Concepts: more Than just 2D
for avengers: infinity War, DNEG took advantage of having 3D models to iterate on DESIGNS AND behaviours for the character proxima midnight
In VFX art departments, 2D illustrations and concept designs are often taken into the 3D world through turntables and even ‘moving’ concepts. This enables the team to get more of a sense of the character, such as for the operation of weapons, clothing and just the general animation of the particular asset. Such was the case for DNEG’S Proxima Midnight, as DNEG creature lead Stefan Mayr explains.
“It is always hard to get a character look convincing when simply putting them in a T-pose. This takes away any readable body language and maybe displays the anatomy or the build quality, but not the character itself. Portraying a digital personality like Proxima Midnight, we needed to embed her characteristics into an animated ‘turntable.’ This means instead of her just standing in a neutral pose and spinning 360 degrees, she received an idle animation, which better represents her personality due to her posture, stand and body movements.
“The same principle was applied to still frame renders for quick design turnarounds. By putting her into a pose which was heroic yet intimidating, thus reflecting her personality, it was a lot easier to read certain, especially facial, design elements. Doing a still render like this also gives the opportunity to make minor adjustments quickly in Photoshop, for example the size of the eyes, shape of the nose and so on, in order to have quick design turnarounds for the client.”