The short film Me + Her is a love story about two cardboard characters who grow up together but are separated suddenly by the death of one of them. The other character, through a series of events, unexpected “reunites” with her.

Overview

I was hired to create their town in 3D and match a real camera move for the final scene in the movie. The city was massive and was very taxing on my machine to edit and render. Another team member handled the compositing.

The film is a live-action movie that used puppets and a small-scale set (the cardboard houses were about 4 feet high). They only had about 12 houses because of the limited space they had to work in and the incredible work it takes to make each house. The problem was that for the final end shot they wanted a picture of the whole implied town that the story takes place in.

A frame from the final render

A frame from the final render

Tests

One of the initial material and modeling tests

One of the initial material and modeling tests

A lighting test putting lights inside the houses

A lighting test putting lights inside the houses

Further along in the project when more houses were built out

Further along in the project when more houses were built out

Wireframes

Instanced block layouts to make the city

Instanced block layouts to make the city

Wireframe view of the city

Wireframe view of the city