Octavia

Octavia is a 3D animated story based on experiences of Army divers in the waters of Southeast Asia. I built a strong core set of skills in end-to-end 3D animation throughout my time in the graduate program, and I wanted to incorporate them into a real story for this thesis. The myriad of stories I grew up with inspired the development of this 3D animation due to their uniqueness and their nature as a verbal history.

This thesis is based on two objectives: technical excellence in the process of 3D animation, and sharing a previously verbal history to a larger audience. I achieved these goals using a variety of technical animation tools including ZBrush, Maya, Arnold, and Premier. Octavia itself is a modified story from my father's time diving in South Korea. The story details the interactions between an exceptionally curious octopus, Octavia, and a diver, taken from Octavia's perspective. The animation was well received during my defense for its technical difficulty and unique art styles. Octavia will be available online on my website.