Laundry

Animated Short Film Project

"Laundry" is a WIP 6-minute animated short film inspired by the post-apocalyptic iyashikei series Girls' Last Tour by author Tsukumizu. The series features Chito and Yuuri, two girls who are left to fend for themselves as they nagivate the ruins of a long-collapsed civilization.

In this short film, Chito stumbles across a clean source of water and takes advantage of the opportunity to do their laundry, only to find an unexpected surprise floating nearby.

The purpose of this project is to expand my skills as a 3D artist and animator, familiarize myself with new technologies I haven't used before (including tools for animation, simulation, and graphics programming), and create a cinematic visual story that I can be proud of.

Overall, the goals of the project include:

Rigged character models including multiple outfits and curve-based hair
Post-apocalyptic scenes utilizing custom procedural tools
Original soundtrack inspired by the works of Kenichiro Suehiro and Kevin Penkin
All assets (textures, etc.) are CC0-licensed or made by hand without the use of generative AI

Chito

Chito is the main character of this animation. She's the rational and level-headed one in the duo, oftening handling navigation and vehicle maintenance, and enjoys collecting books.

I made Chito's character model from scratch, trying my best to adapt her original chibi art style to a 3D format. I followed all steps of a typical character creation pipeline, including sculting, retopology, rigging, and UV unwrapping/texturing. Her skin and eye textures are fully procedural, and her hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows are all curve-based.

Yuuri

Yuuri is the other main character of the original series, but plays a minor role in this animation. Her and Chito's relationship is unclear, but they're companions who stick together through thick and thin.

Yuuri's character model is based largely on Chito's. I only significantly changed her eyes, jacket, helmet, and hair. She has some very minor UV artifacts on her jacket which I decided were unimportant, but I may elect to fix them sometime.

Kettenkrad

Chito and Yuuri travel in a Sd.Kfz.2 / Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101, or "Kettenkrad," originally from 1930s-40s Germany. Apparently the author is a fan of Saving Private Ryan, which featured the same vehicle.

I made this model virtually from scratch, using only CC0 PBR textures as a base for the materials. All modeling and rigging is my original work, and the textures were manually painted onto the model.

Scene

The animation takes place at a large facility with unknown purpose, potentially a water treatment or processing plant. The building, which I call the "Outlet," features massive drain pipes that funnel snowmelt runoff onto a wide open platform.

Currently, only the main area is complete, and I've deferred background details until I've finished the animation (so I can judge which areas are most important.) In the final animation, there will be many more buildings and superstructures in the distant background.

Animation

This page is under construction. Check back in a few days!

Last updated: 11/4/24