During the summer of 2022, I was a Pixar Undergraduate Program (PUP) Intern.
PUP is a Technical Director program that covers the entire Pixar CG pipeline. Each week, we learned a different part of the pipeline including: layout, set dressing, modeling, shading, lighting, rigging, and effects.
At the end, the 10 of us in the program had two weeks to create a short film together. Afterwards, I had 8 days to complete an individual final project that I was free to choose.
PUP Demo Reel
Breakdown
INDIVIDUAL PROJECT
I set dressed and lit an apartment based on unused concept art from Turning Red.
– Completed in 8 days
– Set dressed in Maya. Layout in Presto. Lighting in Katana. Rendered with Renderman.
– Lighting Breakdown:
– Inner & Outer Portal Lights: one inside the window and one outside. The inner portal is linked to warm sunlight, while the outer portal is linked to cool sunlight to provide more color complexity.
– Sunlight + Halo: 1 directional light for main sun. Duplicated directional sun and made it brighter, more saturated, and increased angle extent to give a subtle glow/halo effect.
– Area Light for bounce: fake sunlight bouncing off of the ground
– Mentors: Amy Chen & Eman Abdul-Razzak
Full Group Project
I was fully responsible for set dressing in Maya.
– Completed in 2 weeks
– Modeled props with Maya: crates, grass blades, boba cup, napkins
– Shaded props with Flow (Pixar’s proprietary procedural shading software): mooncakes, mooncake boxes, crates, plant, soy sauce bottle, dumpling cart, pomegranate, dumpling steam basket, boba cup
– Designed “Moon Festival” poster and posters in the background using Illustrator
Lighting
I used a frame from Chungking Express as reference to light Mei from Turning Red.
– Lighting done in Katana.
Modeling & Shading
Modeled and shaded a vintage tea strainer using Maya and Flow (Pixar’s proprietary procedural shading software).
FX
Used POP Networks in Houdini to create fireworks shaped like cherry blossoms. Using Nuke,
I composited them over a scene from Coco.
Rigging
Completed facial rigging on a background character from Turning Red. Rigged in Presto (Proprietary software).
