From conceptual pitch ideation, to final color grading, the entire unique visual style of the episode was corralled and unified as one of my missions. Work began at concept and finished out at final visual post colour correction.
Part of the role was to create many of the concept designs and the entire Colour script/board, produce the style guides for the whole episode and help with additional storyboards. The project required me to directly supervise the Background Artists, FX artists and Compositing team and work in tandem with the Director on all reviews of Storyboard, Layout, animation, cleanup and compositing.
Worked closely with director Paul Young and the Lucasfilm Executive team, Jaqui Lopez, James Waugh and Josh Rimes, to envision Cartoon Saloon’s Star Wars, "Screecher's Reach" animated short film. A completely new and unique story conceptualised, written and developed at Cartoon Saloon inside the Star Wars Universe.
My mission was to create the style from scratch and supervise all the teams together with the director Paul to create this unique story.
Client : Cartoon Saloon, Lucasfilm
Director : Paul Young
Role : Art Director
DARK SIDE HALLUCINATION
One of the most ambitious sections is the “Dark Side Hallucination” of “The Force Vision”. As the kids get deeper into the cave, the dark side becomes stronger and they slowly drift into a dark force nightmare as their fear increases. The aggressive BG shapes start to slowly drift as if the darkness would grow as fingers towards them. Inside this nightmare the banshee appears, reaching the peak of expressiveness when Daal faces the lightsaber.
This was traditionally animated frame by frame with ink and paper.
I supervised all departments from storyboad, to concept, animation and compositing, as well as animated all the lightsaber FX shots.
More Projects
A family unit that gets broken. A golden warm circle of light represents the friendship and bond in the fireplace scene. When Daal wants to stay, she is framed inside the circle. When she decides to leave and do the test, she is out. In the end the golden circle comes in the spaceship, her new family.
THREE MAIN VISUAL THEMES
All the visual decisions emerged from the story's core spirit
A twist in the end. The arrival of the mysterious stranger means salvation, and is the only time we see the sun in the whole episode. Daal’s past has a ragged, scruffy line, medieval designs and polluted environment. The future ahead is bright and welcoming, with a thorn in the back.
The Dark Side hallucination was the most ambitious section. Representing the force visually meant trying a trans sensorial approach, representing a scream visually, and an old binding energy that doesn't show where the character ends and the environment starts. Pure rage and fear made animation.
COLOR SCRIPTS
They constitute the backbone of the project where I established final tone and designs