University Project
The Team: Keiani Allen, Jason Rios, Ben Uribe
My Roles: Project Manager, Producer, Motion Capture Technician, 3D Asset Acquisition, and Co-Editor
The Goblin Gambit is a story of friendship, loss, and determination. Inside of a medieval dungeon guarded by knights, a goblin goes looking for its companion. Will he be able to evade all the traps set for him? Will he find his companion?
Planning
For the planning of this film, we did everything over Google Slides for ease of creating our film proposals and final presentation.
Jason's initial idea was a goblin-like create (on all fours) infiltrates enemy territory and sneaks through in order to find some "grub" (film was named The Grub Goblin tentatively). The inspiration came from stealth video games and the goblin from Lord of the Rings.
Moodboard
Ben compiled images from online and created more specific images using Midjourney.
Storyboards
After workshopping key plot points and the overall arc of the story, Jason drew out storyboards of each scene. Not all of the scenes that were drawn out were included as there were limitations in our skill level and project turnover time. Here are a few panels of Jason's storyboards here:
3D Asset Acquisition
I was in charge of locating 3D assets that fit with our story. The assets I needed to find included a setting, preferably a large space with lots of places to hide, soldiers or knights, and main goblin characters. None of us were able to financially invest in the project so all the assets had to be free.
Previs
Before shooting in the motion capture volume, we wanted to ensure that all of the movements made sense and we had a plan for the type of movements both characters would be doing. For that, we recorded these previsualizations to get a preview of the motion we do later in the project.
Motion Capture Behind-the-Scenes
I was the motion capture technician and director for this project meaning that I was in charge of setting up the mocap volume and actors suits, directing the actors (Jason and Ben), and editing the motion capture footage in post-production. The motion capture shoot went well and we got all the shots we needed to complete the film.
Performance Direction
Here's a video of me directing Jason in acting and making adjustments to the motion capture volume!
Thanks and Credits
I'd like to thank Jason and Ben for working on this project with me! They're both amazing group members who went above and beyond to get this project completed.
Jason Rios was the creative director of the project and created the whole story. He was also the Director of Photography and in charge of the final edit.
Ben Uribe led sound direction, previsualization, and was the look designer in the pre-production stage of the film.
Both Jason and Ben were motion capture actors! Thank you for putting the suits on and allowing me to direct the mocap!
*We do not own the rights to the music or sound effects used in this film*
What Did I Learn from this Project?
From this project, I learned a lot of creative project management skills as well as how to run the motion capture volume. This was our second time using motion capture as a group and we had a lot more independence to try things out and play around in the volume more.
I also developed my performance direction skills a lot. I recorded many videos of myself directing the actors and realized that I needed to be clearer in my verbal directions as well as be more confident to show them exactly what I want by doing the action physically.
Lastly, I learned how to use Unreal Engine in this course. This was the 2nd project I had ever done in Unreal and had so much fun exploring 3D assets we acquired.
Overall, I had a great time learning motion capture with Ben and Jason and would love to work with them on future projects.
