2016 Laika Reel - Kubo and the Two Strings

I worked at Laika for about a year between February 2015 to February 2016 and they finally released my portfolio materials! I worked in the (Oscar winning) Rapid Prototyping Department as a Rapid Prototyping Quality Assurance for Laika's 4th film, Kubo and the Two Strings. I was responsible for bringing 3D printed faces and objects from the printer to camera ready. I usually tell people that we are sort of like make up artists for puppets. I think the work here is about 1/10 of the shots I have touched one way or another.


Tina T. Hsu 2016 Laika reel from Tina T. Hsu on Vimeo.


Here is the full BTS video for better understanding of the process.

I appear in 5:15 - 5:18 sanding the 200% Kubo's for his one tear moment, and 5:25 - 5:32 probably painting someone's teeth to add gloss to them.

Made a Second Ball and Socket Armature

After making the first ball&socket armature and animating him, I started making a second one who is a smaller lady. I made her because making the first one was such an amazing learning experience, I became curious about what more I can learn and improve. I also figured a second armature would be useful if I wanted to animate interactions.

Since I made the first armature mostly out of brass and ran into some strength/tension issues, I approached the machine shop and expressed interest in machining my own steel joints. The head of machine shop was very generous and taught me everything I needed to know to make my own double ball joints from scratch. I didn't have a lot of time since my contract with Laika was ending, but I managed to finish her my last week there. I also managed to update his knee joints with some leftover joints. If I had time I would have updated his chest block, shoulders, elbows, ankles and probably made him his own set of steel joints, but I ran out of time for now. Maybe in the future.

Design sketches, joint fabrication process, some extra joints and screwed up test pieces, and his emergency knee surgery.

The armatures and some balance/strength tests. She probably weighs less than half of what he weighs.

And I animated her doing a little dance sequence.
dance_test from Tina T. Hsu on Vimeo.

Made a Ball and Socket Armature

Learned to make a ball and socket armature from scratch after work.
The design is based on Nathan Flynn's armature with some adjustments.

This was quite an eye opening experience. I drilled my own steel balls for the first time in my life for example. Metal working has always been something fascinating but far away until I started working at Laika, which meant access to tools and brilliant coworkers who I can learn from. It was quite a learning process but I had a lot of fun making it, and I am definitely trying some design adjustments on the next one.

 

And I tried animating a walk on 1s. There were some quirkiness in the armature but it works for the most part. The nice thing about building it myself is that I already know all the kinks and weird in him.


Walk Test from Tina T. Hsu on Vimeo.