My latest project, the "3D Space Diorama Animation," an experimental motion graphics piece born out my passion for the mysteries of space and my pursuit of practicing animation and rendering techniques. This project was created to push my skills in 3D animation, rendering, and compositing, showcasing a fun interplay of light, texture, and motion.

In this project, I used Maxon Cinema 4D, utilizing techniques like MoGraph, particle systems, and the use of volume builder and mesher. The scene is brought to life with the lighting and texturing capabilities of Maxon Redshift, creating a visually rich and fun 3D space environment.

The visual reference for this animation was inspired by images generated in MidJourney, which I often use to help visualise an initial concept. This inspiration helped the development of the color schemes and atmosphere of this animation.

A key highlight of this project is the rocket cloud animation. The smoke effect was created by using a particle emmiter in combination with a Mograph cloner to create the initial animation. I then baked the animation as an alembic and used the Volume Mesher to ensure that the animation did not intersect with the surrounding geometry. I then used the Volume Mesher to create the geometry that was ready for texturing.

In texturing and lighting, I leveraged Redshift's area lights, dome light, and an HDRI to replicate the subtle low lighting of my reference images. The creation of Redshift shaders using Ambient Occlusion (AO) and Fresnel nodes resulted in the subtle holographic effects.

Compositing in Adobe After Effects, I utilized multiple passes from Redshift, including a Cryptomatte which allowed me to target specific materials for color adjustment. I composited the background using a mixture of gradients and video to add the final touch to this fun 3D space animation.