The Making Of Kuiper IV

A Short Film

Watch the film, then scroll to see how it was made

Description

Kuiper IV is a short film I made in a free 3D software called Blender. It is a fantasy sci-fi short film about 3 otters who go to orbit and come back home to earth on board the Kuiper IV rocket. It has taken me about 3 months to make and render this short film only using Blender's built-in EEVEE render engine. I created all of the assets, characters and scenery in Blender and wanted to walk through how I made this film.

Part 1

Movement

I began making the film by creating my basic otter mesh and rigging. I also began modeling the scenery and landscape for the opening scene. I played with camera angles and movement with the otter's rigging to make the scene transitions more smooth.

3D rendered otter character model showing the rigging and animation setup

Part 2

Control Panel

This is when I started making the space capsule for my otters and detailing the interior with buttons, controls and screens. I made screen recordings for image textures on the main control panels and created buttons, switches and even a joystick.

Part 3

Seats

After completing the control panel and the otter's rigging I began making the seats for the space capsule so I could get an idea on how big the capsule needed to be. I made two versions of the seats and ended up using my last version which is modeled more off of the old Apollo capsule seats.

Part 4

The Capsule

I began making the space capsule that the otters would go in and modeled it off of space capsules similar to that of the Apollo spacecraft. I modeled the docking port off of the docking ports on the ISS and put some larger unique windows on the side of the capsule, as well as a door and Reaction Control System thrusters (RCS).

Exterior view of the Apollo-style space capsule with docking port, windows, and RCS thrusters

Part 5

Second Stage

After completing the space capsule I began building the rocket starting with the second stage. I designed a vacuum optimized engine and the fuselage for the second stage.

Part 6

Particle Systems

The particle systems for the steam, fire and water was one of the hardest parts of making the short film. I ended up using particle emitters that emitted lots of a certain nearly see-through shape that created a flame, water or steam looking effect. The biggest challenge was how to make it work and look good in Blender's EEVEE render engine.

Rocket engine nozzles with particle-based fire and exhaust effects

Part 7

Designing The Rocket

When I was designing the rocket I decided to have the first stage be a little bit more sci-fi than traditional rockets and had the first stage engines be air breathing rocket engines, meaning they can swap between using the atmosphere for oxidizer and liquid fuel oxidizer to produce thrust. This is also why I have the air intakes on the outside of the first stage.

Complete Kuiper IV rocket in flight showing the sci-fi air-breathing first stage design

Part 8

Making The Launch Complex

After completing the design of the entire rocket I moved onto designing the launch complex and stand. I designed the launch stand a little bit off of more modern rocket launch stands and included a walkway from the top of the tower to the space capsule.

Launch complex with modern-style tower, walkway to capsule, and launch stand

Part 9

Stitching It All Together

Stitching all of the scenes together took a long time as I had to render each scene into files and then assemble them in Blender's video editor to make the final short film.

Capsule splashdown scene showing the final recovery sequence in the ocean