Showcase

Me To You

With its grey fur, blue nose and patches this little bear has captured the hearts of millions all over the world. Tatty Teddy is there for every occasion offering a timeless message of love, happiness and friendship.

A Toy Story

Our film followed Tatty Teddy and the life of an unseen character from their birth to their first time as a mum, with various moments such as graduation, Valentine's Day and marriage in between. The story culminated in a magical transition to a photorealistic Christmas scene.

Bear Witness

Bringing Tatty to life

Me To You's Tatty Teddy is an iconic character that has captured the hearts of millions of people across the world. To celebrate its 25 years of the Moments that Matter, Carte Blanche Greetings commissioned Fudge to create a Christmas film that would bring Tatty Teddy to life in a highly unique treatment that would capture the essence of their famous cards.

To create the film, the famous Tatty Teddy was built, rigged, and animated in 3D software Maya. Maya was also used to light, texture and render the character using the redshift render engine. The fur simulation for the bear was created based on studies of the fur from the real bear, which added a sense of realism to the character.

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Wireframe

The design phase is a really important stage in the process of creating CGI characters, objects and environments. Our 2D artists start by creating sketches which are used to produce a final concept art illustration. This 2D visual communication tool then acts as a 'blueprint' for our CGI modellers. Preparing a 2D version of the object gives Directors and Producers an opportunity to address design challenges and to make any necessary adjustments before moving onto the time consuming CG modeling phase,

Texturing

This is the process of transforming 2D designs into 3D models. These wireframe structures (like The Socialbie's Treehouse on the right) are composed of vertices, edges, and polygons. Optimisation is important to ensure that the model functions properly and doesn't break when in use. The type of CG software employed depends largely on the complexity of the models or level of detail required. At Fudge we have CG artists proficient in ZBrush, Autodesk Maya, Blender, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, and Houdini.

Texturing

Lighting adds a sense of depth and dimensionality to our CG model and the way in which light interacts with a scene can give the asset a sense of weight and volume. Lighting can also be used to create a specific mood or emotion, such as a bright and sunny day or a dark and moody night scene. Additionally, different lighting techniques can be used to highlight specific features of an object or character, such as highlighting the texture of a surface or emphasising the contours of a character's face.

Groom

CGI Grooming is the process of generating splines across a 3D model's surface, which can realistically simulate the appearance of hair, fur, or other fuzzy textures. Splines are typically used in place of the polygons that we use for the modelling of the majority of CG objects as it's more computationally efficient. For splines to look realistic, they must be organised into clusters to create a more natural appearance, adding noise for randomness, and using 'comb tools' to manually adjust them.

Final Render

In simple terms, rendering is the process of transforming a 3D model and into a 2D image. The technical process involves complex mathematical calculations and light physics which simulate the way light interacts with surfaces on the CG model. A virtual camera considers each of the pixels, assess its color, material, and any nearby light before creating a detailed image. Rendering times can be significantly reduced through optimisation and more powerful machines can also help speed up the process.

Creating CGI Greeting Card Backgrounds

The brand wanted to complement the style of the Me To You cards by situating 3D Tatty Teddy in an illustrative, black and white world. The CGI environments were built and rendered in Cinema 4D. To ensure seamless integration of the character and background, camera data was exported from Maya and imported into Cinema 4D, which allowed the camera to move in the same way it did in Maya.

Once the backgrounds were rendered, they were overlaid behind the 3D renders of the bear, creating a visually unique style which matched the Me To You cards. All of this was then comped together in After Effects, where visual effects such as particles, smoke, and fire were added to enhance the overall experience of the film.

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