You Are My Sunshine

Remember Michael G.? He works with instructor Shawn as part of Game-U’s New York Accelerate program. Michael G. tried out Unity not too long ago, and now, he’s exploring the wonders of modeling and animation in Blender. His work is sure to brighten your day!

Either Michael or Shawn must have watched Baby Groot dancing to some tunes lately, because Michael’s animated sunflower dances just like the young and potted Groot. Blender, the all-in-one 3D creation software, gave Michael a window into the technical side of Groot’s animated dance. Michael began his project by building a sunflower model, using digital “clay” to recreate the many shapes of the original – including the petals, leaves, stem, and of course, flowerpot – and maneuver them into the right positions. Once Michael and Shawn were satisfied with the model itself, they added color to the shapes (it’s hard to imagine an all-gray sunflower is still a sunflower, after all), and prepared to bring it to life! Like puppets, models animate using armatures and a set of digital strings. Michael added a skeleton-like armature to his sunflower to give it movable parts. Then, by adding keyframes on a time track, he programmed a series of animations for the armature to follow. The computer takes over here, executing the code that performs the animations one after another – so that the result is a smooth transition from one dance move to the next! Watch the video to see Michael’s sunflower rocking out with Groot-like grace!

Well done, Michael! You and Shawn clearly make a great team, and we’re excited by how much you’re learning. Keep it up! Everybody needs some sunshine in their lives.