LEGO

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Agency: Steady

Client: LEGO

Direction & Production: Ligretix

Motion Design: Ligretix

Lighting&Texturing: Ligretix
Compositing: Ligretix

Character Animation: So_lunar

In this video, you will enter a room made entirely of LEGO bricks. The volumetric lighting and realistic textures create the impression that you have entered a real LEGO world. This project is truly an amazing example of how 3D technologies can bring childhood dreams to life.

I am proud to have completed the task with such speed and quality that my client was left in complete awe of the result. And I am confident that this video can become not only an excellent tool for promoting my client but also a source of inspiration for LEGO enthusiasts worldwide.

CHARACTER

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WORKFLOW

ARTDIRECTION

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To create 3D video for LEGO, it's important to create a mood board and select references to determine the project's style and mood, and ensure a consistent overall appearance.
I used various references, such as photos, concept art, and illustrations, to determine the shape, proportions,
and details of characters and rooms, as well as to choose the color palette and create lighting.
Animation references from LEGO movies were used for proper character movement. Creating a mood board and selecting references helped establish the project's overall direction and simplify the work.

I use Pureref and Miro as tools to conveniently add and organize references when creating a mood board. In order to find references, I utilize a variety of available resources such as Same Energy, Pinterest, Behance, Artstation, Shotdeck, among others.

When creating bright and colorful 3D LEGO video, I started with choosing the main colors - blue and beige. I decided that these colors would be suitable for determining the overall tone of the project. Then, based on references, I added yellow to the palette as it was the color of the LEGO minifigure. The rest of the colors were complementary, and I chose them closer to the texturing stage to create an interesting visual effect. As usual, I encountered difficulties in choosing the right color palette because the wrong choice could lead to an undesirable outcome.

BLOCKING
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The first step in working on the animation project was focusing on creating the main scene object - the character. I was provided with a 3D model which I modified for SBDV and gave the appearance according to the client's brief. Then I started working on creating the UV layout.

Click to download free 3D model of a Lego man for a non-commercial project

Once the character was ready, I began developing a rough animation. I created a set of basic poses and movements that would be necessary for the animator when creating assets, so they would understand how the character would move during the asset stage. Unfortunately, due to the scene having many other elements to work on and tight deadlines, I had to hire another specialist to complete the character animation. Although the client and I were not entirely satisfied with the animation result, we believe that it was an excellent outcome for four days of work.

Thus, these rough animations also helped the client understand how the character would look and move in the final version of the project.

Blocking is an important stage that allows defining dynamics, the overall visual style, composition, and the general impression of the project.

ASSETING
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The assets stage is a crucial stage in creating 3D animation. During this stage, I worked on filling the scene with details, refining each object with even and quality topology for SBDV, creating UV unwraps, and animating the camera to achieve a pleasing camera fly-through.

While working on the assets, I created various models of objects and worked on each detail to achieve the most realistic and high-quality result possible. Additionally, during this stage, various techniques can be used for modeling and animation to make the scene more interesting and detailed.

LIGHTING
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In this scene, I used multiple light sources to create volumetric and realistic lighting.

The first light source was a Softbox positioned above the character, chosen to create soft and even shadows in the room.

The second light source was an HDRI, chosen to simulate natural lighting passing through the window. It also provided light on the bookshelf wall to the left of the character.

To create soft shadows on the character's face, I used a third light source - another Softbox positioned to the left of the character.

The fourth light source - a rim light - was used to separate the character from the background.

The fifth light source was added to illuminate the bookshelf to the left of the character and create additional volume in the room. It was positioned to the right of the camera and appeared as soft light, but in reality, it was a rim light.

The sixth light source consisted of two LED lights built into the shelf, which allowed for adding volume to the scene.

Finally, I added smoke to the room to create God rays, which added even more volume to the room.

TEXTURING
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During the texturing stage, I added color, materials, and textures to the models and objects in the scene. To achieve this, I used the program Substance Painter to create textures that were later applied in my Redshift renderer.

With Substance Painter, I was able to create textures directly on the models in real-time. This allowed me to freely create different materials and surfaces for my scene with realistic details and effects.

The bridge between Substance Painter and Redshift was an important tool for texturing the scene. It allowed me to see the changes made to the textures immediately in my Redshift renderer. This simplified the texturing process and allowed me to achieve the desired result faster.

COMPOSITING
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During the compositing stage, I used Nuke to merge various AOV passes exported from Redshift (GI, Reflection, Refraction, Diffuse Light, Emissive, SSS, Fog, etc.) into a single beauty footage. This allowed me to have better control over individual elements in the scene.

My main tasks during the compositing stage were:

Adding a Lego cityscape outside the window. To achieve this, I exported my camera from the 3D project and used several projection techniques in Nuke to match the camera movement from the video with the 3D scene. I also set up lighting and shadows for the Lego city using various correction nodes in Nuke.

Adding flying birds using stock footage. To make the birds look realistic, I first isolated them from the original video using rotoscoping. Then I added them to the scene using a combination of blending modes, color correction, and motion blur.

Adding smoke from the cup held by the Lego man. I used smoke footage and attached it to the cup to follow the movement of the Lego man. I also used color correction and blending modes to integrate the smoke into the 3D video and make it look more realistic.

In addition to these tasks, I used the cryptomatte pass to create clean masks for various objects in the scene, which allowed me to easily adjust their color and lighting individually. I also used the depth pass to create a depth-of-field effect, which helped to focus the viewers' attention on the Lego man by blurring the background. Finally, I used the motion vector pass to add motion blur to my scene and Lego man, which helped to make their movements more natural.

When you make your final stroke in your projects, you feel how all the pieces come together, and your creativity comes to life. It was thrilling to create this scene for LEGO, and I'm glad to share it with you. If you like what you see, feel free to give it a like and follow me to see more of my work in the future. Thank you for watching, and keep creating!