Past the Storm - a Short Film

Hey there! My name is Kartheek Eadara and I'm excited to walk you through my new animation project! Hopefully after reading this instructable you will be able to produce your own version of this project maybe even with more features and scenes! Please contact me if any questions arise in the process!

After weeks of hard work I am happy to share my animation with everyone as I will now show you how it was created from start to finish! This animation combines elements of modeling, physics, and complex camera/object movement to fully depict the scene!

This project was done primarily in Blender from the scenes to the animation as well! I found all of my models on SketchFab. I have included models that I used in my project below, but feel free to go and browse for others as well!

Materials:

PC or Laptop with the requirements to run Blender

Blender

Editing Software: DaVinci Resolve 20

Free Audio Clips: pixabay.com

Any Buoy Model

1. Mine: Harbor Navigation Buoy by MisterH on SketchFab

Any Boat Model

1. Mine: Patrol Boat PBR MK2 by Savy on SketchFab

Any "Magic Circle" or Rotating Circle Model

1. Mine: Magic Ring - Blue by Noob Model :D on SketchFab

Any Floating Island Model

1. Mine: Stylized 3D Floating Island And Mine House by Skylar Muffin on SketchFab

Any Human Model

1. Mine: Worker Man Rigged by Aayush.Bhattarai on SketchFab

Any Balloon model

1. Mine: Balloon by Lydechaser on SketchFab

Back when I was a kid I actually loved the rain. A storm was never something to be scared of because to me it just felt exciting. Things changed though. Getting older makes you realize real life storms are a whole different thing. You do not just sit behind a window watching them pass. These are the real deal. I used to hear adults talk about how life feels heavy and now I finally get it.

It is like you are stuck out in this huge ocean just fighting so your head stays above water. Every muscle is straining. The more I looked for a peaceful future the more it felt like I was drifting away from land. That specific heavy feeling is what I wanted to show in "Past the Storm."

The floating island is my way to escape back to that childhood peace. It is a spot where you leave the ground and realize no weight is holding you down anymore. Just like the character who ends up drifting through the clouds there is always something there to help push you back up.

Storyboarding is key in the planning stage of any project as it will help visualize the flow of the animation before you even get started on actually animating! When making a new project solidifying your idea at the start is extremely helpful! This helps with clarifying the project's vision making the rest of the process a lot easier. It also allows you to catch any errors early on saving time in the long run.

Tips for Storyboards:

1. Just focus on the key aspects rather than detailing out every frame
2. Don't put in a crazy amount of detail as this is just a plan
3. Make direction clear along with any actions

I am not a pro modeler, so I decided to use some free models on SketchFab. These are the models that I have used and each one was carefully chosen to fit the original idea for this project!

Buoy: Darker red to fit the moody aspect of the ocean scene.

Boat: Dark grey adds to the moody aspect which overall contributes to the mysterious idea.

Magic Circle: Bright and mysterious at the same time which adds contrast to the ocean scene allowing for a more interesting transition.

Island: Cartoon-like emitting a more positive mood

Human: He is a miner which perfectly fits the surrounding mine-cart in the dungeon of the island.

Preliminary

Before anything the first step in Blender is to create a new file, and rename it to whatever you would like. Then, delete the starter block and the lighting source by hitting 'X' and deleting them as they will not be needed in our custom environment. but make sure that you keep the camera as manipulating it is almost essential in almost any animation!

Scene

First began with inserting a Plane using Shift A and then selecting Mesh -> Plane. After that add a Modifier -> Physics -> Ocean to change it into an Ocean in the Properties Editor, and then congrats, you just created your very own ocean!

The next step is to further configure the modifier settings to most appropriately resemble the ocean that we would like. First, ensure the geometry is set to Generate as it will generate a new mesh. Then reduce the Size to around 0.70 as this will help with saving on memory. Then in the Time section set it to #frame/35 where the bottom number controls the speed. Then, go into the Waves panel and set the scale to a value of around 2.1 which will add to the general size of the waves. Then, set the Smallest Wave to 0.01 to add definition to the waves since we want to see the large contrast in peak wave height and lowest wave height. Finally, adjust the choppiness to whatever you feel comfortable with (I did 1.6). Essentially, increasing the choppiness makes the top sharper. Additionally, under Ocean Modifier's Data Layer setting, do not forget to add ‘Foam.’ This will be essential when we move on to adjusting particular water features using the Shader Editor tool later on. In the coverage section it should be fine how it is currently, but you can adjust it as you wish. More coverage increases the spread of the whiteness of the foam in general, but typically it only takes around 0.5 to get really white, and -0.2 to get really dark.

After that simply duplicate the ocean a few times using Shift D. To duplicate it to the exact place that you would like after clicking Shift D click X and + or - 35 and that will snap it. I duplicated it rather than simply scaling it so that I could further customize the frame rate to prioritize the areas closer to the camera.

Trick: You can actually use the Repeat X and Y sections in the modifier menu to add onto a specific ocean part. For example, in my case other than the camera ocean I used it on the other one I duplicated since I knew that the frame rate would be the same for it.

Then, you can further configure the Render Resolution in the Modifier section in the Properties tab. My aim was to apply a resolution of 32 in the foreground areas, whereas I had used only a resolution of 15 in the background. This is a standard trick in this industry called Level of Detail or LOD. It ensures that our scene is detailed around where the camera is located, but this trick also ensures that my computer won't crash due to over-rendering objects that are miles away! Essentially, try optimizing the visual elements that are closer to the cameras view rather than really far away.

The next step will be to position the camera for the scene. This scene shows the entirety of our ocean scene so I placed it somewhere near a corner where it will move along the edge in the future when we animate it so that it seems as though the ocean is huge and looks more realistic.

The left side has a panel that controls a lot of aspects in regards to movement such as rotating something or moving something which can be helpful for positioning, but to quickly access that specific control there are shortcuts that exist. To find out what the shortcut is hover the control in the side panel for which shortcut you would like to see.

Tip: Additionally, another useful mechanic to move objects is to select the object and to click G which grabs them and relatively places them wherever you would like!

First begin by moving it to the corner of the ocean with a high Render value as we want to view the things that are closer to use more clearly, and then rotate it, so that the camera is looking at the rest of the ocean. The rectangle side is the side that you see out of so ensure that that is the side facing the ocean.

Then, we will try to make the camera move with the waves as the animation progresses so that it seems more realistic.

1. Begin by creating a new plane and moving it to around the same location as the camera (I will refer to this as Plane 1).
2. Then add the Shrinkwrap modifier, so that the plane would flow with the water.
3. After that proceed to the Data section in the properties tab, and add a new Vertex Group. Go into Edit Mode and then select all the vertices of that object and click Assign. Then, go back into the modifiers tab and click on Vertex Group and click on the one we have just created.
4. I then set a Copy Location constraint to the camera and set the target to the newly created plane and set the group to the newly created Vertex group.
5. Finally, I added an offset to move the camera more above the ocean and customized it to where I wanted which I saw through the Camera View which you could access by going through View -> Viewport -> Camera or by simply hitting Numpad 0.

However, as of right now there is still no rotation in the overall movement of the camera making it still a bit dull. To fix this we will be utilizing the noise features in Blender's Graph Editor.

1. Add a new rotation keyframe on frame 1 by clicking either I or K.
2. Then, in the graph editor select the X Euler Rotation and add a noise modifier. Then you can customize the settings depending on how much movement you would like. My settings include Scale: 25 and Strength: 0.2.
3. Then, next to the Add Modifier selection click the copy button which will copy your settings making the process of the other planes more efficient. The only thing is that change the offset for the other planes so that they are a bit different. My Y offset is around 500, and my Z offset is set to around 1000.

Tip: You can actually split the window into 2 screens: one for the actual 3d world and the other for the graph editor to make the process of testing your desired settings a little easier! Simply hover at the top corner of the side that you would like to split and once the cursor changes to a plus-like sign drag it over!

Adding the Buoy

Now it is time for adding the first model: the buoy! In this animation I meant for the buoy to capture the viewers attention and captivate them for the first 1/3 or so of the animation. Because it will be part of the viewers attention for a while I decided to keep it relatively closer to the camera in terms of positioning.

1. Begin with duplicating Plane 1 since it already has Shrinkwrap modifier, and place it at your desired location which for me was somewhere near the center of the ocean.
2. I then clicked File -> Append, and selected the downloaded buoy model. This will spawn the buoy model in the workspace
3. Then, repeat the same process that we did previously regarding the Copy Location constraint so that the buoy model moves in accordance with the waves.

Animating the Buoy

Although adding the shrinkwrap helped in terms of making the buoy move more naturally and more realistically that is only true for the movement aspect, so we still need to update and manipulate the rotation aspect of the buoy. To do so we will create an animation for the buoy. Keep in mind that if you decide to go for a different model there is a chance that it already has an animation. You can simply check by playing the animation and see whether it moves in a different pattern than what the shrinkwrap does. However, if you are looking for a model with a existing animation on SketchFab simply click the Animated checkmark in the filters to narrow the models down to only the filtered ones.

1. To begin, select your buoy model and in the animation player select the first keyframe. Keyframes are essentially different points on the timeline which mark different point in the animation. You can manipulate the rotation, location, and scale of objects to create an animation!
2. Click either I or K on your keyboard and that should open up the Insert Keyframe Menu.
3. Then click on rotation as you will only be manipulating the rotation properties for the model. You have now created the initial keyframe!
4. After that rotate the buoy slightly in any direction (you can rotate on multiple axes if you want) and insert another keyframe.

Congrats you have animated the buoy! You can verify the results by going into Camera View and ensuring everything is looking smooth. Keep adjusting the animation till it feels smooth and natural!

Ocean

Till now we have only created the waves of the animation. Now we will add the actual ocean to it!

1. First, add the actual ocean underneath by making another plane just, and scale it so that it is short of the edges of the waves.
2. Then, proceed to the edit view and select all the vertices of the plane.
3. Then, Extrude the plane down to a comfortable size.
4. Finally, vertically move the ocean down so that its top is a little over the height of the shortest waves - just a little bit!

Rain

To add to the mysterious aspect of this animation I decided to add some rain to the ocean animation.

I first began by adding another plane the same size as the recently created ocean plane and moving it up out of the Camera View. This is where the actual raindrops will come out of. I then began to model the actual raindrop!

1. First I added a new Icosphere and moved it out of the animation space to a place it couldn't be seen.
2. Then I grabbed the topmost point in Edit Mode and using the Proportional Editing button (Vertically it is located in line with the Edit mode button and horizontally it is located in the center of the workspace looking like a dartboard) I moved that point up till it formed the shape of a raindrop. Proportional editing essentially allows you to adjust and transform meshes while affecting other geometry in a smooth way.
3. Finally I shaded it smooth in the Object Mode to make it more natural by right-clicking on the model and clicking Shade Smooth.

Now we will begin with the process of actually emitting the raindrops from the plane that we vertically moved into the sky.

1. First begin by clicking on the plane in the sky and going to the Particles tab in the Properties section.
2. Then, add a new particle system, and in the render settings set it from render as Halo to render as Object.
3. Then for the Instant Object select the icosphere object that we just created. This will emit the raindrops that we have just created.
4. Then adjust the lifetime of the particles to be around 100 so that they actually reach the ocean.
5. Finally, go into all of the ocean waves we made at the start and turn on collision in the Physics tab.
6. Then in the Particle dropdown enable Kill particles. This will destroy all raindrops upon impact of the waves.

The next step is actually adding more color to bring the animation to life. We can do this with the shader editor which can help us in our process of creating new materials for our objects.

Begin by splitting the view into 2 different panels and changing the right one to the Shader Editor. Then, set the shader type to World. We will now adjust the color of the sky to match the moody and dark atmosphere that we were going for.

1. Add a Noise Texture block and a Color Ramp block. For the noise texture block set it to the following settings: Scale: 3, Detail: 15, and Roughness: 0.6.
2. Then, for the Color Ramp block select the left most end and set it to complete black. Then select the right most end and set the HEX value to #56686DFF.
3. Then, drag the little circle next to Factor of the Noise Texture Block into the Factor circle of the Color Ramp. Drag the Color in the Color Ramp into the Color of the Background Block. Drag the Background of the Background Block into the Surface of the World Output.

Next, we will now change the color of the Raindrop.

1. Select the raindrop model and click on New to add a new material.
2. Then, set the Base Color to #4C5D60FF.
3. Then, set the rest of the settings to the following: Metallic: 0, Roughness: 0.5, IOR: 1.333 (This is consistent for all water), and Alpha: 1.
4. Finally, make sure that the BSDF of the Principled BSDF block is connected to the surface of the Material Output Block.

Finally, we will change the texturing of the Ocean.

1. First, begin by selecting one of the waves, and creating a new material.
2. Then, add all of the following blocks: Attribute, Multiple, Color ramp, mix shader, Material Output, and 2 Principled BSDF Blocks.
3. Then, connect the Attribute Block's factor to the Multiply Blocks's factor. Then connect the Multiply Block's value to the Color Ramp Block's factor. Then, connect the Color Ramp Bock's color to the Mix Shader Block's factor. The connect the Mix Shader Block's shader to the Material Output Block's Surface. Then, connect both of the Principled BSDF blocks' BSDF to each of the Mix Shader Block's Shader.
4. For the Attribute block set the type to Geometry and the data type to 'foam.'
5. Then, set the Multiply Block's value to 1.5.
6. Then, set the Color Ramp Block's Pos value to 0.421364.
7. Next, select one of your Principled BSDF Blocks and set its Base Color to #18272FFF. Set its Metallic and Roughness: 0, IOR: 1.333, Alpha: 1, and Transmission Weight: 1.
8. Then, for the next Principled BSDF Block set the base color to white. Set its Metallic: 0, Roughness: 0.1, IOR: 1.5, and Alpha: 1.
9. Finally, rename the material to Ocean, and apply it to the rest of the waves.

Adding the Boat Model

Now it is time for adding the second model: the boat! This will basically cruise through the water in the background for the first few frames and come back into frame later, so this model won't necessarily get as much screen time as the buoy model.

1. Begin by duplicating one of the 2 planes with the Shrinkwrap modifier as that will also be used for the boat.
2. Place the plane on the other side of the ocean such that it is opposite from the camera's original location.
3. Then, Click File -> Append, and selected the boat model that you downloaded.
4. Then, repeat the same process regarding the Copy Location constraint as previously done so that the buoy model moves in accordance with the waves.

Animating the Boat Model

Now we will add the animation for the boat by configuring both the location property of the plane and the rotation property of the actual model. This will be the same type of logic that will be used when we animate the camera in the future to really bring the animation to life.

First, begin with animating the boat's location. This will require manipulating the location of the plane that we copied the location of the boat to, since the boat's location is derived from that. For the plane I only added a total of 3 keyframes. The first, is the initial Keyframe where the animation begins. The second, is at the point where the boat curves. The third, is near the end of the animation. The animation that I gave for the boat follows the following idea: move straight, turn right while moving, and then continue going straight.

Then create the desired animation regarding the rotation of the boat, so that the boat actually turns how a boat should. I added a lot of keyframes for this one, but it is really a personal choice. I decided to make the boat sway to the left and right as well which is really easy to accomplish. Simply rotate a little to the left in one key frame and a little to the right in another. Then, hold Shift and select both keyframes. Then, right-click and duplicate the keyframes and repeat this process for the entirety of the animation. You can get a little creative withe the rotation aspect so please take your time and experiment with how everything looks!

It’s now time to bring out the portal model! This will act as the transition point between the two phases in the animation and will really act as the point that ties the animation together. The model that I picked already has an animation that makes it rotate, but this is fairly simple to do even without an pre-animated model. Simply, utilize the rotation keyframe properties and in even increments space it out so that the portal rotates 360 degrees making it seem more magical!

Why I picked this specific model:

1. Visual Contrast: The bright blue light coming from the portal stands out greatly from the dark setting and the rainy ocean. This contrasts highlights the portal drawing more attention to it.
2. Black Circle Trick: To make the magic circle more noticeable, I used a large black circle around it. It was used to portray the effect of the void. It gives the impression that it does not have a portal entrance and exit rather the entrance to space and time. It helps develop the mysterious aspect that I had wished to show quite well!

Place the model in the sky under the plane that emits the raindrops. Place it high enough so that it seems kind of real but not too high, so that it's over the raindrop generator plane. Position it near where the boat's endpoint is so that after the camera views the boat's animation it will then look up and view the portal as if something just magically appeared out of nowhere. The feeling of magically appearing will further be developed through sound effects which we will be adding later! Then, add a huge black circle around the portal by creating a new plane and setting it right above the portal model. Then, in Edit Mode right click the plane and Subdivide it a few times. Then, select all of the vertices on the edge of the plane. Then, click Mesh -> Transform -> To Sphere, and you have successfully creating a circle in blender!

With this portal in place, the first significant midpoint of this animation is done. This portal symbolizes a connection between the world of reality to the world of magic. After the camera goes to the portal it will come out in another workspace animation as if it teleported to another dimension. Again, this will further be enhanced through editing in DaVinci Resolve.

Now we will animate the camera for the ocean scene to best display all the features while keeping the moody and mysterious aspect of it. Similar to how we animated the boat, we will utilize the plane that the camera's location is copied to for the location movement while utilizing the actual camera for the rotation aspect to best portray the animation.

1. First, begin by moving the plane's location such that the camera is just a little past the location of the buoy. In this part the boat should be visible in the background and if not adjust accordingly.
2. Then, rotate the camera so that it is still facing the buoy the entire time. The keyframe that you place this rotation should be the same as the one from the first step.
3. After that on around frame 170 or so rotate the camera again so that it is facing the place where the boat is supposed to appear. This will be the other moment where we see the boat on the screen, so let the camera sit there for like 20 or so frames by duplicating the keyframe and moving it 20 keyframes in advance.
4. After that set another keyframe around 5-10 keyframes later with the camera facing up towards the portal. Adjust the buoy model as well at this keyframe value such that in terms of location the camera is directly underneath the portal model. Additionally move the plane vertically a bit upwards as well so that the portal is emphasized in the view more.
5. The point of this next part is to stare at the rotating portal model for some time to build and add to the suspense of the portal that just randomly appeared out of nowhere, so we will keep this camera positioned here for another 40-50 or so frames.
6. Finally, vertically move the plane up fast so that it seems that the camera rushed into the portal in around 5-10 seconds.

Now what we have completed the first part of the animation we will now create a new blender file for this project as I felt it would make the process easier getting a fresh start on a new aspect. I then, imported the island model that I got of Sketchfab and scaled it up a lot to the size a proper island should be relative to the size of the camera.

A problem that you might encounter is that when you move in general the island disappears out of the view for some reason. This is typical for large models like this, but thankfully the solution is relatively simple! Simply click View on the right side of your viewport and extend the Clip End to a much higher value.

For the camera animation in this scene I decided to start far under the floating island. This was done to make the transition between the 2 scene smooth since at the end of the ocean scene the camera is moving vertically, so it would only make sense if the other part comes out of the portal going upwards as well.

To see the render from different views you can adjust the type of view you would like whether it be a wireframe, solid, material preview, or render by clicking one of the 4 circles in the top right corner of the view. For this step I will be using the render view.

Because the original file that I downloaded was in the .fbx format I would have to manually go in and apply all the textures one by one.

To do this simply click on a material in the object properties. Then next to base color click on the little colored circle. This should open up a whole menu of different things but the one to select in this case is Image Texture. Then, go into the textures folder of the model that you uploaded and find the image that corresponds with that material. Some materials may have more things to change like the Roughness and the Metallic attributes.

I wanted to make the sky kind of similar to the previous scene but not completely the same since I was intending on a polar opposite type of feeling while at the same time I wanted to execute a smooth clean transition, so I decided to go for a more light grey sky rather than dark blue like last time.

To execute this I split the screen into 2 windows. On the right window I opened the Shader Editor and changed it to the World type. Finally, I added in a Color Ramp along with a Noise Texture block and adjusted the attributes till I felt comfortable with the whole aesthetic.

Now we will get to the process of animating the camera. However, unlike last time there is no plane with a shrinkwrap modifier so both rotation and location aspects will be modified using the camera itself. The camera movement will replicate that of the story line. We will start way underneath the floating island so that it isn't even visible at first. Then, it will come up vertically to a keyframe where the camera is facing the front of the entire island. There will be 3 more keyframes on each of the other sides of the island such that the camera will display all 4 sides of the island. Each one of these 4 keyframes are spaced evenly from each other to keep speed around the same while doing a full 360 degree view of the entire island. After the 360 of the island there will be another keyframe right above the mine and one directly in front of it so that the camera slowly moves down with suspense while revealing the mine. Then, the camera will go into the mine and reveal the rest. Again, just like the other animation portions make sure that you take your time when animating the camera as you want to make it feel as smooth as possible so that it looks very visually pleasing to the eye.

Import the model like usual and then place it where you would like it to be. I decided in my original plan that this model would appear at the very end, so I decided to keep it next to the mine-cart. I decided it to me most logical here considering that my model takes the appearance of a miner as well.

You may need to play around a bit with the sizing and scale factors considering they may start out a lot smaller than you may originally expect when you import them for the first time.

I started off by making a basic animation at first, so that I could go into more detail after I added the balloon and got a better idea regarding how exactly I was going to position everything. I started off the guy with a shocked expression after seeing the camera and once the camera started to go into the mine the guy also started to take off running. After that the guy jumped off the edge and fell into the endless void.

When animating your own figure ensure that you are in pose mode after selecting all the bones, and then follow the regular process with animation. Really take your time and use your imagination to create this scene as there is a lot of room for opportunity regarding how you would like the character to move! Understanding how each bone influences the overall structure of the rig would be a great starting point!

Tip for Animation: Start off with a basic animation of your plan.

The intention for this scene is to basically save the falling person with a balloon that picks the person up. Since balloons don't really involve much rotation aspects when airborne, I decided to only influence and adjust its location. In terms of scaling I decided to scale the ballon to be around the size of the character. Since, this is a magical and mystical type feeling I really liked to pop out the balloon more hence the reason for the extreme enlargement.

1. Begin with importing the model for the balloon like usual.
2. Then, place that very first keyframe so far down that it is completely invisible to the camera. This is so that when the camera does the 360 degree view of the island there is no balloon in sight. This makes it seem as if the balloon just came out of nowhere enhancing that mystical feeling.
3. Then, at a keyframe after the guy and is completely invisible to the camera, move the balloon upwards such that it is right underneath the fallen person.
4. Then, accordingly adjust the animation of character in the very next keyframe such that it seems as if he fell onto the balloon.
5. Then a few keyframes later move the location of both the character and the balloon upwards such that it returns back into the view of the camera.
6. Animate the character's arm in the Pose Mode so that it makes a waving animation towards the camera. This part was meant to add a little joy back to the scene to make it seem as if nothing ever happened and the character knew that this was going to be the case from the start. Let this part play out for a while so that the viewer of the animation looks at this part for a while.
7. Finally, move the location of both the ballon and the character upwards again such that they disappear out of the camera's view.

This scene is the final scene of the overall animation. Because I wanted to simulate the character laying on the balloon most effectively I decided to make his body follow the full curvature of the balloon.

Feedback is singlehandedly one of the most crucial and important parts of any animation as feedback is vital to improvement! In my case I decided to take feedback from my friends and also my family on their opinions of my overall animation. They primarily said that the first ocean scene was done very nicely, but had some comments to say regarding the second flying scene particularly in regards to the scene where the character waves at the camera. The first issue that I heard about was that the person's facial expression was very dull and it seemed kind of creepy in a way. Another issue that was brought up regarding that scene was that the time where the character waves his hand had very minimal lighting making it harder to view that particular moment which they found was one of the best parts. The next issue is that the pacing was a little too fast since the balloon came up only a short second after the guy fell making it feel kind of weird.

Facial Expression

As of right now when you look at the man waving his hands from the camera he looks a little too creepy and wierd, but we want to change that and give him some type of faint smile as suggested by the feedback. We can do this by utilizing Shape Keys which are located in the Data tab located in the Properties menu. These can be used to transform objects into new shapes during animations. These can be particularly helpful in the case of facial expressions as they allow for the storage of multiple allowing for more seamless and easy animation process overall.

1. Begin by adding a new Shape Key in the data tab.
2. Then view your character (not the rig) in edit or sculpt mode and begin to slowly carve out the shape of a smile. Sculpt mode is generally easier to use in the case of more general modifications like pulling a general area of the face. You should typically be using the Grab tool in this case. Adjustments in edit mode are typically more useful for the finer and more specific adjustments that you would like to do like moving the mouth or something.
3. If you are in edit mode, turn on proportional editing, and in the little bell-curve icon next to it ensure that Connected Only is turned on. This allows for more smooth modifications when adjusting the certain parts.

I decided to overall go for a more faint smile, as I felt that anything more than that would come off as really creepy which isn't really the type of feeling that I was going for in this particular case.

Lighting

The process to create more lighting is foretunately fairly simple as it only really requires a lighting source. First, begin by clicking Shift A -> Light -> Point. Then, place it directly above the character in the scene where is is waving his hand. I decided that it wouldn't really impact and change the animation too much if I just kept it there, so I didn't change much more after that as I only changed the Strength to 2.4 and set the type to Sun.

Timing

Finally, the last comment was to adjust the timing of the entire animation so I decided to space the scene after the entrance to the mine. Something to note is that almost all location related keyframes should match in time regarding the character and the balloon since the person is supposed to be lying on it. This is significantly make the entire animation a lot smoother and more calm overall.

The next step is to render the actual animation so that we can prepare it for editing.

1. First, begin by heading over to the Render tab in Properties.
2. Change the engine to Cycles. We will be using Cycles for both animations since it results in a better look for this particular animation, but EEVEE is also an option. Additionally, another factor to consider is time as Cycles take significantly longer than EEVEE does as while EEVEE may only take a few seconds per frame, Cycles can take up to minutes for each frame.
3. Next, head over to the Output tab in the Properties Section.
4. Change it so that the Media Type is set to Image. For this animation we will be doing a sequence of images. An advantage of this is so that in the process in case something goes wrong and your laptop crashes you will already have your previous images safeguarded while a video type would have deleted it.
5. Change the /tmp/ folder to another folder to allow for easier access. Then click the Render button -> Render Animation and let Blender work its magic!

After a lot of patience your render will complete. Make sure that you go back and check the folder that you set the destination as for all of the images to make sure that everything worked out appropriately!

The final step overall is to actually edit the output which we will be using the DaVinci Resolve software for. To get most of the actual audio files we will be using pixabay.com which has lots of free premium quality audio files for free!

1. Begin by creating a new project and placing your 2 rendered scenes side by side.
2. Then, go to the effects panel on the top navigation bar which should open up a toolbox. In the toolbox select Generators -> Solid Color. Ensure that the solid color is set to black. This is what we will see during the transition between scenes.
3. Then, for a transition add the glitch transition between the first scene and the black screen. You can customize how long you would like the transition to span by dragging it into the other actual scenes. Note: Before you can actually drag in transitions you have to cut out a second or so from the last part of the first scene and the beginning part of the second scene.
4. Then add a Drop Warp transition between the black screen and the actual 2nd scene.
5. After that customize the rest of that animation to fit your liking. You can use pixabay to find the audio files that you like and import them into DaVinci. Additionally you can play with the Volume and the Speed. If an audio file is too long you can always just crop it to fit your needs better.

Overall, I feel that DaVinci Resolve has more of a learning curve in opposed to other software like CapCut, but once you get the hang of it the results are worth it!

Well thats the end!

This took forever to animate, so I’m just happy I finally get to share it. Making this was a massive learning experience for me. Doing projects like this is honestly the best way to build your skills and just get better at Blender in general.

Also, I would like to thank all my peers and my family for providing helpful feedback regarding my animation. It definitely helped improve the overall animation and definitely contributed to it to be as smooth and detailed as it currently is as of now! I'm extremely grateful to all of them for helping me throughout my journey of making this animation.

I clearly understand how that there is still much that I can still learn and grow as I make more and more animations in the future, but I am still extremely glad and happy with the way that the overall animation turned out! Looking back I feel nothing, but excitement for what the future holds in store for me! I posted this instructable online hoping to improve upon my skills and see other's thoughts! Again, feedback is extremely helpful to the learning process. I hope that this Instructable has truly been an insightful and helpful experience to all in regards to the process of animating in Blender. Finally, I would also like to thank Instructables and Autodesk for hosting these competitions and helping draw the potential out of people to showcase their talent! I'm truly grateful for this opportunity!