier compositing. For instance, in the final shot with the character, I rendered the background and the character separately, which made it easier to manage the post-processing.
In terms of post-processing, I used Nuke for compositing the final shot with the character. I separated the background and the character renders, and for some effects like the leaf animations, I used playblasts to save render time. This approach allowed me to integrate those effects seamlessly during the compositing phase.
Conclusion
It took me about three and a half months to complete the project. As a working professional, I worked on it during evenings and nights, fitting it around my regular schedule. I started in January and finished by October, aiming to complete it around the movie's release date. The entire process was spread over several months, with about three to four months of intensive work to get everything right.
One of the biggest challenges was achieving a natural and realistic forest environment. Because I wanted the scene to be as accurate as possible, I spent a lot of time manually placing each element to replicate the Kerala forest accurately. This attention to detail took extra time but was crucial for authenticity.
Another significant challenge was the lighting, especially in the final scene with the character. Getting the lighting consistent across different shots was tricky, and sometimes I had to step away and return with fresh eyes to get it right.
One key lesson was the importance of patience and adaptability. Even with limited hardware, it's possible to achieve great results if you take your time and remain calm. I also learned how crucial it is to maintain consistency in lighting and effects to avoid any jarring transitions between shots. Ultimately, the project taught me that with careful planning and perseverance, even a large-scale environment can be brought to life with modest equipment.