Raya Castaneda
Art Creation
«
Stylized Octopus Character Animation Set
My master’s thesis project was a set
of five stylized animations of Otto the
Octopus, a character whose personality
quality standard.
I developed throughout the course of the I completed this project over the course of
both real-life octopi behavior and famous and improved my skills in rigging,
project. His movements were inspired by
cartoon characters like Finding Dory’s
Hank the Octopus and Lucas the Spider.
I chose to animate a stylized octopus
for a few reasons. Octopi are fascinating
and mysterious creatures, and I wanted
to challenge myself to animate such a
strange and exotic creature. I also wanted
to take on a project that would not only
highlight my understanding and mastery
of the character animation pipeline, but
also would be a standout artifact for
my animation portfolio. Lastly, I wanted
to prove, both to myself and to future
employers, that I can take a complex
10
character rig and animate it to a high-
ART CREATION
five months. During that time, I developed
animation, and facial animation. I learned
advanced rigging techniques in both Maya
and 3DS Max, and I used those newfound
skills to improve the facial rigging system
for Otto. This project also gave me the
chance to go through the animation
pipeline from storyboard to completion.
Because animation has become a bigger
part of the video game industry, animators
with these skills are highly sought.