Gessnerallee Octopus

Client: Gessnerallee
Agency: Hammer
Live-Action Footage Tillo Spreng
My role: 3D-Character Creation and animation

Shading

I had the possibility to recreate the Gessnerallees Octopus mascott in 3D. My goal was to get as close as possible to the original 2D-Illustrations by Tomiris. The challenge of the project was to create a stylized Octopus that was easily integrated into live-action backdrops. I created a lot of iterations of the skin shader and eyes regarding color and the amount of stylization until we settled with the final design.

Rigging

It was clear from the start that the characters rig needed to be quiet flexible to match the illustrations, so I spent a lot of time with the rigging part of the project.

When talking about Octopuses we needed to talk about the eight legs or in this case six legs and two arm. I created a rig for the legs that made it possible to have them strech in a cartoony, pushed style without having the sucction cups deform in an unaesthetic way. Using a combination of constraints and deformers gave me the possibility to freely slide the cups along the tentacles.

Octopus Sucction-Cup Rig from Dominic Lutz on Vimeo.

Animation

Hammer gave me a lot of freedom regarding the animation. After they briefed me plot outline I could pitch them ideas for the animation with a rough blocking of the Octopus. This made it easy to explore the character of the Octopus which was already quiet defined through the 2D-Illustrations by Tomiris.

Additionally to the Octopus‘ appearances in Gessnerallees trailers for their theater cycles, Hammer also used the purple guy for print sujet in magazines, posters and on Gessnerallees website as a loading widget.

I’m very happy with the final animations and very thankful for the possibility to work together with Hammer on this fun character and I’m looking forward to what the Octopus will live through in the future.

Illustration_to_3D

3D-Adaptation (Illustration by Tomiris)

Octopus Shader Progression

Octopus Loading Animation

Octopus Facial Rig Test from Dominic Lutz on Vimeo.