DANSEUSE
Danesuse is a short atmospheric animation exploring themes of impermanence, memory, and delicate beauty. At its center is a lone golden ballerina figurine, slowly spinning in an empty, dimly lit space, accompanied by a music-box-style melody that I composed specifically for the piece.
The project combines 3D modeling, texturing, animation, music, and motion design into a quiet visual poem. From the subtle posing of the figure to the hand-painted textures and the soft disintegration effect created using Cinema 4D’s Mograph, every element is meant to evoke the feeling of something once cherished slowly fading into memory.
Danesuse is less about spectacle and more about evoking a moment, a fleeting breath of nostalgia, suspended in time and light.
Software Used : Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Redshift, Marmoset Toolbag
Credits
Design, Modeling, Texturing, & Rendering: Jeffrey Bounthavong
DANSEUSE // ANIMATED SHORT VIDEO
Danesuse is a meditative animation of a golden ballerina slowly spinning to an original music-box melody. As she turns, she gently disintegrates into dust, carried by an invisible breeze. A quiet reflection on beauty, fragility, and impermanence.
KEYFRAMES
This set of keyframes breaks down the visual narrative of Danesuse: from the opening wide shot of the statuette in stillness, through the gentle revolutions of its form under moody lighting, to the delicate fragmentation sequence that dissolves the figure into golden dust.
Each keyframe captures a beat in the visual rhythm of the piece, reinforcing its mood of elegant decay and the slow passage of time.
DAZ MODEL
The base figure for the ballerina was sourced from Daz Studio, chosen for its graceful proportions and classical pose potential. This screenshot shows the raw asset before any posing, modeling, or texturing modifications were applied.
POSING IN MAYA
After importing the Daz figure into Maya, I posed the ballerina into a subtle, introspective stance, emphasizing balance, softness, and timelessness. The pose was kept minimal to maintain a figurine-like quality, as if frozen mid-performance atop a jewelry box.
FLOOR TEXTURE - SUBSTANCE PAINTER
The scene’s mood is grounded by the hand-painted floor texture, designed and textured in Substance Painter. Using a palette of worn metals and soft reflections, the surface complements the golden ballerina and sets the tone for a space that feels old, intimate, and dreamlike, like the inside of a forgotten music box.
CINEMA 4D - DISINTEGRATION SETUP WITH MOGRAPH
The disintegration effect was built in Cinema 4D, using the Mograph module to procedurally break apart the mesh into fine particles. This screenshot shows my workspace where I choreographed the subtle, natural motion of the pieces drifting away, giving the effect of the figure dispersing like dust in a breeze, graceful even in disappearance.
RENDERED TURNAROUNDS
These turnaround renders showcase the ballerina after being textured in Substance Painter. I created a bronze-gold patina, evoking the feeling of a delicate art deco statuette elegant, aged, and precious. The material choices and surface detail are meant to enhance the contrast between the solidity of the figure at rest and its eventual transformation into ephemeral dust.
FINAL FLOOR TEXTURE
This image captures the final rendered floor texture, fully integrated into the atmospheric lighting of the Danesuse scene. Designed and hand-painted in Substance Painter, the texture blends subtle wear, patina, and specular detail to create a sense of quiet age, as if the figurine has been spinning in the same spot for years.
Lit to complement the soft, melancholic tone of the animation, the floor becomes more than a base, it becomes part of the story, echoing the muted elegance and fading memory at the heart of the piece.