FLOATING ROCK
BENJAMIN MULOT
ART DIRECTION – CONCEPT ART – ENVIRONMENT DESIGN
For Kyoryu, we were involved towards the end of the preproduction and through the production in order to help implement the painterly look and art direction within the location. Our main focus was the environment design; so the language and research of the Neon Noir Film genre within an abandonned and overgrown version of Tokyo.
We worked alongside the director and the technical team to provided an achievable and cinematographic visual goal.
As well as giving more depth to the environment in order to support the story.
Through research and environment design, we translated the main visuals pillars of Kyoryu into a usable space for the story to unfold. Being based on a real location, the environment design had to be accurate to help the 3D team construct the scene.
With 2D black and white storyboard sketches, we helped question and define key aspects of the environment. Specifying the amount of vegetation, the type of vegetation as well as the extent of destruction was paramount to build a believable and complex environment.
Once the 3D layout had started we got involved to create color and light boards to help develop the shots artistically.
With this complex type of neon noir lighting and complicated setting of an Asian overgrown city, it was key to drive the audience to the characters and the action with a strong lighting and color composition.
In this way, the light/color board helped on deciding when to take some camera and layout liberty in order to support the story and enhance the impact of the art direction on the audience.
The next goal was to define the main vegetation assets and their 2D design.This meant the assets had to have a 2D component at the base of their design.
We first started by creating a 2D library of the main vegetation assets based on the storyboard. From the details of the leaves to the overall 2D interpretation of real plants, these illustrations helped create a unique but believable Kyoryu world.
Based on these concept arts we looked into a 3D pipeline able to replicate the painterly design of the main plants assets within Unreal.
Because of the Neon Noir genre, we had to anticipate the lighting at the base of built of the 3D assets. The overall idea was to find a balance between the amount of detail in the geometry, the shader and how it reacted to a dark and colorful neon lighting. We used Maya, Speedtree and Unreal including post processing filters to create this 3D plant library.
This was a proof of concept on how to achieve the visual development goals within the production chosen workflow
