Eleanor Louise

Programs: Blender, Adobe Premiere Pro

Background

In this project, we were tasked with both modeling and animating a product video. The focus was on creating simple animations, as the “client” requested quick turnaround times. I chose to create a pair of fluffy shoes inspired by Eleanor Louise, as I wanted to further explore working with hair and fur systems in Blender.

The base model was relatively quick to create, which allowed me to spend most of my time refining the fluff to achieve a realistic look, as well as finding suitable fabric textures. Since the project simulated a client workflow, it was divided into three stages. First, a motion preview video, then a preview with refined lighting and music and finally, the completed production-ready video.

Challenge

Since the modeling process went relatively quickly, I found myself ahead of schedule compared to others. In a way, that turned out to be fortunate because when it was time to implement the final adjustments after receiving feedback from the “client,” I discovered that all my scenes in Blender had disappeared. On top of that, the fur work I had spent so much time refining was gone as well, which meant I had to rebuild everything from scratch.

This was a challenging setback, as it required me to put in long hours to recreate the work and meet the deadline. However, it also pushed me to work more efficiently and stay focused under pressure.

Solution

Although I managed to complete the project in the end and was able to recreate the fur settings close to what I had before the result wasn’t exactly the same. The lighting also differed slightly from the original setup, but I was still satisfied with the final outcome.

In later projects, I encountered the same issue again, which helped me identify the root of the problem. It turned out that Google Drive had failed to sync properly. Since I was working across two different computers, my latest changes were not always updated. As a result, when I opened the file on my home computer, it had reverted to an earlier version.

Since then, I’ve made it a habit to save new versions of my files before closing a project. This experience reinforced the importance of proper file management and version control, especially when working across multiple devices.

Result

As mentioned earlier, the final result wasn’t exactly the same as my original version, but as always learned something new. I also really enjoyed working with slow, close-up animations, where finding the right balance is key ensuring the pacing feels neither too fast or too slow.

If I were to improve anything, it would be to further refine the fur. At the same time, it’s something I could easily spend endless hours on, as experimenting with it and exploring different possibilities is both challenging and rewarding.

Matilda Ekholm