The Lure

2023 MOTION PROJECT

Illustrator, After Effects, Blender, Procreate, and Photoshop

Role - Designer, Animator, 3D Modeler, Director, Editor

The Lure takes place sometime in the future, when AI technology has advanced enough to help guide us to the far reaches of space. This short film follows a lone pilot and her robotic companion as they respond to a distress signal on an alien world. The signal is revealed to be something much more sinister the deeper into the planet our protagonist gets.

This project was a massive effort in animation, story telling, and collaboration and for these reasons has been one of my favorite projects to date.

Writing Process

Nick and I worked closely with a writer, Owen Paznokas, to develop a script with multiple story beats, clever dialogue, and cues for future voice actors to work with. Collaborating with a multi-talented group has made The Lure one of my favorite projects to date as everyone consistently brought fresh ideas and new perspectives on where the final piece could go.

While the final motion piece only covers a portion of the script, Owen made sure to pack it with rich dialogue and interaction. With more time and resources we’d love to bring the full piece to life.

Storyboard

Character Sheet

Designed by Nick Gardner

The inspiration for our character’s design came from the necessity to simplify the piece in order to seamlessly blend our 2D and 3D elements.

Design Process

For this project we incorporated frame by frame hand drawn elements with low poly 3D rendered scenes from blender. This blend of techniques gave the piece a more illustrative feeling while allowing us flexibility on camera placement and perspectives.

3D Scene

2D Drawn in Procreate

Final Shot

Textures

Our 3D environments were rendered utilizing a Color Ramp node with constant color changes. When reacting with light, the brightness of the surface is placed along a sliding scale from black (left) to white (right). Depending on that placement and the positions of our colors along that scale, or 3D objects would display a single color at a time, which gave them a cell-shaded appearance.