Concept keyframe art from real life
Henry Fong reveals how to create mood and drama from a chosen location photo provided by a production designer
Henry Fong reveals how to create mood and drama from a chosen location photo provided by a production designer.
Concept artists who are based in the art department during production often have to render keyframe art from a real location. This helps when exploring ideas or assessing the need for on-set dressing, set building or a CG set extension. This artwork can also be used as a communication tool between various departments – set decoration, graphics, construction, cinematographer, lighting and so on – so they can plan ahead. We’re all working on the bigger picture, so to speak!
1 Understand the essence of a scene
To create a keyframe artwork, we need to have a story or a scenario to base the art on. Here’s a typical example of a scene’s description from the production department: “Rainy night, deep in the inner city of Los Angeles (not too distant future). There’s a table for two inside an auto garage. Jim waits for JF to join him for their weekly chess game, when all of a sudden the sounds of gun shots and a crash break the silence of the night. Jim gets up and walks toward the back door to investigate.”
First, let’s consider what a garage from the world of tomorrow might actually contain. The scenario gives us the chance to create some fun-looking equipment. We’ll also need to have Jim sitting at a table, with an empty chair for his friend JF to attend their weekly chess game, and a back door in the frame.
2 Choose to develop a thumbnail study
I usually draw my thumbnails while I’m reading the script. I think it’s the best way to capture my initial thoughts – my first reaction to the scene. I try to transform the words from the script to a visual form by using composition, light and shadow. This is the perfect time to work out the basic composition of the frame.
3 Choosing the right location photo for the scene
During the pre-production stage we’ll receive potential location photos from the production designer or location department, and they usually come in the hundreds! It’s important to choose a photo that can serve every purpose. One of the things to look out for in a photo is a good cinematic angle, which will help me showcase what’s needed in the scene. In this case, we need to make sure this angle displays one or two vehicles in various stages of repair, a chess table, a couple of chairs and the usual equipment that’s found in modern-day auto garages.
4 Aspect ratio and finding the proper perspective lines
Establishing the correct aspect ratio right from the start is crucial, because your art needs to mimic the final appearance of the film during the production presentation to the director and producers. Here I’ve chosen to work in widescreen format (2.35:1).
Identifying the correct perspective lines from the photo is also important. Everything painted into this picture will have to follow these lines. If the table or chair you paint into this photo is out of perspective then it won’t matter how beautiful your rendering technique is, it won’t work as a keyframe. Use Photoshop’s line tools to create a perspective guide.
5 Designing the shot for maximum storytelling impact
It’s time to decide where to place objects in the scene. In this frame, I need to figure out where my character is located and where the action will be in the shot. How can I use one frame to tell the whole story? I decide to place Jim sitting in the right-hand corner, with light coming from the street at the back door to his left. This will lead our eye to the back of the garage and the Blade Runner-esque spinner (the flying police car). The spinner will carry the flow towards screen left, where a pushing cart and the chair will lead our eye back to Jim and the phone behind him.
6 Laying down the textures
I’m keen to make this art photorealistic, so I’ll be using photo textures from my personal photo library. This means all the elements will be similar to my location photo; there’s no need to paint things from scratch. Make sure the textures match the lighting of the underlying photo. Study your location photo and identify the light source. Fail to do this and your painted elements will look out of place, which also means more work down the line when the piece evolves.
7 Modifying the location
Now I’m enhancing the drama and style of the shot. I decide to turn the ceiling to an old rusty sky light, because I want light coming through and hitting the mid-ground to heighten the drama of the scene. This will become a CG set extension for the VFX department. My focal point is on our character Jim, so I’ll put all my retro high-tech gadgets on the right-hand wall to reflect the near-future time period we’re in. This will be the set build for the art department.
8 Painting and redesigning certain elements
Here I’ve replace the ceiling with a sky light and started modifying the Mini Cooper in the original photo, because I want this piece to be more retro futuristic. I take my inspiration from Syd Mead’s iconic vehicle designs from Blade Runner, and turn the Mini to a semi-futuristic taxi cab. To complete the transformation I use the soft Round brush to paint the yellow colour on a Linear Dodge layer on top of the vehicle, and reshape the bumper on a Normal layer. However, I retain the beautiful mechanical parts that are visible underneath the chassis. I also begin to refine some important story elements, such as the chess table and video phone.
9 Establishing the lighting and mood
After I’ve established every major elements within the shot, it’s time to finalise the lighting. This story takes place in the Blade Runner universe, and so I’d like to match the keyframe’s mood with the film. What better source of inspiration to use than its cinematographer, Jordan Cronenweth? His style uses a strong backlight to bring out interesting silhouettes of objects in the mid- or foreground.
I decide to use the sky light as my main source of light. There will be a strong searchlight bursting through the sky light into the garage’s mid-ground, which is coming from the Off World Colonies’ blimp flying above. This will create an interesting silhouette from our character and the police spinner. I’ve also placed some warm light all around the scene strategically, which will direct the viewer’s eye to look around within the shot.
10 Character costume
Characters are one of the most important elements in a keyframe. Sometimes I’ll take the opportunity to walk over to the costume department to see if they’ve already designed the character’s costume, so I can put them in my shot to add an extra layer of realism in my scene. I usually start by painting my character with an interesting silhouette. I’ve found this to be a very efficient way to create an image that reads well.
11 Adjusting the final lighting in the keyframe
This is my final adjustment stage on the lighting in the scene. I’ve also started to introduce some atmosphere layers, adding some smoke to create depth within the shot. I usually use the Color Picker tool to select the colour from where the light source is and then use a soft Round brush to glaze over the background, before adjusting the layer’s Opacity to achieve the right balance.
12 Detailing and composition adjustment
It’s important to keep your key elements on separate layers at this point before you present it to the production designer or director. There’s a very good chance they’ll ask you to make adjustments, move things around or take thing out within the scene. Here, I’ve moved a few things around to improve the composition of the shot. I’ve also edited the foreground element to emphasise the perspective of the shot.
13 Placing highlights
Because I’ve locked down the lighting setup, I know where the key light and the secondary lights are. Now it’s time to punch out those highlights and reflective lights on various surfaces in the painting. For hard surfaces I usually use the Lasso tool to isolate the area I want to highlight and use a Soft brush to paint over the area. For rim light I’ll use flat Round brush with Pen Pressure on.
14 Final touch-up, adding additional textures and colour adjustment
During the final stages I usually use a hard Round brush to bring out some hard edges and highlights in the focal point area. I also use the Curves, Color Adjustment and Levels tools to make some last-minute adjustments.