Behind the Scenes: Bunny in a Bunny Suit

INTRODUCTION

Greetings! I'm Isaac Huerta, a 22-year-old Mexican digital artist, who embarked on a journey with Blender around the age of 14 or 15.

My fascination with this powerful tool blossomed, leading me to enroll in a local design school for about a year and a half. Post my formal education, I delved deeper into the world of Blender through self-guided learning, relying on tutorials to enhance my skills.

Recently, I completed my bachelor's degree in Digital Arts, and throughout my academic journey, Blender has been the cornerstone of my creative projects. With over 7 years of dedicated study in 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, rigging, and animation, I have just begun to create projects by and for myself in a more professional way.

I am a creative, sensitive, and passionate individual with a perfectionist streak. Embracing challenges, I consistently strive to deliver my best for each project, always eager to expand my knowledge in the dynamic realm of 3D digital art, and always trying to convey emotion with my work and to express myself.

INSPIRATION

I embarked on this project with the primary goal of challenging myself. The idea was to create something independently that could match the quality, both technically and narratively, of the content I typically enjoy watching on TV, the internet, or even in cinemas.

While I acknowledge that this short film doesn't reach Pixar's level of quality or anything, I'm genuinely pleased with the outcome. During this creative journey, I stumbled upon Simone White and her music, becoming somewhat obsessed with it. The particular song that served as inspiration for this short film, Bunny in a Bunny Suit, resonated deeply with me. Through this project, I aimed to capture a bit of catharsis, expressing and reliving the emotions that the song evoked during that period.

PROCESS

Creating 'Bunny in a Bunny Suit' was an incredible journey, offering me valuable insights and an enjoyable experience throughout. The entire project, spanning approximately two months, unfolded within the versatile realm of Blender.

Modeling

My creative process began with the modeling and sculpting of the main character, the bunny and its suit, and certain pieces of furniture (because I had already crafted some of them previously for another project).

Environment

To build the cityscape, I used the Blosm addon for creating buildings, but then modified and remodeled individual components, ensuring a unique final result. The streets came to life with a blend of planes with tree textures on them which were used as the instances of a hair particle system, creating a lush, vibrant environment.

Rigging

The character rigging process involved utilizing Rigify, complemented by bendy bones for expressive ears and lattices for facial rigging. Suit animation incorporated both the existing rig and shapekeys.

A special rig for the zipper, inspired by Luwizart's YouTube tutorial, utilized transformation bone constraints for the zipper-like movement and hook modifiers and parents to synchronize the cloth movement with the zipper rig.

Animating

The animation, designed to mimic a stop-motion style, was executed at 12 frames per second, a deliberate choice for both aesthetic and practical reasons, considering my hardware limitations (AMD Ryzen 5 3600, NVIDIA GTX 1650 Super, 32GB RAM).

Cloth Simulations

Cloth simulations for the quilt and suit were seamlessly integrated, with colliders ensuring natural interactions, such as the bunny's awakening and the suit on a hanger. 

Fluid Simulations

Fluid simulations played a key role in scenes involving the cereal and the shower.

Overcoming challenges, like a spoon disrupting the fluid sim when parented to the bunny's hand, showcased the problem-solving aspect of the project. The carrots floating on milk utilized a shrinkwrap constraint, while those picked by the spoon were hand-animated.

The shower scene involved a high-resolution fluid sim, using the showerhead model as a collider.

Fur Simulation

The fur simulation, a pivotal element, combined particle systems and Geo Nodes fur systems. Achieving a wet fur effect was a standout challenge, resolved through a clever approach (inspired by a very old but very great tutorial by Stefan Forde) using weight paint, where the particle system of the water was the brush and the bunny model was the canvas.

The vertex group that resulted from the weight paint was used to control the hair particle system’s clump, kink and roughness. Then a “wet map” from the same weights was baked and used as a mask in the fur material, seamlessly transitioning between dry and wet fur. Little droplets were added later with the particle instance modifier.

Smoke

The smoking element introduced a simple smoke simulation, featuring a wiggly plane textured with a fire image for the lighter.

The cigarette, comprising burnt and unburnt states, was animated using shapekeys.

An emission shader added realism to the lit cigarette.

Material

Material creation involved a mix of procedural, PBR, and texture-painted surfaces. Blenderkit provided some materials, ensuring compliance with licensing requirements.

Rendering

The rendering process was complemented by the Destructive Film Simulator filter from Blendswap for that old film look,  enhancing the overall aesthetic. The final touch involved syncing the visuals with an apt musical soundtrack.

Final Outcomes

In essence, 'Bunny in a Bunny Suit' transcends being a technical project, emerging as a testament to the filmmaker's artistic vision, and dedication to storytelling through the medium of animation. This short film, with its intricate simulations, meticulous detailing, and creative problem-solving, showcases the fascinating possibilities within the Blender ecosystem. Each step, from modeling to rendering, contributes to the film's unique identity and captivating charm, solidifying its position as a remarkable fusion of technical prowess and artistic expression.

RENDER : Bunny in a Bunny Suit

Making of the artwork:

Thank you for reading this article. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me through any of my social media accounts. Have a great day!

About the Artist                       

Isaac Huerta is a passionate 3D artist who is starting his journey to become a renowned animation film director.