Last Journey Together - Dinosaur Animation

UnknownDino writes:

These are difficult times for this herd of sauropods and their little "companions".
Will they make it to the other side of the valley and what are they going to find there?
Heavily inspired by the difficult times we are going through. Stay safe!

• This is the next project created almost entirely in Blender 2.81
  Modeling, sculpting, rigging, animation, texturing, simulations, compositing, rendering (Eevee)
• Other software used: (photoshop for matte painting background) + Premiere (sound mixing)

1. Attempts
   (failed) epic comedic animation - realized it was too big half way through. (3 weeks wasted)
2. (failed) action packed sci-fi chase scene - after designing the futuristic bike i realized how complex the rest of the project was (1.5 weeks wasted)
3. (succeeded) slow dramatic animation focused mostly on the creatures. Time (1.5 months working part time)

Conclusion: avoid too much coffee in the planning stage.

Main goals:

• Full body movement through terrain - achieved through path following rig and walking loop.
  The final touches were to bake the feet IK to remove the sliding.
• Animation mixing - Multiple animation from multiple characters made NLA-editor necessary.
• Compositing: this was something new to me since i was making the jump from after effects but in the end i started feeling comfortable and it sped up the process since i could render it once.(not the safest practice though)
• Simulations - skin+protofeathers, particles, grass and dust. These extra elements added realism to the scene.

Behind the scenes below.

Thank you for your time!