![]() I knew that the majority of the bushes would be set down by using both instancing and particles. I then set down 3 main cylinders to be the 3 trunks that you can see in the background. I tried to set it “somewhat” to scale and set myself up at about 1.75 ( cough cough) 1.83 meters to make sure the lighting I added would react in a more proper way that I could understand. So I set up the two of us in the proper spots, her as Totoro and me as Satsuki. I was also using EEVEE at this time to get the base down for the scene. Once I was happy, I added in the PNGs as image textures. I used “lock camera to view” to set up the world space to better fit the background image, using the grid as the floor. Once I had the base images ready, I moved into Blender and set the film’s screencap as a background in my camera. After Effects was the first software I learned when I started doing animations, motion graphics, and compositing so I move the fastest with it for stuff like this. I then took both of the photos into After Effects and rotoscoped them into PNGs with transparent backgrounds. While holding an umbrella open in the house I would take a photo, then look at it, then take another, etc. Then I cleaned out part of my kitchen and set up lights to mimic the street lamp that's casting light into the scene. ![]() I own a Canon 70D and set it up with a 50mm lens on a tripod with a timer. After that, I took a proper photo of myself. I’ve never snapped so many photos with a phone so fast. ![]() Then one day I'm at my desk and look over my shoulder and there she is. Kairi hates cameras and phones, she knows when you are trying to take a picture of her, and she almost never sits up and still for long enough. I knew first I needed an image of the two of us looking forward. I started the piece with the bus scene screencap and studied the hell out of it. So I thought that would be a fun challenge as well. I’ve seen lots of people mimic Ghibli in Blender, but never styled as realism, just as either 2D or 3D anime. This first one mimics the bus scene from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro. So I thought it’d be fun if the two of us tried to remake some of the scenes from the shows we watch. She especially loves anything with cats in it, go figure. A particular quirk we have is watching anime together she actually comes running to join me when I start up a show or film. My girlfriend recently got us (the cat and I) a scrapbook to keep memories of us in. She was an abandoned runt with tiny back legs, but is an absolute ball of love. I’ve had this cat since she was about 6 weeks old and could fit in the palm of my hand. My cat Kairi turned 11 this year, and she had just recovered from some liver problems. A lot of my work up until that moment had been from classes or were more experiments and sculpting practice than a completed, thought-out piece. This particular image was a challenge to myself to create a piece of work that was personal. I have a serious addiction when it comes to art projects and learning new things. I love making everything from VFX to animations to paper cutouts to what have you. I just love exploring all aspects of the software and how to marry them together with the other programs I know. I’m also a member of the cult of Ian Hubert. Soon after that I signed up with CG Cookie and have been learning how to better hone my skills within Blender. Very soon after they released version 2.8 with EEVEE and I was hooked. He showed me almost everything Blender had to offer at the time and I fell in love almost instantly. So I bought a class on Udemy from a guy with a REALLY thick French accent and he was honestly one of the best teachers I could have asked for. Right-click was a foreign concept to me at that time. Blender was at version 2.79 at the time, and the first time I opened it I couldn’t figure out how to even select the cube and immediately closed it. I was looking for something new that could help me get more into the world of 3D. Whenever I make enough money to spare, I usually spend it on classes, software, and equipment to keep myself updated and always exploring new techniques. I’m mostly self-taught when it comes to everything else. So instead I studied film theory and traditional 2D animation. None of what I do now (software-wise) existed when I went to college and I'm only 36. I mostly just worked with After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro at the time-with the very light occasional dip into Cinema 4D. I found Blender about 3 years ago while working as a motion graphics editor. ![]() I have no formal education in 3D and it absolutely eats at my soul. Currently, I work as a post-production generalist for YouTuber Philip DeFranco and in my free time I’m a mixed media digital artist and filmmaker. Hey there, my name is Will Crespo and I live in Los Angeles, California.
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