I jumped in to help on some visual development for our set. Something that really makes our film possible is the fact that we really only have one location: the apartment. However, this location goes through three different versions through the course of the film. We’re calling these “human clean,” “destruction,” and “monster clean.” I provided sketches of “human clean” and “monster clean” so that my colleague, Ryan Breuer, can use them for color scripts and lighting sketches.
I’ve been working with Ryan on this quite a bit. We’re both pretty new to digital painting, so we’re learning together how to quickly and efficiently render out full-color concepts that also have character to them. In each gallery below I have my pencil sketch, followed by Ryan's colored iterations.
HUMAN CLEAN
This is how the apartment looks after the human roommate cleans everything up. It looks “normal” despite the fact that three monsters live there.
MONSTER CLEAN
This is how the apartment looks after the monsters destroy it and put it back together. This is just a quick first-pass at the idea, and we’ll be doing more visual development in the future. We had the idea that after destroying the furniture, the monsters redecorate the apartment in ways that they think looks good and romantic. Aldo uses magic to make his houseplant friends grow into what appears to be an indoor jungle. Walter pulls furniture out of the zombie (think Marry Poppins bag style) that he had stored in him. The furniture appears to be pieces he had inherited from family members in Transylvania: a big portrait of a great uncle that looks like Nosferatu, and a dining set and chandelier that looks like it belongs in a medieval castle.