Love & Dust: The Rock Collector
A short film and personal project, and playground for experimentation in Blender environments and character rigging. Fair warning: includes swears.
I taught myself Blender 3D over the first lockdown of 2020, and since then have been learning and experimenting with different techniques. This project started as a way to challenge myself to build on previous ideas, create a short animation, and understand simple character rigging. I've since extended it out and added a voice-over and soundtrack, and continue to use it as a place to experiment with new animation, 3D modelling techniques, particle effects and ideas. Most recently, I've extended out the landscape for the wider shots, and added mist, among a few other updates.
Everything in here I designed and created, including the music, except for the plants and butterfly rig, which were pre-existing assets. And if you're interested/also a nerd: it was rendered in Cycles; sample rate has been kept low purely for the sake of keeping render times as short as possible, but you'll get the idea.
Love & Dust explores the meaning, purpose, and value of existence from the perspective of a lonely rock-collecting robot.
But if that makes it sound even remotely high-brow, it's not (you'll need to watch it all the way through for the humour to land). Creativity and ideas should be an enjoyable process – if it's not enjoyable, you're over-thinking it. This one's just for fun.
