#tldr 3d models are a lifesaver and my art looks very pretty and i wanna stick it on a fridge

[a-sweeter-solarsystem]

Behind the scenes time!!  There’s a lot for me to ramble about but in case some of y’all wanted more lore here it be~

Timeline

Calgrach, the awoken in the animation, spent most of his early time in the vanguard in a fireteam of corrupt guardians.  His leader, a hunter who was a former member of the Shadows of Yor, lead the fireteam on multiple missions to steal weapon data and attempt to use it against the vanguard.  From that connection, the stories of Shin Malphur were one of the very first things Cal had learned about.  Shin was a boogyman.  A figure who, if he didn’t follow his fireteam’s orders, would hunt him down and kill him.  There were many things that the fireteam used to scare Cal, and to this day Cal is still wary towards those who tell stories of the man with the golden gun. This animation depicts a moment in time where Cal saw Shin Malphur with his own eyes.  While out on patrol, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being followed.  At first, he thought it was one of his fireteam members pulling a nasty prank.  But, when he turned to confront them, he saw Shin starting down at him, golden gun in hand still smoking from the last bullet it shot.  Needless to say, the newlight hunter was mortified at the sight.  But, unlike what his team had warned him, Shin merely stared at him a moment before turning away.  He never said a word, never made any signs or gestures to him.  He just watched.  And then he left.  That small moment was a seed of doubt Shin planted in Cal’s mind that maybe his fireteam wasn’t what it seemed.

I'll give you a gift hunter.

One I do not give freely.

I see your blood is not stained in the same way their is.

They've wiped their hands on yours.

They've marked you.

They watch you, as do I.

You still have fire inside.

You've grown used to it, it feels cold.

Reignite it.

Burn the blind the placed on you.

And use the gift I've given you to break free.

Deliver them the thing they spit upon:

Mercy.

Trusting the Process

So!  Fun fact!  For most of my animations that involve characters wearing armor I almost always use 3D models as a base!  I find the workflow to be so much faster (and the end product look a lot clearer) instead of having to sketch out something from scratch and add all the details in that way. 

Especially for a project like this where I was trying to really nail that destiny cutscene style, it was really important for me to get things looking as close to the real thing as possible.  The 3D models were all made by me using blender (the assets were a combination of Oliver J’s Human generator, D2 models ripped using the destiny D.A.R.E. tool, and texture modifications all painstakingly edited by yours truely).

All of the actual animation, such as the motions of the cape and the small body movements, were all done as normal animation!  Speaking of, I hated animating Shin’s cape in the beginning with my whole being (/j)

I ended up finding a pixel art tutorial of all things to help be get the base shape for how the bottom of the cape should look, and used a similar process to get the side of the cape flowing in time with the bottom.  Thankfully most of the other animation was very simple and I was able to do it just by moving parts of the lineart around.  It still required a bit of cleanup work afterward though to fix all the wonky lines ;w;;

Let me just say it now, the destiny art team have the patience of saints to do all the hash shading it takes to make the cutscenes look the way they do.  I consider my work to be on the lazier side of shading in comparison, cause hooo boy did I struggle to get the textures looking right,,

For example, this was originally what I had used for the shading for Shin:

Looks really pretty right?  Now, imagine animating this without making the shaded lines look off/funky at random points.  Not so pretty looking now is it?  There’s a reason why a lot of the destiny cutscenes use static images moving about a screen instead of fuller animation like I did :’)

And last lil detail to mention...the backgrounds.

I need you all to understand.  I’m gripping you by the shoulders here.  I...I hate drawing backgrounds.  I really do.  It takes so much time and effort to get it to look right especially for shots dependant on perspectives.  On top of having to make backgrounds that matched the destiny cutscene style....i��ll be honest and got a lil lazy towards the end

LOOK BACKGROUNDS ARE HARD OKAY!!!  THIS IMAGE WAS ONE OF THE EXTREMELY FEW REFERENCES OF A FORESTY BACKGROUND I HAD TO WORK OFF OF:

I couldn’t even cheat and use the foliage brushes I usually do cause it just didn’t look right *sob*

Past me didn’t save the previous iterations of the backgrounds for the 2nd and 3rd shot but trust me, they were rough before I went back over them for a second time to make them look like they do now.

Tiny Details

A moment of appreciation for these two shots.  The first one was the one I completed first, even when all the others were at similar stages, solely because I just wanted to be done shading that darn cape.  Also the background for this third shot??  I was struggling with it at first and I’m so glad that I managed to get it at a point I was happy with.

However one tiny detail y’all probably didn’t notice was that the golden gun ripples move!! 

Those white fractures on the gun there??  They move ever so slightly to try and emulate that cracking golden gun effect hunters have.  Adding smoke made everything look too distracting in the end, but there was no way I was gonna miss out on havin them cracks.

This animation was started officially on May 16th according to my file records.  I didn’t work on it every day (I would’ve either gone mad or had the animation done way sooner if that were the case) but It did take quite a huge chunk of time to work on.  I’m just happy that, with the feedback I’ve been getting, a lot of folks said I nailed the destiny cutscene style and that alone makes me feel like I succeeded with this animation  。.:☆*:･ ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ

More animations to come in the future!!  but for now this boy is gonna go rest and do some fishing over on the EDZ.

IT'S FINALLY DONE!!! GAHHH I spent almost a month on this bad boy but y'all have no idea how excited I am that it's finally finished and I can share it with the world ;D;; I'll be posting some behind the scenes goodies in a bit! For now though, enjoy the fruits of my labor