Pre-project

From the beginning of the project, I have participated in meetings to discuss what is necessary to start the project, what deliverables we need to receive, what should be done on the production set, and I review stages, deadlines, and references.
In this project, I requested a series of 360° photos so that I could assemble an HDRI to help achieve more realistic lighting, since the 3D needed to integrate seamlessly with the original footage. I also requested the dimensions of the piano, the keys, and the cart.

Modeling

The team was able to send me the cart for modeling. The initial plan was to perform a 3D scan of the entire cart to obtain the correct proportions and also scan each piece individually to preserve mesh resolution. However, this proved unnecessary because we found several parts online in STL format, so we only modeled the missing pieces and assembled the entire cart piece by piece. This process was faster for our team because it allowed us to divide tasks and work in parallel.

Animation

I suggested the idea of transforming the entire piano into LEGO before the cart passed. The original concept was for the cart to roll over the piano and for the keys to explode in the process; however, this approach would have required us to reconstruct the entire piano realistically, perform perfect tracking with the original scene, and remove the original piano from the shot. By following my proposal, the LEGO piano would sit on top of the original one, eliminating the need for perfect alignment and providing greater freedom for animation. This allowed us to increase the number of keys to create a larger ramp for the cart, achieve a more favorable height for the wheels on the keys, and make a slight adjustment to the original camera to improve the shot.
The LEGO piano assembly had to undergo several animation tests to achieve perfect timing between the child’s action and the cart’s movement, ensuring it was neither too fast nor too slow to leave sufficient screen time for the cart.
Animating the cart was challenging because it needed to be the scene’s highlight. The total duration of the scene was approximately five seconds, with only two seconds dedicated to the cart. The cart needed to appear to be moving at high speed while remaining on screen as long as possible and conveying dynamism. Instead of having it simply move in a straight line and jump at the end, I proposed a drift, as if it were trying to regain control after the explosion.
The idea of having the keys explode as the cart passed was discarded because there was already a lot happening in just five seconds. This allowed us to keep the focus on the cart more easily.

Simulation

For the simulations of the piano being assembled, I used Maya’s MASH, which is a very precise and practical tool for this type of animation. Together with the car rig, I was able to automatically control the lowering of the keys, which was more practical than reanimating the keys for every one of the numerous animation tests.
Afterward, I exported the results in Alembic format for lookdev and final rendering in 3ds Max, which in my opinion has more practical tools for lookdev (although I prefer Maya’s organizational structure for animation projects).

Render

I used Redshift for Maya in this animation. Redshift, being a GPU renderer, is an excellent choice for animations due to its speed. In VFX projects, it is always my first option, especially because of the agility it provides during tests.