This Mecha project is my experiment of blending AI pipeline with traditional art, animation and VFX pipeline. The whole pipeline contains Nano banana / Midjourney (concept design), Meshy / Hunyuan (3D modeling & Texturing), Cascadeur (AI 3D Animation), Maya (Model & Animation Repair) and Unreal / Unity (Shader & Render)
AI Concept
AI Modeling & Texturing
To ensure the accuracy of result, I used midjourney to generate concept designs of the whole character, and break them into components with Photoshop and Nano Banana. The AI modeling apps are also better at dealing with components.
In Maya, I repaired the model's topology and collapsed faces, while combining the components into the characters' fullbody, and creating a standardized skeleton with my tool.
To accelerate the animation pipeline, I utilized Cascadeur, a powerful AI animation tool, which assist creating in-between and physical motions between key poses. Under this workflow, I created the animation of idle, walk, fly, run and shoot in 2 hours.
To match the Mecha anime style, I developed cel shaders in Unreal and Unity (including outline and ramp texture system)
