Donut

July 2020

Although I have been using CAD programs since 2011 for engineering design, photorealistic modeling is a skill I developed during the COVID lock-downs. This scene is a homage to one activity I missed terribly during that time - leisurely mornings spent at my neighborhood’s cafes. Special attention was paid to minimizing the data requirements and renders times by creating custom node-systems for the food objects.

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The frosting’s material utilizes detailed sculpting and subsurface scattering to achieve the almost imperceivable glow of soft, organic matter. The donut’s color map was illustrated in 2D and texturized using multiple weighted bump maps. A seed set of sprinkles were put through a particle system that generated the random distribution of colors and placement, including physical constraints to create the appearance of being slightly embedded in the frosting. The animation includes both moving objects and a change in the camera’s depth of field as the donut comes into focus.

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This “Making Of” GIF shows both the technical and creative development of this project. The donut starts off perfectly flat, then gets overly crispy, and finally finds a subtle, oily shine. The cup gains detail through a condensation map and lighting changes that give the coffee the correct opacity. Lastly, the setting itself goes through several iterations of interior design: from the millennial-pink void, to the cutesy lilac painted brick, before settling finally on a dignified, earthy vibe complete with soft morning light.

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This project was completed following a tutorial. I modeled, textured, lit, styled, and animated all elements of the scene. The scene was modeled in Blender and compiled in Adobe Premiere.