Azraïn - Graduation Movie
First part - Ancient Tale
Puppets - Azraïn
Maya
Modeling / Texturing by Shade Laffond
Animation by Marcelin Lamaty
Compositing by Me
We also put a lot of thought into the visual style. For us, the artistic choices had to reinforce every image. That is why we imagined the first part of the film in a hybrid 2D/3D style, similar to "The tale of the three brothers" sequence in Harry Potter. This “ancient tale” treatment creates distance and a melancholic poetry around their past. The second part shifts into a semi-realistic, full 3D style for the combat scenes, where the tension rises and the story becomes more raw and intense.
Challenges
These characters was created using Advanced Skeleton in Autodesk Maya to ensure a fast and efficient rigging process in the production cause puppets are only used for the first part and their animations was simple. The use of an auto-rig solution allowed the rig to be built quickly while still providing reliable deformation and animation controls. By leveraging Advanced Skeleton, rig setup time was significantly reduced, helping the team stay within tight production deadlines. The rig integrates smoothly into the animation pipeline and remains easy to adjust if updates were required. This approach optimized workflow efficiency while maintaining the necessary level of quality for the character’s role in the project.