Impact

Impact started life as a small technical experiment and turned into something more.

This little character almost never made it out of my test folder. He began as a way to stress-test a switch-rig system I was building in Cinema 4D, designed to swap cleanly between models for things like eyes, mouths, and expressions. Once the rig was working, the problem was technically solved — but the character was left sitting in the depths of an “/…/test” folder, going nowhere.

That felt like a waste.

So I gave him his own short animation.

The aim wasn’t to build a polished campaign or overthink the outcome. It was simply to explore performance, timing, and personality — and to see what happened when a technical solution was pushed a little further into storytelling. The result is a small character piece that focuses on clarity of motion, readable expression, and simple emotional beats.

Projects like this are a reminder that not everything needs a grand plan. Sometimes the most useful ideas come from making something for its own sake, then seeing where it leads.

Alongside being a personal exercise, Impact reflects how I approach character animation more broadly: building flexible systems, keeping motion purposeful, and letting performance do the heavy lifting rather than unnecessary complexity.

For a deeper dive into the rig, check this blog post out