"Gratam Machina" is a short 3D animation piece I created and submitted to one of the many MDC contests a few years ago. Never got around to posting an official project page dedicated solely to it's exploration and creation, so here it is. 

I can't really fluff up a descriptive meaning behind the piece as the whole concept more or less rides off of some old abstract renders of mine from years ago. John Deere tractor parts specifically... 

I've done a lot of farming equipment CAD animation work for clients in the past, and so in between feedback threw some of the high complex CAD models into random cloners for fun. The above render and following sat any my computer for some time before ever coming back to the MDC idea. I think at the time I may have found it amusing to throw such vanilla work into very moody environments, particularly last image in the following sequence - I'd like to imagine an entire commercial for field plows in the most dark and uneasy environment imaginable lol.

And so I began creating a slightly more defined world from the original. Still very dark, moody, black, seemingly wet and alien like, centered by a gargantuan machina that awakens to emit a beam of intense light from it's glowing core. I utilized the original render but began throwing some more random parts from the CAD files in for added complexity.

Prior to this project, I had played with how the machina core would open and evolve. I think I was attempting to create a one off piece to post and share but nothing really stuck. However these test renders did help define the later final piece. Probably too many motion tests.

As well as motion tests of overall environment inner workings. 

Character rigging is still not a strong suite for me, so for time's sake the insertion of at least one character was accomplished with Mixamo. I envisioned the character waking up from the darkness, unaware and unable to remember where they were. Most of that was easy to tween from preset movements, and the rest was some very hastily cloned tractor parts constrained to the skeleton rig. 

In the end, always a great excercise rushing to squeeze in an entry for MDC. Really gives growth when I try to manage the 3D workflow of inception to execution all on my own under a tight deadline. There's a lot of rushed texturing that I would've liked to spend more time on per the character, as well as let some shots render longer.  

Thanks for looking!

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