Spring Break

I wanted to use the time we were given during spring break to create concept art for the spaces in the story I had researched and was familiar with. Since we had a proxy model built earlier on the entire set I used that as my base to paint on colour keys of the basement as the climax of the story would unfold there and it would help strengthen the outcome if we had an idea of the kind of lighting we would use on that space because it was a character in itself.

I positioned the camera in blender to face the staircase from where the ball would be visible on the ground so the viewer would see the scene from the ball’s perspective and see the light pouring into the basement through the doorway and the gas lamp hung on the railing that illuminated the scene. I attempted four colour keys and two of them were warm palettes, mostly using complimentary colours with only the orange glow through the doorway dominating the scene and drawing the viewers attention towards the child about to make their entrance.

basement color keys

For the first one there’s more detailing in the scene because I used a dry brush that gave it a sketchy finish but the final one, I simply went less detailed with a flat brush similar to the artistic style seen in Pixar’s Incredibles (2004) where the aesthetic was very mid century modern, portrayed by Visual development artist Lou Romano.

For the second one I tried exploring a cooler colour palette by following the complimentary blue tones and adding the splash of yellow in the scene, since it’s a common method to show this contrast to depict conflict. I found this colour scheme didn’t really convey the essence of the scene and felt a bit too cold and diluted. My third and favourite one was when I followed a analogous colour harmony by painting my base a deep purple and building the highlights over it in lighter and darker shades of deep browns and purples, which I found made the atmosphere almost enchanting and gave it an element of mystery and intrigue.

Lastly, I found by adding a subtle orange glow only to the gas lamp and specks of light on the dust it made it a bit mystical which is exactly the story point I wanted to achieve, since we do indeed have a visitor that wakes up in the end as a surprise to the viewer.

concept art from the bottom of the stairs

For the concept art I relied on the frames from my storyboard and chose a few of the scenes I felt dived into an important story point. The first frame I painted was the shot of him at the basement doorway doing his superhero pose but I painted him as a strong silhouette instead, holding the spoon like a sword up in the air in his ‘cowboy’ hat (that’s actually the colander) I found this shot came out quite well because of the use of light that poured through the doorway but only outlined the curve and slant of each step that made it seem he conquered the peak of a mountain by his stance.

concept art from behind the door

The second painting was a few frames before the first, when he pushes the door open, and we see him from the point of view of the hallway, looking into the darkness beneath. I photobashed the wooden texture of the door frame from the original reference onto the flat painting. I was inspired by the shape language observed in ‘Pixar’s Monsters Inc’ where we commonly see the main character ‘Boo’ at a high camera angle to show the viewer how small she really is compared to the door before her and give a sense of the fear she’d feel at that height where everything is by nature, intimidating.

concept art from a birds eye view of the child looking at the shadow

The third painting is the still we see of him at a birds eye view when he discovers the shadow on the ground. This was a classic Jurassic Park shot and I was inspired by the Art Direction in the film, giving audiences the feel of anticipation at every moment. I placed him in this storyboard close to the jaws of the dinosaur that are wide open, and simply the angle of the shadow gives that sense of thrill to this scene. The specks of dust in the background floating like light, took away from the darkness and gave it that excitement I wanted to convey.

concept art of the toy on the box

For the fourth painting I made it on the focal point of the story and that’s the toy dinosaur which is the big reveal in the end and what leads to the inciting incident of the film by casting a scary shadow and prompting the child to feel he is indeed in danger, until he spins around sees its only an old toy of his above a stack of boxes.

concept art of the final frame

The fifth and last one for these paintings was on the final shot where the pair of eyes that blink open in the darkness invite the unexpected that was waiting for the viewer, I once again avoided painting without the lack of light since the colour scheme could very easily tip into a horrifying scene if it wasn’t friendly to the eye.

grayscale painting blocking out the shapes and values

Lastly, I wanted one of a three quarter view of the basement looking into the scene. I painted this from a quick sketch I made based on the placement of the objects in the scene as done in proxy blend.

I found this outcome looked a bit dark and ominous because of the silhouette of the child in all black and the lack of light in the scene that made it seem out of a cut away in a video game. It did, however give me an idea of the scale by placing him in there and the general atmosphere of an old neglected space.

concept art of a three quarter view of the scene

with a grey background highlighting colors