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

1. Zootopia 2 Effects Animation & Effects Apprenticeship

Created at Walt Disney Animation Studios. All shots animated in Houdini, and rendered with Hyperion. I was responsible for snow simulation and Nibbles' wood chip animation throughout the film, and created and executed an effects rig to help me do the shots faster. During my apprenticeship I tried effects with many different techniques, including fire, water, snow, rigid body dynamics, cloth, soft bodies, and smoke.

2. 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.

3. 2D FX Animation Experiments:

2D effects animation has been an interest of mine for a long time, and I got the opportunity to learn from the best animators at Walt Disney Animation Studios during my apprenticeship, asking for guidance and feedback on my own time in order to improve my skill set with the medium. I've learned a lot about timing and storytelling through learning 2D FX that greatly improves my 3D work, including the skill to do my own drawovers so that I can hit specific satisfying shapes with complex FX simulations.

4. "Bad Apple!!" On An Apple

FX Animation and source images for texturing generated in Houdini. Texturing, lighting, and rendering done in Blender Cycles. A loving recreation of the Bad Apple!! animated music video originally created in 2012, which has spawned countless reimaginings. I wanted to create a carved apple look, and so I used Houdini to generate a set of displacement maps automatically sourced from the black and white images in the original music video, then projected it onto a series of randomized apples to give a stop motion look.

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