Set Dressing Highlights
"Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" - The Black Forest - Storytelling and World Building through Set Dressing
This sequence was one of my favorites to set dress as the Production Designer requested that the initial Rough Layout set be rebuilt to match the blast angle of the fallen Wishing Star. Following concept art and working through sequence cameras with character animation in place, I was able to curate a version of the Black Forest that reflected the emotional beat of the sequence.
Diagonals with a Purpose
Goldi confesses her wish for a real family. Trees were angled and grouped to mimic bear claws slashing the acting space, separating Goldi from her family.
Matching Shapes and Lines to Emotions
Character's emotions are mirrored in the trees that frame them. Baby Bear's heart is broken , so the trees behind him form a broken line.
"Abominable" - Building the Interior of the Wisteria Tree From Scratch
Production determined that the interior of the wisteria tree in "Abominable" had to be custom built because Yi, Jin and Peng were meant to ride its continuously animating branches from the base of the tree up to and eventually through the canopy.
I was given the task of building custom interiors for the tree, each one unique to its shot. The most challenging build was for the beat when the characters rise up through the canopy and come to rest at its top.
Modeling provided a handful of flowers and branches which I grouped together, sometimes in animating assemblies, to achieve the effect. Here you can see the progression with original anim prep on the left, work in progress in the middle, and final setup on the far right.