CONTACT INFO: ollie.y.yao@gmail.com

1. Zootopia 2 Effects Animation

Created at Walt Disney Animation Studios. All shots animated in Houdini, and rendered with Hyperion. The style of Zootopia 2 called for cartoon-y realism - physics that still obeyed real life principles, while also directed and sculpted to deliver on comedy. One of the most important instincts I honed was knowing when to let the effects steal the show, and when to scale back to allow the acting and story to shine through.

I executed on a wide variety of effects on the film, most notably a large snow simulation when Nick and Judy drive a bulldozer through a snowy hedge maze, creating a "catnip" softbody simulation to cap off the first sequence, and creating and executing the FX rig for Nibbles' wood chips, balancing the timing of my effects with the needs of the story.

During my apprenticeship I tried effects with many different techniques, including fire, water, snow, rigid body dynamics, cloth, soft bodies, and smoke.

2. Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender

Responsible for 2D FX animation. Animation was done in Rough Animator, on a show where effects design called for a high level of detail. My focus was on aligning my work with the Airbending style already established on the show, while shaping the graphic forms and weight of the effects to match the character animation in the shot.

Responsible for 3D effects animation as well. This selection of shots was created within a challenging hybrid 2D/3D pipeline, requiring constant communication with production to ensure each shot's specific needs were met. Effects were built in Houdini and rendered in Karma, using a variety of custom setups driven by NDC (normalized device coordinates) to keep the work sitting correctly in both 2D and 3D space. Throughout, my focus was on enhancing and supporting the 2D character animation — paying close attention to detail and timing to keep the effects feeling satisfying and integrated with the performance.

3. Adidas Starr Cup: The Rules Have Changed

Responsible for sparks and destruction FX. FX was created in Houdini and rendered in Arnold.

4. Walt Disney Animation Studios - Effects Animation Apprenticeship

Set of three projects created during the trainee portion of my apprenticeship. Each assignment was created by the program mentors and geared towards preparing us for real production and working within Disney's pipeline. I strove to explore different effects with each project.

Project 1: Mad Scientist Lab - Turning cotton balls into cotton candy with the magic of effects animation!

Project 2: Car Chase - Since we knew we were going to be working on Zootopia 2, I really wanted to do a hamster sized car chase, complete with oversized props.

Project 3: Party! - I packed this shot to the brim with elements: sparklers, fire, confetti, bouncy balls, and inflatable tube men, the challenge was keeping it all balanced and readable!

5. Rainy Day

Created in Houdini, rendered with Solaris and Karma. I wanted to tackle photorealism with a simpler simulation I'd be able to polish, and so I chose to do raindrops beading on a window. Raindrops were created with POP simulations, with additional splashes generated using FLIP fluids. This project marked my first foray into Solaris, Karma, and USD workflow, something I'm very excited to learn more about in the future! Window sill was modeled in Maya and textured in Substance Painter.

Music is "I Lost All My Eggs" by Shawn Wasabi.