ThinkandPaint

Sunday, February 11, 2018

I wanted a rhythm of simple buildings for the small town of Ronda. Simple, open walls punctuated with Spanish motifs, and no more than three stories in height so they would contrast with the taller Madrid structures. I thought there should be a similarity to each other, but didn't want a repeating pattern, esp. when the chase and capture scenes occurred. By using the iconic black wrought iron railings, flower pots, and Terra-Cottar tiles, I hoped to visually tie the buildings together. I did an initial drawing (1), then worked that tiny sketch into a street facade (2). I then had to break out each building, designing the four sides of each initial "facades"repeating the same elements/motifs. I was limited to five buildings, so I tried to make sure each facade had a variance that when rotated could be assembled and combined to represent a number of different street configurations.

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

Once I had these, I could keep grouping until I got a "block" that looked random. Five buildings with four facades meant we had a little more architectural imagery to work with. (8-9-10).

Set dressing just had to track the drainpipes/canopies and the occasional gutter collisions, etc. Overall it worked ok, and we were able to keep the large-small-tiny, simplistic look we wanted for Ronda.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Ferdinand

The final look of the Ranch (Finca) that I came up with for Ferdinand. Keeping it simple and in the Spanish style. Modern day, but with a traditional aesthetic. It had to have angular, utilitarian (threatening-unfriendly) design motifs to contrast with the rounder, and curvilinear (friendly/homey) farm that Ferdinand calls home.

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Ferdinand- ElPrimero's Convertible

... lots'a fun with this one. I combined elements of three classic sports cars, yet tried to remain true to the big-small-tiny theme. I love how the severe vertical of the character fits into the extreme horizontal of the car, absurd! My AD knew his cars, so this one got a lot of attention and with the help of a talented modeling team, it felt like we came up with a hybrid car we all wanted to see go into production.

Ferdinand-Vehicles

...various vehicles were needed, so I kept the big-small-tiny theme going through the proportions, and designed a few variants (to max out the re-use).

Ferdinand - Sweet Ride

...the Cattle Truck morphed (through many, many, many) iterations into the modern cattle trailer seen in the film. This "vehicle" was described by one of the characters in an early script as "a sweet ride", so the name stuck through production.

Ferdinand- Cattle Truck

..at one point in an earlier script, there was a large tractor trailer needed for the escape sequence. I wanted the truck to look older, worn, squared off and utilitarian. A prison on wheels.

Ferdinand- vehicles

I started on Ferdinand in 2014. We had a few style guide pages put together that were really helpful, including a proportion break-down indicating we would follow a "big-small-tiny" theme. We had a couple of rough character designs done, but not a full line-up, so I couldn't key off any specific character motifs. There was an early draft of the script I could reference, but no idea as to the era/time, just location... "Ronda, Spain". These were my very first pencil sketches.

Ferdinand, came out Dec.15.2017.
It was the last film I worked on while still with Blue Sky. I had more fun on this film than any other film I've worked on to date. I love the simplicity of the characters, the styling, and the storytelling.
I saw it with a full theater of kids who were held for the entire running time with no bail-outs... even the parents managed to keep off the cel phones!J ust a great experience, and a film I am really proud to have worked on.