Designing the Arena — And a USD Pipeline

Oluseyi Ekanem
Jul 28
3 min read

Rat Trap Project Post 4 : The Kitchen

In The Rat Trap, the kitchen isn’t just a background — it’s the battlefield. It’s where emotion meets motion. From the start, we knew we couldn’t rely on marketplace downloads or quick fixes. We needed a purpose-built 3D environment, designed with USD and MaterialX at the core, to lay the foundation for something bigger: a pipeline that can scale with our dreams.

That decision put us on a rarely traveled path — not just in Nigeria, but across much of the African continent.

We collaborated with a 3D modeller from the local talent pool — a deliberate choice, because this project isn’t just about finishing a film. It’s about building an ecosystem. To achieve this, I reached out to the Animation Nigeria community, interviewed a few 3D artists, and found Olanrewaju Ganiyu — who not only had a solid skill set, but even more importantly, was humble, friendly, and open to growing with us.

Lanre understood the experimental nature of The Rat Trap and was excited to be part of something new. He delivered a kitchen modeled to spec in USDC format, complete with early textures. It looked great — he really went above and beyond the brief, demonstrating a true collaborative spirit.

Then it was my turn to integrate it cleanly into Solaris — but I quickly hit a wall. I struggled to import the scene into Houdini because all the folder references in the USDC file pointed to directories on Lanre's computer. We both learned that I needed the USDA format instead — so I could reference files dynamically, inspect and tweak the structure, and begin non-destructive look development. That learning came from a deep dive into the world of USD pipelines — a world still new to many teams, even globally.

What followed was weeks of figuring things out:

Learning how to convert and rebuild the USD stage from scratch in Houdini Solaris.
Reassigning and structuring MaterialX-based shaders using AMD’s MaterialX library as stand-ins for our final materials.
Configuring a scene that can round-trip between DCCs while giving us control over layers, variants, and composition arcs.

The Kitchen USD Scene with stand-in Materials from AMD’s MaterialX library

This wasn’t just technical. It was transformational. Every friction point became a mirror, showing us what we didn’t know — and what we needed to build into the team. It taught me firsthand why project-based learning is the best approach. For example, when you’re in the trenches trying to solve a file format issue or remap a shader pipeline, the learning sticks. You grow.

And it’s why The Rat Trap is more than a short film. It’s our testbed — for talent, for pipeline architecture, and for future-proofing our animation goals in Nigeria. Building this kitchen wasn't just about having a nice background. It was about building capacity, testing relationships, and proving that yes — we can operate at this level.

So when people ask why we’re taking so long or being so intentional, it’s because we’re not just making content. We’re laying the foundation for a future where world-class animation can be created from here — with our people, our tools, and our standards.

Why This Matters

This kitchen was never just a scene. It was our first real pipeline challenge — and we met it head-on, not by lowering the bar, but by learning fast and building upward.

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