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MIKI ELIZA HANSEN
Lighting & Compositing Artist
MIKI ELIZA
Lighting & Compositing Artist
CG LIGHTING & LOOK
Lighting & Compositing
Stills from Frozen 2
Earlier Work
"Wish On Someone Your Own Size!" (2017)
Responsible for all aspects. Character modeled and rigged in Maya, then textured in Mari. Lit and rendered using Mantra in Houdini. I was able to get the dandelion sprite look with the procedural duplication of a single dandelion seed mesh populated onto a smaller, scaled-down copy of the rig (which I then tweaked in Zbrush to get a better gesture and different face shape). Figuring out how to make the dandelion sprite have a clear silhouette while also being completely made of dandelions was difficult, but I ended up texturing the sculpt with a dandelion print in Mari which gradually fades out to 0% opacity where the procedural dandelions begin. The trees were all sculpted in Zbrush, the leaves on all trees are procedurally placed, the depth is accentuated with atmospheric fog, and the far background is a matte painting. This was the last project I completed during my time at BYU.
"First Crush", (Sep 29, 2018)
Responsible for all aspects excluding character rig ("Ray" from CGtarian) and photographs. Environment modeled in Maya, shaded with Substance Painter, rendered in Arnold, and composited in Nuke.
Total time spent on this WIP so far amounts to about 7 work days. Here's hoping that I'll be able to keep this momentum and polish this up fast!
Shot from "Grendel" (2018 BYU Short Film)
Responsible for lighting and composite. To see this shot in motion, see my demo reel!
Responsible for all aspects. The image to the left shows a CG snail comped onto a real photograph. The image on the right is the original photograph. The snail was modeled in Maya, shaded in Mari, lit/rendered in Houdini, and comped in Nuke. I was able to get the shadowing just right using different takes in Houdini and modeling a fake log to cast shadows onto, which I combined together in Nuke. (2016)
Summer Rain, WIP (Sep 29, 2018)
Responsible for all aspects. I would say this is at 70%. There's still a lot that has to happen, especially with getting the lighting to feel softer and more dimensional without blowing out highlights, but I feel like it's a step up from where it was before.
Everything was sculpted in Zbrush and lit/rendered using Mantra in Houdini, and comped in Photoshop/Nuke.
Animated Dialogue Lighting WIP (Dec 10, 2018)
Responsible for lighting and compositing. Animation still WIP by Henrique Saucedo (https://henriquesaucedo.com), stay tuned for his finished & rendered animation in the next couple weeks!
Lit and rendered in Maya Arnold, composited in Nuke. "Mery" rig and background objects not my personal work.
Responsible for lighting. Candlelit scene from "Taijitu", the BYU Senior Film group project. Given the character animation and assets, I was responsible for lighting this shot.
(2016)
Responsible for lighting. Sunset scene from "Taijitu". Given the character animation and assets, I was responsible for lighting this shot.
(2016)
A Grendel expressions test that I lit, animated by Natalie Petrucka. It's a fun little animation, and it gives a good feel for the film "Grendel"! (2017)
Textures & Shading
A detail of Beowulf's axe shader.
(2017)
I was responsible for shading all aspects of the second main character in "Grendel", Beowulf. Textured in Mari, rendered with Renderman. (2017)
Turnaround of the gingerbread house. (2015)
Responsible for all aspects. Modeled in Maya and rendered in Houdini, entitled "Nightmare After Christmas". Gumdrop sugar-coated look accomplished with emission maps, gummy bear shader accomplished using liquid shaders. Boy shadow in the back is a gobo. Some aspects sculpted in Zbrush. (2015)
Material Spheres rendered in Renderman as a textures test for "Grendel". The film is a spoof on the Beowulf legend, and therefore requires many viking-related textures. I was part of the Research and Development team, and as such was tasked with learning/teaching Renderman and exploring different lighting and shading styles. (2017)
A still render of the snail. Shaded and lit in Houdini. (2016)
Responsible for all aspects. Acorn procedurally shaded in Houdini. Cap painted in Mari and displaced in custom-built shader. Body of acorn 100% procedurally shaded.
A shield shader done for "Grendel". Given the above concept and the modeled asset by Ben Puente, I was tasked with creating the shader for the shield. The ropes are entirely bump and displacement, as well as the wood.
Done in Renderman.
Another shield shader for "Grendel", based on the below concept. Renderman.
Concept for Grendel's clay mug by Vanessa Palmer.
Based on Vanessa's concept and Ben's model, I textured and shaded this clay pot mug using Mari and Houdini's Renderman. This is the mug to be used by Grendel, the sophisticated and gentle monster who lives in a cottage and is hated by Beowulf and his minion vikings.
Misc. Projects & Skills
VR World in Unity (2018)
I recently acquired an Oculus Rift and couldn't help but experiment with VR world creation. I decided to learn Unity and try my hand at making a low-poly interactive world in which you can play instruments with friends.
This world, "Bard's Haven", was uploaded onto VRChat, a popular VR game available for free on Steam. While I did not model and texture every single asset in this scene (many prefabs were obtained in the Unity Asset Store), I am responsible for the design & assembly of the world, along with creating and programming the sound bytes to make the instruments playable and with an intuitive playing interface.
"Valgard the Viking"
Responsible for all aspects. A short animation of one of my favorite lego mini-figs ever. Just a fun little project I did a while back to try my hand at animation.
Shaded, lit, and rendered in Houdini. Modeled and animated in Maya. Responsible for all aspects (minus the soundtrack which is property of Disney, and the mini-fig design). (2015)
Responsible for all aspects. Log sculpted in Zbrush, rendered in Houdini; rain FX done in Houdini. This piece was sent to SideFX as an example of student work using Houdini.
Responsible for all aspects. A part of a high school biology course that I created during my time with BYU Independent Study in 2016.
Jellyfish modeled and shaded in Maya. Tentacles made with N-cloth simulation and transparency maps. (2013)
Responsible for all aspects. An FX test I did in 2016 to convey the feeling of a broken spell.
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