Ritz Christmas Advert
In collaboration with Frame Twenty Four
For this high-profile project for The Ritz London, I was brought on to handle several technical aspects of their Nutcracker-themed animation. My primary role was to create a custom rig for the Nutcracker model they provided, retargeting mocap and integrating IK constraints to ensure smooth an efficient animation workflow. I also utilized the Animation Layers addon to clean up the motion capture data, which made it easier to refine the animation directly on the model.
It’s important to note that while I was responsible for rigging, motion capture cleanup, and the physics simulations, I was not involved in designing or modeling the Nutcracker character, nor in creating final textures, lighting, or rendering. That was all down to the incredibly talented people over at Frame Twenty Four.
Final Product
Fixing the arms
When I first got the job one of the first parts I noticed I was going to have to do to make it look right was lock off the arms to one axis. As the actual Nutcracker dolls arms can normally only rotate on one pin joint.
I had to remove the rotation from the arm bones and straighten them out before retargeting to the existing mesh. I ended up creating a python script that would do all the changes to the mocap armature automatically to steamline the process for me.
Stacking Performances
One of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of this project was stacking three separate motion capture performances together.
By utilizing IK and track-to contstraints, I managed to stack the performances seamlessly while retaining the distinct motion of each layer. The result was a complex yet cohesive animation that highlighted the Nutcracker character's charm and movement.
Cloth Simulation
I used Houdini to design and simulate a realistic cloth parachute. The process began with modeling it to ensure the simulation behaved naturally. I then set up a vellum cloth system and adjusted stiffness and bend values until it worked how I wanted.
The cords connecting the parachute were rigged to interact dynamically, responding to forces like gravity and wind while carrying the cake down to the plate. This was then brought into Blender and I used a surface deform contraint on the same mesh with better topology, for them to put whatever logo they wanted on the chute.
Cloth Simulation
Another partof this was creating the simulation of two Nutcrackers bouncing a cake off a napkin and into the air.
I designed this scene in Houdini, using vellum cloth simulations to replicate the flexibility and responsiveness of the napkin, with a bit of creative liberty. The cake was set up as a shapematch vellum, with careful adjustments to ensure realistic collisions and interaction between the cloth and the cake.
Then brought that into Blender and again used a surface deform constraint on the napkin photoscan so it would react like the sim.