Bottled - Alessandro Erba

A three-minute 3D animated short about a fisherman who outwits a band of pirates, written, designed and animated from start to finish.

The challenge

A lone fisherman, a pirate raid and three minutes to tell the story. The goal was a complete animated short with its own characters and world, carried from the first sketch to the final mix by a single artist.

The approach

Every model, character and rig was built from scratch: sculpted in ZBrush, modelled and rigged in Maya, and textured in Substance. The animation was keyed by hand to give the fisherman a clever, understated physical comedy, and the film was rendered in Arnold for soft, cinematic lighting. Editing was done in Premiere and the full sound design in Audition.

The result

A finished 3D short, produced in about four months from concept to final render. It shows the whole animation pipeline in one piece: character design, rigging, animation, look-dev, lighting and sound.

Breakdown

10 ASSETS

Built from scratch.

Every set, prop and character in Bottled was modelled for the film. A closer look at the lighthouse, outside and in: wireframes, the ocean simulation, the interiors and the stylized fire.