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A.I.slaughter
2024
Director: Chen Chun Che
"A.I. Slaughter" is my graduation project from the Department of Animation at the Taipei National University of the Arts. It's a 3D computer-animated film that combines motion graphics and 2D hand-drawn animation effects. The story is set in a Cyberpunk world in 2088, in a fictional version of Taiwan where politics and economy are monopolized by large corporations. Among them, there's a secret army controlled by the national-level enterprise TSMO. This A.I. army, equipped with the latest technology and power, secretly eliminates political enemies or carries out covert missions. Moreover, the A.I.s, with their self-awareness, engage in deadly battles amongst themselves.
Animated shorts film PV
3D Animation
Production Duration
In terms of scheduling, the pre-production experiments and designs were carried out from August to September 2023. From October to December, the focus was on character modeling and texturing, as well as basic scene modeling. The first promotional video (PV) was produced in November. From late December to early February 2024, we worked on creating the final animatic. After completing the animatic, all 3D animations were produced from March to April, followed by lighting, rendering, and post-production in April and May. Music composition and sound effects discussions began in February, and the final score was completed by early May. The voice acting was done using ElevenLAB, where I recorded my own voice, and the AI-generated the final output, which was completed around the animatic stage.
Animation Process
The overall dynamic approach aims for a more realistic feel, though certain elements will retain a more animated style to maintain the essence of an animation. Most of the attacks in the combat scenes are designed to target vital points, which will be elaborated upon in the character dynamics section. Almost all of the combat animations were supported by 2D animatics. Since this is my first complete 3D animation project, I felt that using the medium I'm most familiar with would ensure better quality for the 3D aspects, and it also allowed me to better manage composition and layout as I would in 2D. During the 3D production, many parts only reached the blocking stage, and I had to take some shortcuts with splining due to the tight schedule.
AE Process
After rendering in layers with Blender, I primarily conducted post-production in Adobe After Effects. Due to hardware limitations, I ultimately chose to use Blender 3.6 Eevee for layered rendering. Eevee lacks motion blur, and its lighting is more diffuse compared to Cycles, which has a very realistic look. I felt Eevee better suited the animation feel I wanted.
In After Effects, I mainly used the built-in ExtractoR to read the EXR files rendered from Blender. Since AE tends to misinterpret the colors of these files, I had to use the Color Profile Converter to correct the colors. Then, through multi-channel processing, each character underwent color adjustments and metallic correction in AE. The main channels I adjusted were DiffDer, GlossDir, Emit, AO, and image channels. The background was similarly redesigned in AE. Each shot was fine-tuned using multiple Adjustment Layers and Masks for Lumetri Color adjustments. After pre-composing, I used Optics Compensation and 3D Glasses for fake curved perspective effects, Chromatic RGB dispersion, and stylized spot effects in the animation. These effects were inspired by "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (Sony Pictures, 2018). Initially, these effects were planned to be completed in Blender, but it was found that doing them in AE reduced the rendering load on Blender and offered better adjustment flexibility. Therefore, the final post-production was completed in AE, and I was quite satisfied with the results.
The First version of Animatic
Model and Art Design
Modeling the characters was the part where I spent the most time, possibly even more than on the animation itself, as I was almost completely new to modeling. My design sketches were quite rough, focusing mainly on highlighting the characters' appearances. Most of the detailed design work was done during the sculpting phase.
For scene design, there were three main environments: the initial wide shot, the main shopping street for the chase sequence, and the plaza in the shopping street for the final battle. While they appear connected, each scene was created separately. The scene designs aimed to create a vision of Taiwan under a Cyberpunk 2088 world. I drew inspiration from many local Taiwanese brands and internationally known brands to create various signs scattered throughout the animation.
Most of the scene modeling relied on paid assets from Kitbash and Blender Market, which I then modified and rebuilt to save time. My focus was never on showcasing advanced scene modeling skills, so I considered this a reasonable investment. Additionally, I created all the signs myself, aiming to avoid the generic look of common assets and to incorporate Taiwanese characteristics or imagination. Despite this, I tried to minimize the time and computational energy required, reducing rendering demands as much as possible. For example, almost all the illuminated signs were simply flat surfaces with textures and emission materials.
A.I. Assassin Model
A.I. Samurai Model
The First Rendering and Combining Art Concept
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