The Cause
'Catastrophe' is 3D animation short film where we follow a mysterious black cat around a post-apocalyptic city. Throughout the film, we see glimpses and hints of what caused the catastrophic event. The environment was modelled in Maya and then textured within Unreal Engine. In Unreal Engine, we created realistic environments and visually captivating backgrounds for the film. New Charttiwong modelled our cat, and its hair was groomed by Ashlyn Koh. I was in charge of the 3D environments and the operator for Unreal Engine.
“Catastrophe” is a 3D-animated short film centred around a cat that wonders around a post-apocalyptic city where we, as the audience, figure out the cause of the destruction. We chose the post-apocalypse genre because the group and I liked its concept and aesthetic; as for the cat, we thought it would be a unique method to have the cat be the centre of the story while the camera follows it around the ruins. Narratology, contextualisation, pre-visualisation, and heuristics are the methodologies that were applied while making this project. My research question is: “how can I use mood lighting in conjunction with foreshadowing to create a visually captivating 3D animated film whilst also producing a sense of suspense?”. This film was produced by New Charttiwong, Ashlyn Koh, and me.
