The Cliff

Never take the easy way out.

This is my first foray into full 3D animation and was done during my 3D Animation course at University. The animation was made using Side Effects Software's Houdini 7 Master, a very comprehensive visual effects and animation package featured in many films.

One of the key things learnt during this course was the notion of a one-liner, i.e a key phrase that is the emphasis of the animation that keeps the animator on track and reminds them of the purpose of the animation. Every animation produced also was also a reflection on the past of each animator, and the animation was to convey the lessons learnt from that past.

The moment that I chose was the pivotal moment during post-production of Dark Blood, where my brother and I, rather than simply quiting due to poorly shot footage, decided to continue on and finish our vision through, no matter what it turned out like. Many people had worked on the project, and we were not about to let all the hard work fail and let someone else be the cause of that.

The Cliff tells the simple story of a man trying to climb a cliff. That's it. With the background of the animation just given, I hope you can see the point I was trying to convey.

Instructions:

Make sure you have Quicktime installed (or equivalent).
Download The Cliff, either the large (29.2MB) or small (11.7MB) version.
If you like, you can also view the animatic (11.6MB) for the animation.
Enjoy!