"Umbrellas in the Sun" was our final group project for our studies at Howest DAE. This ambitious endeavour began with preproduction during the summer of 2024, even before the semester officially started, and it has been a labour of love and dedication ever since. Alongside four incredibly talented and passionate artists and friends, I poured my heart and soul into this project.
My primary focus was on rigging and animation. This project pushed me to grow both technically and creatively, and I’m thrilled with how I could contribute to bringing our characters and story to life. Working closely with such a skilled and motivated team has been an inspiring experience, and seeing all of our hard work come together into a cohesive, heartfelt film has been nothing short of rewarding.
We’re incredibly proud of "Umbrellas in the Sun," our "little movie" that carries a piece of each of us. Blood, sweat, and tears went into this film. It’s more than just a project—it’s a testament to our shared vision, relentless effort, and love for storytelling.
For now the final movie is still hidden, until it hits the big screens on a variety of upcoming film festivals... Stay tuned!
My lovely team members:
Klaas De Geest - 3D assets, lighting, procedural, rendering, compositing
https://www.artstation.com/klaasdegeest
Siebrand Verhulst - design, storyboard, animation
https://www.artstation.com/siebrandverhulst3
Jill Corne - 3D characters and environment
https://www.artstation.com/jill_corne
Stefan Schrauwen - simulations and rendering
https://www.artstation.com/stefanschrauwen
Kenza De Nolf - music
https://www.instagram.com/dg2fx/
Matthias Peene - sound design
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthias-peene-a61093198/
The final movie is hidden until we release it at multiple Film Festivals! Stay tuned...
Some of the rigs I made for this project
Since the drop of water is an important story element, we wanted to have maximum control over its shape and manually animate it. So I created a rig with volume preservation.
Bucket rig with two modes for where to let the bucket dangle from
Some of my favourite animation shots that I worked on
Demo of the creature rig
Demo of the child rig