Mr. Blob
Cleans Up
FALL 2020 | SHORT FILM
Mr. Blob Cleans Up is a 3D animated short film about curiosity and cabin fever. We follow Mr. Blob, a square-shaped creature with no arms or mouth, who desperately wants to find out what's behind the door—the only other thing besides himself in the vast void he lives in.
Software: Maya, Blender, Adobe After Effects
Mr. Blob Cleans Up
Mr. Blob Cleans Up is a film that echoes the frustration, loneliness, and boredom felt during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That time was filled with uncertainty and anxiety for everyone, and I wanted to lift the mood with a simple story about a zany little square.
Ideation
During the early development of Mr. Blob Cleans Up, I knew I needed to focus on simple storylines, as the film had a maximum time requirement of 2 minutes.
Mr. Blob Cleans Up concept art
Mr. Blob himself actually was a blob-like creature at the beginning, before he morphed into the lovable square you see in the final film.
Story
Development
With Mr. Blob Cleans Up, I wanted to tell a complete story within a very short timeframe, around one to one-and-a-half minutes.
I chose to create a story that was minimalist, taking place in an almost-empty void with only one living thing inside (Mr. Blob himself), but that drew on feelings we're all familiar with.
The itchy, confining frustration we feel when we're stuck in a helpless situation.
The bubbling excitement felt on Christmas morning as a kid, before you've seen what's underneath the tree.
In Mr. Blob Cleans Up, Mr. Blob and the audience are able to travel between these two wildly different emotions, while they wait to find out what lies behind the door.
Mr. Blob Cleans Up early animatic
Character
Development
Mr. Blob is a very simple character, he only has two legs, two eyes, and two eyebrows—but don't let his lack of features fool you into thinking he's inexpressive!
Mr. Blob was my first venture into modeling and rigging a 3D character. I knew that in order to meet my deadlines, I needed a character that was easy to animate, but still able to convey a wide range of emotions.
Mr. Blob's facial rig demo + expressions
Mr. Blob's body rig demo + various poses
Mr. Blob's facial rig is blend shape-based and includes the ability to move his eyebrows entirely off of his face, as well as many different eyebrow shape attributes.
His eyes are able to be scaled up and down, and his pupils can be scaled independently from his sclera, letting Mr. Blob make a whole host of exaggerated expressions!
Mr. Blob's rig includes IK legs, a Foot Roll, and a Toe Roll.
His square-shaped torso can also rotate in four places to enable him to make all kinds of wacky poses.
He is also equipped with Squash/Stretch attributes on his torso, as well as stretchy limbs.