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Little historic

First of all when I was a child my artistic culture was based on cartoons like the Disney's but after that two cartoons wh
ich impressed me a lot because it was less childlike were “All dogs go to heaven” and “The Secret of NIMH” realised by Don Bluth.Then of course come the Pixar films with “Toy Story” and all my life I was attracted by 3D animation and special effects films.

Another big part in my education was the European comics, more specifically Belg ian and French. E.g.: “marsupilami”, “Gaston Lagaffe”, “Tintin”, “Les Schtroumpfs ( The Smurfs)”, “Asterix and Obelix”, “Quick et Flupke”, “Les Tuniques Bleues”, “Pierre Tombal”, …

All these books are really different from the American comics which use super heroes the most of the time.

Later I used to be interested in other comics like : “Blacksad”, “Lanfeust”, “Petit d'homme”... I liked the style of the “Soleil” Edition. About the Mangas my tastes were more dark for example “Hellsing” but also “Fullmetal alchemist”, “Evangelion”...

"BlackSad" is for me one of the biggest inspiration because of its dynamic (close to animation films and camera shots), the drawer plays with colours to give a special atmosphere to each kind of scene to be really different from one moment to another in the story. The character design is amazing too. The drawer is one of my favourite artist, he used to work for Disney and that is why he has a good feeling for de dynamics. The "Lanfeust" saga brought me tastes for the mix between Si-Fi and Heroic Fantasy using magic powers and quests. "Petit d'Homme" makes me love the post-apocalyptic art...

Little by little I was more interested in surrealism, fantastic and science fiction, probably because of the imaginary world that resulted. Then my tasted were oriented on the cinema (as much for animation as for live films) being more attracted by particular atmosphere like the Frank Miller adaptations (“Sin City” or “300”) and also by post-apocalyptic movies like the “Mad Max's” or “WaterWorld”... I like special dynamics and scenarios too. E.g.: “Fight club”, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, “Shutter Island” and “The Dark Knight”, Tarantino's films, “The Truman show”, Kubrik's films, “99 Francs”, …

Concerning fantasy and science-fiction, obviously there was The “Star Wars”, “The lord of the Rings”, “Irobot”, The “Matrix”, ... In 3D animation films, Pixar is of course my leader followed by DreamWorks and BlueSky, but also a bunch of short films made by independent studios or even schools. Pixar is my leader because I think they have the "magic" touch that makes their films almost perfect and their animatinos are perfectly studied. But DreamWorks and BlueSky realize funnier characters with other personalities and sometimes more adequate for adults.

Concerning the painting inspirations, there are not much classic painters I like but surrealists like Dali or Gyuri Lohmuller.

But currently there are a lot of digital painters or matte painters who give

good atmospheres and style to their paintings.

E.g. : Goro Fujita, Linda Bergkvist, Mathias Verhasselt, Olivier Ponsonnet, Yanick Dusseault, ...

What I like a lot in these digital paintings it is the originality, the story of the pictures and especially the imaginary that is more advanced that it used to be.

Another artistic branch I learned to like is the sculpture. For example Kent Melton who is a great artist working with Disney and Pixar.

Finally all these little things that create my universe inspire me in every work I want to do. Of course there are a lot of other films, comics, books, artists that inspire me but this is a good base to begin this sketchbook.

Project summary and synopsis

This project aims to deepen my knowledge about the character and environment design. Indeed this project is to create a 3D animated short film because that is what I studied for. So, the goal will be to successfully create a good environment and a good character design to lead to a good result. The fact that it is a animated short film helps to take into account the design in relation with the scenario and that is why we'll have to focus on the psychological profile of the characters.

Here is the synopsis written by Arnaud Boulanger:

It is a story about a chef, he was one of the best chefs in the town, he transformed an old subway car into a restaurant. But now, he lost his popularity and his job because of the new society. All the traditional restaurants had to close because of a new revolutionary burger company. Every night, he goes home to his former subway car which he now uses as home, throws his clothes away, puts on the TV and goes order a burger with a new electronic machine. It takes between 20 and 30 sec to get a burger and within seconds, the subway car will begin to tremble slightly and two of the many items of the kitchen, namely an electric mixer and the pepper mill, will start to transform. From that moment, the objects will try to take the burger from the chef, and a couple of things will happen, for example; the electric mixer will shoot the burger with one of his whip and the pepper mill will catch the burger and goes away with it! At the end, the pepper mill crushes the burger with a book. The chef is scared and goes to take the book, that is when he realizes that the book actually is his own cookbook. The subway car will tremble and kind of recompose itself, there is going to be a sort of zoom out and we will come out of the eyes of the chef. Everything that happened was just an internal struggle, an inside fight. He is holding the book in his hands and realizes he has to become the great chef he used to be again.

In this work I deal with the design of the Chef, the robot, the metro station, and some of the objects inside the car so that it could fit with the scenario and the camera plans.

Production plan

Here is the planning of the short film production:

brain stormings

Here are examples of team work and script and deign researches using "brain stormings"
(sorry for the French)

Story board

Personal story board:


Arnaud Boulanger's story boards:

Script atmosphere

The script takes us in the near future which is a challenge in terms of production design. Indeed, not only must it be in the near future but also in an environment that is an old subway station. So we had to make a lot of researches about subway stations, while trying to show the “abandoned” side of the old stations but in the near future. So, a lot of objects will refer to the future, like for example holograms or a special machine that is used to order burgers... Old items such as posters or buckets and rags will be kept in the décor. The most difficult part was to combine the past and the future while staying uniform and to let the essential appear. Nothing must be left at random and everything should absolutely bring something to the script. Almost all the objects in the station and inside the dining car will be studied and designed to handle with the following contrasts: futuristic / values / Past dirty.

There were a lot of researches for the ambiance and render style too on mainly pictures and others shorts films and animation films. But all these atmospheres will be introduced later in the short film production.

E.g.

Here are some rough atmosphere paintings:

Car design (inside)

For the inside of the dining car, a lot of research has been done on the internet because it is a particular design that is needed. Everything had to be converted into a restaurant, but later also in a home. A lot of documents and data sources were searched, for example to make the television, we wanted to get the old style back but we also had to add a touch of futurism. For the kitchen we wanted to base the design on a real French kitchen like the kitchen of the Pixar movie "Ratatouille" which helped us a lot in the conception of a lot of kitchen utensils. Using different kinds of materials we tried to make an old kitchen in a futuristic way. Of course, the used resources were completed by researches on Google Image and other internet sites. Concerning the characters, the psychological profile of the chef was a lot of work. For example, we decided that he would be born from an Italian and American family. In the décor, the American side can be seen with the burger, the fridge and cans. The Italian side is reflected by the design of the chef, like for example the cap, the sideburns and his head.



Here some sketches: