Stages of work

2009-07-15T00:46:52Z

Well the project we've been working on for the last few weeks has had the opportunity for some real concept work for me. There will be visual effects shots which will be using miniatures, live footage and lots of composition work in post, but before all this goes down an idea of what we are aiming at is required. A good example of what I am talking about is a shot where our characters walk out of a mine tunnel into a huge underground cavern with a walkway on one, chains hanging down into the darkness, and a waterfall. In order to get all the elements required into one angle I picked a top down shot looking at where the people will be walking.

Ok, so the way that I constructed my images for this project were all the same with only minor changes from pic to pic. I would start with a line drawing of the scene. . .well actually, it starts with a conversation with James or other crewmembers to see what they had in mind for the shot, to figure out important things like scale, lighting considerations, what elements were related to plot points, and the mood and the emotions the scene are trying to convey. Stuff like that, then the drawing. My example will be the room with the treasure, cuz hey, who doesn't like treasure?

After each stage I would go and get feedback from the crew before moving forward. With a thumbs up on the drawing I would scan the pic and go over the whole thing in black and white, getting the value and lighting figured out. This is where a lot of the mood would be injected into the piece. Alot of the lighting in this project is going to be produced by flashlights, which makes directing the attention and focus of the viewer alot easier. Literally just point at it.

Also getting the black and white value drawing done makes the rest of the job alot easier. In a layer set to colorize, just painting over in any color adds tone and saturation without messing up the light and dark value that has already been established. Some adjustments to the levels and contrast are going to be necessary as the image will be different than expected with color.

Designing a Costume

2009-06-11T05:52:53Z

I’ve said it several times and it’s very true but one of the things I enjoy most about my job as an artist is not just getting my imagination on paper but getting the ideas out of someone else, and creating an image out of that. Hearing “you took the picture right out of my head” is a big fat check mark in the I did it right book.

]]> I’ve said it several times and it’s very true but one of the things I enjoy most about my job as an artist is not just getting my imagination on paper but getting the ideas out of someone else, and creating an image out of that. Hearing “you took the picture right out of my head” is a big fat check mark in the I did it right book.

Well this particular project is a lot of fun because it is in a world very different from ours, and those are the most fun (the more distance from the real world the more my imagination gets to do). Anyway, the costume is very dependent on the character, in fact it is the outward projection of who the character is and very often the only, or first information we get about them. Think of the beginning of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Arc, for the whole intro we don’t even see his face. But we see that he is wearing practical tough clothes, dirty and sweat stained, he has a gun and a whip on his belt, and he is wearing a leather hat that gives him a silhouette unique among his companions. All these elements tell the audience who this man is, and ask questions that don’t show up on the surface. These are things that the concept artist has to think about. Know that characters world, present circumstances, and the past history that brought that person to the point we as the audience meet them.

This guys threads sure tell a story.

Your mom told you “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. We aren’t writing books. We are telling stories though.

Max here is in a similar world to our hero. The costume I am working on is wrapped around some one who also lives in a world were civilization has crumbled, basics of survival are daily challenges, and the very climate has become an enemy. We also get to throw in a much more toxic and lifeless environment, for fun. So that’s the world we get to live in. What does that mean in terms of costume? Well, working from the most basic needs on outward, given the environment: no exposed skin, and full gas mask. Moving out from there we have a world that doesn’t provide much food or water, so our hero is a traveler, much like max. We get sturdy clothes, boots that wont give up on ya, and a collection of whatever personal belongings our character can carry to make surviving a bit easier, and these things need to be easy to carry, so no airline luggage with the fold up handle and little wheels. Whats more, one look around tells us that the world has been messed up for a long time, which means our character has to stretch what she has for as long as she can, and has done so for a long time.

Result. Hope ya like it!

Andrew's Blog

Stages of work

Designing a Costume