Wander

Wander is a student film created at SCAD during the 2018-2019 school year. It is directed by Erin O’Neal. The film is about a girl named Nia who learns to respect nature and animals during her adventure through the forest. More information about the film, including a trailer and information about everyone who worked on it, can be found here.

Wander won The Rookies Draft Selection, and The Rookies Excellence Award. It also was part of the RiverRun International Film Festival.

I worked on the film as additional help for look development and lighting.

Look Development

I helped texture Nia’s backpack and lunchbox, as well as the frog. I textured them using a combination of Photoshop and Substance Painter.

Below are the reference photos that I had for the assets:

Backpack

Nia’s backpack is a blue pleather backpack, which was later changed to blue and white, with buttons. I was never told what designs to put onto the buttons, so they remained solid colors.

Lunchbox

I was told to make the lunchbox slightly dirty and scratched up, since Nia, who owns the lunchbox, is a fairly rambunctious child. I was also told to incorporate these stickers, in roughly these locations:

Frog

In Wander, Nia encounters several animals, including a frog, which I was able to texture. While the reference photos of frogs that I received all varied slightly (such as differences in sliminess, warty-ness, or even slight color variations), they all had the same basic similarities: green, brown spots and stripes, a lighter underbelly, bumpy skin. Erin also wanted me to add mud to the frog’s feet.

Texturing Progress Pictures

Below are some in-progress photos I took as I was texturing each object. I would make my textures, do a test render, and send the render to either the director or the Wander crew for feedback.

Backpack

I initially made the backpack completely blue, since I thought that was what Erin wanted. However, the design got changed to blue and white. Then, Erin decided to add stitches, and she did a drawover to show me where to put them. I was never given designs to put on the buttons, or a go-ahead to put any designs at all on the buttons, so they stayed solid colors.

Lunchbox

I initially made the lunchbox very shiny, to match the shininess of the red metal lunchboxes in the reference photos I was given. However, Erin decided she did not want the lunchbox quite that shiny. So, I worked back and forth with her, dulling down the lunchbox, but using a roughness map to keep the stickers shiny, as well as finding out a good balance of wear and tear for the material.

Frog

The frog definitely went through the most changes! Initially, I made him fairly smooth, since I thought Erin wanted it to be more cartoony, similar to frog Prince Naveen in Wreck it Ralph 2. However, Erin and the rest of the Wander crew decided they wanted a more realistic frog, which meant that I had to make it slimier, bumpier, and wartier. I went through several iterations until I finally got the texture just right. The Wander crew gave me very helpful tips on the frog, such as the fact that their warts are not randomly strewn about (as I thought), but actually follow a pattern! Apparently, a frog’s warts are bigger and closer together at the very top of their back, and spread out and get smaller as they near the legs. They also told me that the brown spots are not one solid brown color, but actually consist of dark and light browns. I used these tips as I continued to refine the frog.

Lighting

Additionally, I helped with lighting a few shots. I mostly did shot lighting, but below is a shot that I did set dressing, master lighting, shot lighting, rendering, and compositing for. I went back and completely redid this shot after the school year ended, as an independent study for myself:

Below shows my master lighting setup:

I used an HDRi to create an overall forest fill light, paired with a spotlight to make up the sun and serve as my key. I also used some spotlights for character lighting, to make Nia pop in the scene more. The image below is the HDRi that I used, taken from HDRi Haven: