Our Picks: Area 52 by Chan Jun Chun

Area 52 by Chan Jun Chun

Area 52 is a SVA BFA Computer Arts senior thesis project. It is the story of war between humans and monsters that were created from nuclear radioactivity on judgment day. The Book of Revelations 12:9 says ‘The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ Humans run away and hide themselves, but monsters overrun most of the continents and humans start to build a new weapon that can protect them from monsters. They build their own angel to fight against devils.

Directors Notes

Area 52 is a CG based realistic short story animation. I started with a variety of concept art for robot modeling and took references of transformations from movie ‘Transformers’. Monsters from Pacific Rim were used as references for anatomy and movements. I made soldiers, robot, monsters and the environment modelings with Autodesk Maya 2015, and UVed with UV Layout. I rigged also in Autodesk Maya and used custom scripts because of the high polygon modelings. While animating, I first started lighting by using lots of volumetric lights and small point light to show big scale area. Lastly, I composited with Nuke for z-depths and color correction. Stock images of smoke and breaking rock debris were added and the dusts was made with particle in After Effects and Nuk. The sound design was made with Protools.