TRAINWRECK LOOP
TRAFFIC JAM
Design Challenge
To develop a complex animation that loops seamlessly, even when an unexpected glitch or disaster seems to disrupt it, yet despite the apparent chaos, the motion folds back into itself, maintaining a perfect loop.
Software
Cinema 4D
After Effects
Substance Painter
RESEARCH
TYPICAL SATISFYING LOOP
A typical satisfying loop animation usually has a simple art style and no real meaning behind it, focusing only on the smooth motion and how it resets perfectly to repeat again and again.
INTERESTING SATISFYING LOOP
For more examples check out more of womaszwomasz’s work here
The loops that stood out to me were stylized, featuring unexpected animations that broke the object’s normal state, often playing with perspective and moving quickly.
CONCEPT
Traffic Jam
Stuck in traffic, a car grows impatient, honking nonstop, until a giant truck crashes through, running over the cars behind. To escape, the car sprouts legs and lets the truck pass beneath. Relieved, it celebrates, only for the traffic to reset beneath it, restarting the loop.
STORYBOARD
ANIMATION DEVELOPMENT
SECOND PASS
For my second pass at animation pass I focused on animating the extending legs and adding multiple angles and cuts to make the animation more diverse in scenery and pacing.
I also received critique on this pass which included focusing developing the textures for the animation and to animate the bg cars.
For this project, I challenged myself with both animation and rendering, aiming for a painterly texture in Redshift. After experimenting, I combined two tutorial methods, one using Substance Painter as seen HERE and another with an extruding brush plate as seen HERE. This approach kept the painterly look without distorting the model’s shape.
FIRST PASS
For my first pass at animation pass I focused on making the modeling new more complex cars and animating the legs in a way that was satisfactory.
I also received critique on this pass which included focusing on adding more animation, that the car should feel like a more organic character.
THIRD PASS
For my Third animation pass I focused on choosing a flattering color palette that would make the piece more engaging and in correcting the UV’s so that the texture would look appealing on the model.
I also received critique on this pass which included focusing on animating the collision of the cars and monster truck and to finish texturing my scene.
TEXTURE DEVELOPMENT
PAINT BRUSH TEXTURE
TECHNICAL EXECUTION
In order to get my 1st painterly texture to properly wrap around my models I had to go in and make sure that every model had proper UV maps so that the textures didn’t overlap.
I layered paint textures over a painterly base from Substance Painter, making the red car stand out through both its vibrant color and stylized look.
I would Build Out my Scene in Cinema 4D making sure that I didn’t make more then the camera captured so that the render time wasn’t high
After rendering, I imported the scenes into After Effects for color correction and added a halftone effect to give it a unique look and tie everything together.
SOCIAL MEDIA MOCK UPS
FINAL THOUGHTS
By stepping out of my comfort zone in Redshift, I aimed to create a painterly, energetic texture. Combined with the fun, expressive animation and short length, it’s designed to grab attention and hold it while people scroll through social media.