Tendi

Tendi was my first rendered piece, which had serious acting and dialogue. As a long-time Trekkie, I chose a piece of audio from the cartoon show “Lower Decks.” I found a model that closely fits the titular character, Tendi. Initially, it started as a standing talking piece where the girl stood and gestured with her upper body. I was then challenged with having her floating since they were, in fact, in space. The challenge then truly began as not only was I to animate a whole body, but I had to animate it with the idea that gravity was not a factor.

The animation underwent numerous changes and critiques, further pushing the character’s acting and movement. I shot innumerable references and watched astronauts onboard the ISS move around. The rig was also challenging as it was somewhat dated and did not deform in ways one would expect modern animation rigs to. It also suffered from no space switching in the legs; after speaking with mentors and peers, I have now learned that had I considered these drawbacks when I started, I would have gone with a different rig. Another factor I had to think about and ended up using was moving the COG (Center of Gravity) from under the rig to her middle; this way, I could move the whole body from the waist.

As the animation progressed, I was not happy with using the space station set I had found and opted to put my new Unreal Engine skills to the test. Using a mix of Maya and UE, I built a space station and filled it with assets. I decided early on that this would be fully rendered in Unreal. Exporting the character and floating tools as Alembic Caches, I got the animation into the scene without having to worry about the rig playing nicely with how unreal rigs and animates; this only works with cutscene-like animation, however. I was so pleased with not just the result but also the speed of the render that I have yet to find another renderer I want to use.

In the multiverse, a version of D’Vana Tendi has this conversation in zero gravity on a destroyed space station.