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French digital arts school ARTFX has unveiled Maronii, a thesis short film from their class of 2022. It follows a small fish from French Guiana trying to survive in a river.
In a creek in French Guiana, a small fish is excluded by his fellow fish. Alone, he goes on an adventure between meanders and rapids in search of a heavenly spot where food abounds. He will have to show speed and cunning to stay alive.
The film was directed by Dimitri Allonneau, Flore Argentieri, Hugo Courtel, Maxime Guitet, Guilian Matuszczak, Ngoc Mai Nguyen, Lucas Plata.
As usual when it comes to ARTFX student short films, a making-of is available (you can watch it below). The team explains that they gathered a lot of visual references on the internet, books, from a local association and by going to a tropical greenhouse. Their goal was to understand the flora and fauna of this location, so that they would be able to provide an accurate depiction of French Guiana rivers.
The team behind this ARTFX short film located in French Guiana also discusses the fact that they had to optimize their shots. They also explain how they created fishes, by using transparency/SSS, and a procedural approach to handle fish scales.
Rigging and animation required a lot of work. Thanks to a dynamic rig, the fish fins move automatically.
Last, but not least, the team chose to film video references to get a better understanding of the FX they had to create.
