Farewell
Farewell is a group short film worked on during the Summer Industry Course at Texas A&M. The course was 10 weeks and involved meeting daily with mentors from DreamWorks Animation and Meta for feedback and assistance. My roles included head of art and concept, head of cinematography (lighting and layout), co-project manager, and co-compositing lead
Phase 1: Concept
My first role on "Farewell" was as head of concept and art. During the early weeks I focused on the story conception and how we could tell something impactful within a 20 second time limit. As the story progressed and changed over time, I made quick concepts and color tests to see if the direction was something that would work visually or not. Once we had our story locked and we knew it was going to be set in a non-fictional setting, I did an immense amount of research into where our short could take place. We decided on Caen, France, a city that was practically leveled during WWII, although I took careful measures when designing it to make sure that the city would look ambiguous, and the message of our story would come across universally, not just to a specific time and place.
After deciding that our short would take place in the city of Caen, France, I was able to dive into the architectural and material style of the city. The hardest part was making the rubble seem random, but also be an organised mess to guide the eye through the scene yet not distract from Pierre, our protagonist. Shown below are some breakdowns I did of how rubble naturally forms its shape and the different levels and sections it has so that we could design accurate destruction. These were made to help the modeling artists to know the shape language we were going for within the short, and the texturing artists to know the color scheme and materiality of everything.
Once I had our layout set up for a first pass, I didn't feel like the environment felt destroyed enough or cohesive, so I went back in and did a paintover of our first test render to figure out how our final shot could look. The colours were also extremely muted, so another paintover was done to create a more vibrant palette that tied the entire environment together.
Phase 2: Layout & Design
Phase 3: Lighting & Comp
Once layout was completed, my next and final task was lighting and compositing of the 4 shots. Challenges for the lighting stemmed from the fact that the scene is overcast due to heavy smoke and ash. I made the choice to portray the scene immediately after the air strike hit in order for the first half to be frantic with the fire in the back while Pierre is looking for his owner. This contrasts to the second half, which is overall more gray and adds to the somber mood of the piece, as he now knows that the girl he is looking for is dead. The story was the first thing kept in mind while figuring out the lighting. Below are some test color keys to see what would fit and be consistent throughout.
