WASP-76B
A 3D animation created with Cinema 4D, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe After Effects
Scientific Visualization Using 3D Animation (ARTIS 408), Professor Anson Call - Iowa State University
Task
For this project, I was tasked with creating a 3D animation about an exoplanet (a planet not in our solar system) of my own choice using Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects.
This animation had to meet the following requirements:
Have a clear beginning, middle, and end
Succinctly explore the details of an exoplanet
Use music that enhanced my message
Use only primitive shapes—with no complicated modeling
Be narrated by myself using a script I wrote
Be between forty-five seconds and one minute in length
Challenges
Redshift materials - This was my first time really using Redshift materials (or, at least, my first time creating my own), and I had a steep learning curve after using only the standard and physical renderers in Cinema 4D for the past couple years before this
Render times - I was using volume builders to create clouds in the third scene, and clouds are something that always takes a long time to render
Narrating - I, like most people, hate the sound of my own voice, so I really struggled with recording myself read my script and not cringe too much at it…
Final Result
I was able to successfully put together a nice little educational animation about the planet WASP-76B. I definitely struggled with learning how to use Redshift materials to suit my needs, as in the past, I had only used the pre-made ones from Cinema 4D's asset browser because I was so used to only using the standard and physical renderers. However, I was able to use masks and other Redshift material features to create some cool textures on the planet, sky, sun, and lava. I also was able to use the volume builder to create clouds, which was definitely the hardest part of this—it took a lot of research, as I was not as familiar with volume builders/VDBs yet, but I got it done. Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this project, as I learned a lot and still have a cool animation to show for it. I still haven't quite gotten over the sound of my own voice narrating it, but I appreciate that being part of the assignment, as the point of that requirement was to deal with that exact challenge.
