Antony Bickenson. Visual Effects. Design. Illustration. Editorial.

As the final "VFX Challenge" of the Visual Effects Programme at George Brown College, we had to create a 3D map based on a book of our choosing. Having recently reread the original Winnie-The-Pooh stories, I quickly settled on this as my inspiration. Early during my research, I decided that I wanted to work mainly from the original stories and E.H. Sheppard sketches, and avoid the Disney style where I could. I hoped to capture the whimsical nature of the stories and images in my work. In particular, I was keen to try to use non-photorealistic rendering techniques to replicate the feel of the original ink and watercolour artwork.

I modelled the individual components of the map separately in ZBrush, quickly settling on a repeatable technique that gave a suitably rough feel to the models. I used the various tools in ZBrush for retopologizing the models and creating UVs, and then exported the pieces to Maya for assembly of the final scene. To generate a watercolour-like colour transition for shadows, I used layered textures in Maya to build up a surface shader that has clear transitions. Additional use of Maya's deformer tools and toon outline shaders added an extra element of interest and a sketchy effect. Finally, I projected names created in Adobe Illustrator to match the childlike handwriting used in the original Winnie-The-Pooh map by E.H. Sheppard (and, ostensibly, Christopher Robin as "me") onto the signboards.