To accomplish the specific tone Vucko was after, a whole bunch of R&D time went into investigating different plugins, effect techniques, and code-based solutions to create this tale tail.
In the end, we found success by augmenting a commercial particle solution with some code-based behaviour controls.
Look & Feel
The main brief called for the tail to move in a viscous, residual manner; as the character moved, the tail should lag behind it, but "clump up" as if affected by thick air resistance whenever there was a pause, before snapping back to life as the character continued moving.
To accomplish this, we relied on the particle engine to draw the core path, and had our expression solution applied to integrate the movement of the character itself, so that the artist could freely animate the character and know the tail would trail.
Direction
Andrew Vucko
Design
- Andrew Vucko
- Daniel Luna
Animation
- Phil Borst
- Luis Campos
- Sebastian Curi
- Seth Eckert
- Daniel Luna
- Arm Sattavorn
- Andrew Vucko
Script
- Caroline Leung
- Andrew Vucko
Technical Direction
Zack Lovatt
Sound Design & Music
CYPHER