Role Description: 3D Modeling and Animation of Village Construction.
Project: Earth House Evolution, National Geographic.
My Role: 3D Modeler and Animator.

Character Rigging

Camera and model animation

In this project, my role involved adapting and enhancing a 3D model of a village in Burkina Faso, originally created in Blender by Monica Serrano, to prepare it for animation in Cinema 4D. This included improving textures and optimizing the model to illustrate the construction of two types of houses—one using traditional mud techniques and the other with modern materials like brick.

3D Modeling Details:
Building upon the existing design, I focused on adapting the village model and the two houses for animation in Cinema 4D. One of the houses was textured and built to represent traditional mud techniques, while the other reflects modern construction methods. My work included optimizing textures and materials to enhance visual fidelity and accurately represent the region’s typical construction materials, ensuring a smooth animation process.

Details of Animation of the Traditional Mud House:
The next phase focused on animating the construction of the traditional mud house, showcasing the step-by-step process and ancient construction techniques. The animation provided a clear and engaging representation of the historical building methods.

Details of Character Animation in Construction:
I was responsible for animating the characters involved in the construction process, depicting workers using manual labor and traditional tools such as mixing mud, molding bricks, and plastering walls. These character animations brought the historical building techniques to life, providing an authentic and dynamic visual representation of the process.

Skills Used:

- 3D Modeling and animation.
- Character Animation.
- Texturing and Material Application.

Software:

- Cinema 4d.
- Blender.
- Adobe After Effects.
- Adobe Premier.

Final Project View

Monica Serrano, Charlotte Li, Matt Chwastyk, and Eve Conant, NGM Staff; Ronald Paniagua; Alexander Stegmaier

Sources: Hirohide Kobayashi, Kyoto University; Lassina Simporé, University of Ouagadougou; Directorate of Cultura Heritage, Ministry of Culture of Burkina Faso; Thierry Joffroy, Université Grenoble Alpes

The story appears in the february 2023 issue of National Geographic magazine.

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