Frauline
Berga
Frauline Berga is a 3D animated short film about lonely kids and grumpy pseudo-grandmas (who are actually aunts). Nora, a young girl with a playful but occasionally bratty disposition is forced to go on a trip to the art museum with her disgruntled aunt, Berga. While at the museum, Nora uses her startlingly realistic imagination to run away from Berga—and her problems at home.
FALL 2021-SPRING 2022 | SHORT FILM
Software: Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Adobe After Effects, Procreate
Frauline Berga rough animation
Ideation
Originally, Frauline Berga would've followed Berga, a disgraced and disgruntled former artist as she's roped into substitute teaching for her younger sister's kindergarten class. There's a twist however: the class is taking a field trip to the art musem, where Berga would have to face her fears and former humiliation.
Some experiments with Berga's hairstyle.
This idea was dropped after I realized how horrible animating 15-20 five-year-olds would be.
Nora and Berga's designs begin to take form!
Explorations of Nora's color palette, facial features, clothing, and attitude! She's a little bit bratty, but makes up for it with her earnest curiosity.
Concept
Art
Prop designs for Berga's apartment and Nora's house.
Beat boards and concept pieces. They tell the basic outline of the story in seven or eight images. Swipe through to see them in chronological order!
Story
Development
Here's the first storyboard of Frauline Berga!
It's 742 frames and seven minutes long. I wanted to include as much detail and rough animation as I could (including lip flaps) in order to make it easier for me to animate later on.
The seven minutes were eventually cut down to five and half, and then finally down to four minutes, all but eliminating some unnecessary and clunky scenes that did nothing to further the story.
Character
Development
Nora's final design
Nora's final design. You can still see the influence of the early kindergarten class plot line in Nora's outfit—it's very school girl-ish.
I chose a blue color palette for Nora's shirt and skirt both because it really pops against her hair, and to put her in contrast with Berga's muted red tones.
Berga's final design
Berga's final design. I wanted her to look mature, but not frumpy. While the "formerly-failed modern artist" aspect of her character was left out of the final film, you can still get the sense that Berga is classy mid-century lady.
I chose a muted warm palette for Berga's sweater and pants both because it directly opposes Nora's color scheme. Blue represents youth and energy, whilst Berga warm tones show experience and stalwartness.
Nora's Rig Demo + various poses
Berga's Rig Demo + various poses
Both Nora's and Berga's 3D models were sculpted using ZBrush, and also retopologized using ZBrush.
They were rigged and weight-painted in Autodesk Maya.
Both of them have FK and IK arms and legs, as well as Foot Roll (Ball Roll) and Toe Roll using a reverse foot joint system.
Nora's Facial Rig Demo
Berga's Facial Rig Demo
Their faces use a joint-based facial rig, as opposed to blend shapes, in order to allow finer control over their mouths, eyes, and eyebrows to create a wider range of expressions.
Their eyelids are controlled using the Eye Control, which controls both the eye movement, as well as the eyelids themselves. The eyelids are coded (using MEL script) to react the eyeball movement. When either character looks up or down, the eyelids follow along with the eyeballs in a realistic manner.
Their tongues are controlled via the Jaw Control, and can move up and down, side to side, and roll in order to create every phoneme needed for accurate lip synching.