Monday, June 9, 2008

Suiting Up


Here's a concept painting I did in post-production for the suit-up sequence. This was a scene I really thought was important to selling the believability of the suit. An earlier and much more low-tech version (see Rodolfo Damaggio's excellent storyboards HERE) got cut for budgetary reasons early in the script, but thankfully the idea got revived for reshoots. The sequence is remarkably all-CGI, since it was accomplished long after the sets had been struck. For this illo I painted over (or into, rather) a plate from a dolly shot within the garage set. The idea would have been to composite the new CGI into the shot, replacing the existing live action. It ended up (as you can see) being a really crowded space, so they rightfully placed it in a broader expanse of the garage, rebuilding the set digitally from set photos. I worked with Kent Seki and his crew at PLF to storyboard and direct a pre-vis of the sequence, which was approved and sent to ILM. I was unbelievably impressed with their execution, it's remarkably realistic, and they did an incredible job expanding on the details I only suggested in this illo and a handful of storyboards. Kudos to PLF and the crew at ILM for one of the most convincing sequences I've seen in awhile.

3 comments:

Hubert de Lartigue said...

I can't believe it! You are a genius. Thank you to share your art.

Daniel Ljunggren said...

this is wonderful man! got any tips on your process and how much time do you spend on a concept/ inspirational like this one?

do you take use of photos to achieve the level of realism in lighting and values?

cheers

Phil Saunders said...

Usually something like this would take me a day. It's painted into a plate from the shoot, so I had lighting reference already built in.

As for process, I'll usually block out large areas of tone and color very roughly with either a chisel tip brush, or a bristle brush (both default brushes in PS.) Then I'll start modeling the shapes in a more detailed fashion, and I'll use another layer for cutlines, details, etc.

If I'm really trying for photoreal I'll use photo reference for anything that I can get reference for. Obviously anything invented I'll just make up. Normally just for sketching & design rendering I'll work out my own lighting and values.