Case Study: Hybrids achieves an award‑winning 3D‑animated environmental film with Autodesk

Student filmmakers make a splash with award-winning 3D-animated environmental film

Hybrids is a 3D‑animated short film created by five students from MoPA to spotlight ocean plastic pollution. Facing a nine‑month production window to build a highly realistic undersea world, the team relied on Autodesk tools—primarily Maya for rigging and animation and Arnold for production rendering—to iterate quickly and achieve the naturalistic lighting, motion, and effects their story required.

Using Autodesk Maya and Arnold as the core of their pipeline (with Arnold’s .ass workflow smoothing asset exchange from Houdini), the Hybrids team accelerated previsualization, animation, and water rendering to meet their tight schedule. The result: Hybrids screened at 97 film festivals, won 30 awards including Best in Show at SIGGRAPH 2018 and Best Environmental Film at Interfilm Berlin, became Oscars‑eligible, was acquired for French public television, and helped launch the five creators’ careers in major VFX and animation studios.

Hybrids

Florian Brauch

Co-Director