Story Artist - lestepp1@c.ringling.edu
Mommy's Me Time is about a burnt out mom who gets sucked into her kids favorite cartoon and has to go on a fun adventure in order to return home. My thesis partner, August Park, and I produced the film at Ringling College of Art and Design, and we published it online after we graduated in May 2022.
Story
My thesis partner and I brainstormed several ideas and ultimately landed on this one after feedback from faculty. The process was extremely collaborative, and we were both responsible for creating story moments and thumbnails. Ultimately, I created the majority of the final boards because of my interest in story, but I was working very closely with my partner and with the additional mentorship of faculty and friends.
Below are the final boards in Speaker Deck, as well as an animatic version we created.
If Speaker Deck doesn't load, click this link!
Visual Development
As part of the pre production process, my partner and I had to produce a vis dev packet to go along with our boards. Below is some of the work I created for the film.
On the left - Character Paintings of our two kids show characters, Rocky the Raccoon and Cappy the Capybara. We also collected several reference and render target images.
Below - Color keys for various story moments.
Modeling and Rigging
Next, we had to model many key sets and props, as well as fully model, texture, and rig our three characters. We each had to do a little bit of everything, but my partner ended up focusing more on the character modeling and rigging while I took the lead on set modeling, texturing, and animating emotions tests for each character.
Character Rigs - Emotions Tests
Living Room Set - Lighting Test
Texturing and Lighting
After completing the animation, we began working on lighting each shot and completing our environments and textures. Below are a handful of work-in-progress renders from various moments in the film.
