Welcome to Peanatopia 🥜
This personal project emerged from the fact that, for a time, I quite literally lived on peanuts. Although I follow a more balanced diet now, they still play a crucial role in my life. Not only as a snack, but as a source of inspiration. Bit by bit, the idea for Peanatopia grew: a peaceful place fueled by the power of peanuts. To shape a first impression of its look and feel, I am starting by creating a 3d animated short film and documenting the process.
PEANUt LIMOUSINE
The first asset is a limousine with body panels that resemble a peanut shell. I had this idea in mind long before I intended to turn it into a bigger project. Back then, I made two sketches of a pink car fueled by peanut oil.
Later on, I modelled a more polished version in Blender. For the textures, I used a mix of graphic shaders and a custom peanut-shell material for the car panels, which I created using Substance Designer.
DESERT
The limousine is set to drive through a desert dominated by peanut-shaped rocks. There it also stops at a fuelling station to refill its oil tank. The station has a long, thin shape that looks like the stem of a plant growing out of the ground with an oil bubble crown at the top.
MRS. P.
This is the character driving the peanut limousine. She looks almost human, except for her skin, which has the structure of a peanut shell. Her overall appearance is elegant and a little bit stiff. She carries a woven basket bag and an umbrella to shield herself from the desert sun.
PEANUT CREATUREs & KITCHEN
The first scene of the short film takes place in a cozy kitchen in our world. There, a few little peanut creatures appear to deliver a jar of peanut butter from Peanatopia to the humans. They are roughly the size of a regular peanut and look like peanuts that have come to life.
PEAt Test Animation
To see one of the peanut creatures come to life I created Peat using Blender and Substance Painter. With the static mesh ready I added a rig and animated this little waving sequence.