Digital Enviro

Loki

In Episode 5 of Disney's "Loki" series, I developed a diverse range of collapsed asset art directions, including helicopters, spacecrafts, immense classic ships, tanks, and human head statues. I also completed one of the most extensive shots, capturing the camera's journey through a devastated New York City, culminating in the main characters' encounter at a bus stop.

I single-handedly created all the 3D environments and pre-compositions, with the exception of the smoky monster at the end. The project utilized low-resolution New York building models from ILM's library, which I then enhanced by adding damage details, an abundance of ivy plants, and completely new, grunge textures. I devoted a month to modeling and texturing, followed by another month for layout and art direction. Additionally, I spent two months addressing feedback from VFX supervisors and clients.

This challenging yet enjoyable project allowed me to work on my favorite type of collapsed environment. Despite the tough task of working independently, I was fortunate to collaborate with a talented supervisor from the generalist team, who contributed valuable technical insights. I am truly grateful for their assistance.

I worked on this project at ILM.

Free Guy

In the “Free Guy” project, I contributed to various 3D concepts, most notably the main hero building, which transforms into a bridge. I was responsible for designing the bridge's appearance and the transformation process itself. Additionally, I developed the concept design for the cube island featured at the end of the movie and completed the final version of all 3D cube islands (with FX artists creating the water elements).

Our goal was to achieve a game-like aesthetic, incorporating slightly oversaturated colors and flat lighting. Overall, working on this project was an enjoyable experience, and it translated into a fun and engaging movie.

I worked on this project at ScanlineVfx.

Jorker

In the "Joker" movie project, I contributed by working on traditional digital matte painting tasks for background city buildings, signs, and lights, utilizing Nuke 3D projection (without CG environments). It was truly an honor to be involved in such a beautifully crafted film, even if my role was limited to providing urgent assistance towards the end of the project's schedule.

Although there were no particularly difficult or complex VFX tasks, I was deeply moved by the stunning visuals when I watched the completed film. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been even a small part of this extraordinary project, which stands as the most prestigious work in my 30-year career in the industry.

I worked on this project at ScanlineVfx.

Aladdin

In the "Aladdin" movie project, I was responsible for modeling, lighting, and layout for the background city, as well as matte painting for sky and clouds. I also created four distinct types of CG environment HDR cycloramas, representing daytime, sunset, nighttime, and stormy conditions. Utilizing Phoenix for the ocean, I combined my own sculpted rocks with MegaScan assets and organized numerous props on the rooftops. Through this project, I gained valuable insights into daytime atmospheric rendering and the differences between natural haze and desert horizontal haze.

In addition, I worked on a major romantic sequence – the flying carpet scene featuring the song "A Whole New World." I crafted a mesmerizing environment, including a moonlit ocean surface, a captivating sky, and twinkling city lights. This project allowed me to explore the creation of enchanting fantasy environments.

I worked on this project at ILM.

SOLO

The "Star Wars" spin-off movie "SOLO" experienced a turbulent start. Despite these challenges, the initial concept design quality was exceptional, fostering a shared design culture within the team that I found enjoyable. I was particularly motivated by my preference for SOLO's design style over the original Star Wars series. As the narrative was set in an earlier time period, the technology was designed to appear older, dirtier, and more worn out.

The shots I worked on involved minimal camera movement, so I primarily created the scenes by blending matte paint textures and 3D CG shading. Instead of modeling, I received asset geometry and focused on art directing the placement of props. This project marked my first time using Clarisse, and my unfamiliarity with the software led to challenges with unknown bugs. Moreover, there were unresolved issues with the in-house tools, which were still in the early stages of development. Consequently, the project took three to four times longer than usual to complete.

I worked on this project at ILM.

THOR ragnarok

On the movie "Thor: Ragnarok," I had the opportunity to create 3D concept designs for the main buildings and environments from scratch for the first time. I then modeled them and, after receiving approval from the client, completed all the detailed modeling and texturing by myself. Since all the objects appeared exclusively in the scenes I worked on, I didn't need to create assets or turntables for Look Development. Instead, I directly used shot cameras and created 3D concept designs for each shot, which included modeling, building, background, textures, and lighting. I then had the VFX Supervisor check my work, and I single-handedly completed everything up to the near-final pre-comp stage.

As you can see in the images, I first designed the main red building, followed by the blue building where Thor lands, creating everything from scratch, including design and modeling. For the yellow and other buildings on the side, I combined various geometries from ILM's library for sci-fi use to create an original design. The setting had a unique cyberpunk vibe, which made it incredibly fun to explore bold and creative ideas. Additionally, I created the 3D concept design for the arena wall where Hulk and Thor have their match.

I worked on this project at ILM.

ONLY THE BRAVE

I was in charge of matte painting for several shots in the movie 'OnlyTheBrave'. Regarding this movie, I worked on matte painting and mixing while adding CG bushes to create the background. Since most of the work was in 2D, all finalization was done in Nuke. The concept and layout were already established, so I didn't have to design anything on my own. However, I did make detailed factual adjustments to the background, which was shot in Mexico, to make it look like the accident site in Arizona, which was based on a true story. The second shot on the list is all matte painting and CG for both the foreground and background, except for the actor who appears small in the shot. This job was an opportunity for me to learn about the tragedy of the accident and the wonder of nature at the same time. By the way, I heard that many of the investors in this movie were locals and stakeholders who gathered money from the FireFighters who passed away in their hometown.

I worked on this project at ILM.

SILENT

I was in charge of several backgrounds in the movie 'Silent'. I have worked with director Scorsese several times, and as a fan of his movies with less VFX, I was thrilled to participate in this project. The story takes place in a terrible period in the Edo period where Christianity was suppressed, but it was shot in Taiwan with the cooperation of the Taiwanese government. Therefore, I created matte paintings with a Japanese style to make it look like a Japanese background and prepared various types of trees such as typical Japanese cedar and pine trees in CG. While the forest background was in 2D, all the trees like MG were prepared in CG. For the first shot in the image list, all the clouds except for the background were made in CG. In the shot, the camera starts with a view of the sea and the first ship and then rises high into the sky through the clouds, revealing the sunrise. I also worked on the animation of lightning that runs several times when the camera enters the clouds, which I made in 2D.

I worked on this project at ILM.

DEAD POOL

I was the lead matte painter on the movie 'DeadPool'. I designed the structure of the top deck of the CarrierShip, the design of the Carrier under construction, and the background design after the explosion at the Carrier repair factory. Based on very rough CG reference images, I painted the fine details of the Carrier. For the final sequence of the movie, almost all of the Carrier was overlaid with MattePaint projection and brushed up. This was the case for all shots, including side and overhead views. Even for distant shots and extreme close-ups on the deck, the same technique was used. In the scene where Deadpool himself is about to fall from the deck while holding onto it with one arm, everything, including Deadpool himself and all other objects, is CG. However, even for all these close-up CG shots, MattePaint was used for overlaying and brushing up. After this project, I no longer worked only as a MattePaint artist but became an Environment Artist who can handle both 2D and 3D as a Generalist.

I worked on this project at Digital Domain.

Fast Furious 7

I was in charge of the lead MattePainting in the movie 'FastFurious7'. This film was the seventh installment of a popular series, but unfortunately, the lead actor died in a car accident, and the project was put on hold for almost a year. All VFX work was stopped, and everyone involved faced a difficult situation. On the other hand, we had time, so we conducted various MattePainting tests and explored different techniques with CG supervisors for difficult shots, which helped us to tackle the actual work with ease. Since there were an incredible number of shots, I felt the limitations of MattePainting. In fact, this work made me painfully aware of the limitations of MattePainting in 2014. I finished dozens of shots I was responsible for as MattePainting, but looking back now, I could have done the work much more easily by creating forests, mountains, and cliffs in 3D. At the same time, we relied too much on our in-house tools and didn't realize that we could do things more easily with commercial tools. We ended up spending too much time and money, and there were many instances where we ended up settling for 2D work. Through this project, I learned the importance of careful planning before starting work, the need to review in-house tools, and the importance of being ruthless in cutting unnecessary work. Ultimately, the project was a success, but it was the first and last time I organized and finalized such a large number of 2D shots. I learned a lot from this rare experience, and I was fortunate to be successful in the end.

I worked on this project at Digital Domain.

I was in charge of the lead MattePainting in the movie 'Maleficent'. This was my first job when I returned to Digital Domain, and I was involved in the only unfinished shot of the almost-completed film. The shot was the scene where the main character jumps off a cliff, flies in the air, and finally reaches the clouds. I did the MattePainting for the entire background until the character reaches the clouds. Although the CG was completed, the texture and geometry detail were not yet finished and were still in a flat state. So, I used about 60 projection cameras to project the MattePainting, thinking that it would be faster to do it in 2D than create everything from scratch in 3D. Except for the flowing waterfall and flying Maleficent, everything was overlaid with MattePainting on top of CG, projected within Maya. The plants were also created in 3D, but since the irregularity and color tone were too similar, they were overlaid with MattePainting in 2D. All cliffs, the sky, and everything else were overlaid with 2D. The intense motion blur made it challenging, but I was lucky to get it done well.

I worked on this project at Digital Domain.

MAZE RUNNER

I was the lead matte painter on the movie "Maze Runner". I was supposed to return to Digital Domain from ILM, but the schedule for a project that DD had planned was delayed for almost a year, so I couldn't return and ended up joining as a lead matte painter at Method, where they were recruiting. Since I was involved in this project from the beginning, I was able to come up with various ideas, opinions, and concepts as a lead and it was very enjoyable to work on. Luckily, the backgrounds in this movie were mostly ivy vines or concrete walls and backgrounds, so organizing them in 2D or 3D was easy, and we needed relatively few textures, resulting in smaller file sizes and easy rework. However, because the lighting was simple, any inaccuracies in reflections were easily noticeable and required delicate handling. I learned that even though the backgrounds were simple, achieving true realism without anything to interfere with or deceive the human eye actually made it easier for people to see through the illusion.

I worked on this project at Method.

RED2

I was in charge of Matte Paint in the movie "RED2". It's a comedy action movie with some of my favorite actors, but I joined towards the end of production and my involvement was limited to helping out with some matte painting. There weren't any particularly difficult shots and there were no overnight shifts, so it was a relatively light job. However, I did create the matte painting for the process of a van being shot at with a machine gun and breaking down. Although there was no animation, I prepared a few frames in Nuke and then switched to the matte painting for the amount of damage. It was my first time creating a matte painting for the surface of a car with so many bullet holes, and it was a valuable learning experience. Despite the fact that there were not a small number of shots, I was impressed by the teamwork of the small team I was working with. Even though there were many simple shots, the small team size meant that decisions were made quickly and communication was efficient, and instructions were precise and straightforward, so the path to completion was very smooth. As someone who has worked for larger studios, I learned how quickly a small team can work and how their shared values can be quickly communicated. I also learned about the incredible speed and agility of small teams and the reasons behind it.

I worked on this project at Method.

PACIFIC RIM

I worked as a Generalist on the movie "Pacific Rim". I was one of the first members of the small Vancouver office of ILM, which had started as a test project before Disney acquired it. As a fan of Director Del Toro, I was really happy to work on this movie and I was highly motivated as it was my first project at ILM. Most of the shots were done with matte painting. I was surprised by the culture of ILM's Generalist team, which was focused on achieving a more realistic and beautiful finish, no matter what tool or method was used. On the other hand, the responsibility for each shot assigned to an individual was very large, and it was a very challenging and meaningful time. I did many different shots, but the main one was the sequence where the protagonist's robot is carried by a monster and dropped on the stormy clouds above Hong Kong before defeating the monster and falling into the Hong Kong stadium. I created almost all of this sequence in Nuke using matte painting. The lightning animation in the stormy clouds was created in 2D during the test phase, and by overlaying nearly ten different lightning animations in the clouds, we organized them randomly. The test was approved by the VFX Supervisor, and I was given responsibility for the entire sequence, which was a great experience for me. I learned a lot from the accuracy, appropriateness, and reasonable instructions of ILM's supervisors, which were unprecedented. The experience here was shared with other ILM Generalists and became an important part of the culture.

This work was done at ILM.

JACK THE GIANT SLAYERS

I worked as a Matte Paint Lead on the film "Jack the Giant Slayer". Although it is treated as a minor movie result, at the time of the project's start, many major art directors, supervisors, and artists gathered, and many wonderful concept art and test shots were created. I was in charge of designing the inside of the tower where the giants trap humans and the design of the large-scale background like a cliff, which is a super large prison cave where the prison is embedded. At the same time, I was responsible for the texture of the kitchen for giants used in the scene where a madman tries to cook people. This project was the first time I used Mari, and it was so enjoyable that I started creating not only matte paintings but also large-scale asset textures. In the latter half of the project, I created several background hero shots that the camera makes wide by combining 3D and matte painting. At that time, I participated as a complete matte painter, but my experience as a generalist for 10 years in Santa Monica was revived, and I inadvertently went to the trouble of modeling in 3D and combining it with matte painting. As a result, I realized that the combination of 2D and 3D CG is a very high-quality and cost-effective process. At that time, we were working on a complete 3D CG project in the internal pipeline, and I noticed that we were not able to handle revisions and tests promptly, which made me feel that a more flexible pipeline was needed, even for individuals to perform all tests. The experience here also taught me that in large organizations with large systems, it is difficult to change minor tools or rules, and that losing time, people, and budget due to the inability to change judgment and speed can be detrimental.

I worked on this project at Digital Domain.

TRANS FORMER3

I worked on Matte Paint for the movie "Transformers 3". I participated as a Matte Paint help at the final stage of the project. I was in charge of Matte Paint for the scenes where the building collapses towards the end of the movie, including the interior of the building and the interior of the giant flying battleship. It was a bit challenging to match the colors and contrasts of the Matte Paint when joining the project partway through, and especially since it was towards the end of the story, it involved a lot of expressing burned and damaged areas. It took some time to adjust the White Level of the burning areas, and it was also interesting to match the unique color scheme and contrast of the movie, which was like a Transformers-themed music video.

I worked on this project at Digital Domain.

THOR

I worked on Matte Paint for the movie "Thor". I was brought in as a Matte Paint help during the final stages of the project. Initially, the plan was to create the entire ice world using 3D computer graphics, from diffuse to transparent refraction. However, due to prolonged negotiations with the client, there was no time left for finalizing the simulation, and it became necessary to make a difficult decision to complete the majority of the ice world's background using Matte Paint. I feel guilty about overwriting almost everything the CG artists had created. Nonetheless, we managed to get it done by projecting Matte Paint for almost all shots with dozens of cameras. Almost 90% of the ice world scenes are overlaid with Matte Paint. While the quality was not up to the final standards, I was happy that I managed to complete almost 50 shots' Matte Paint projections by working night shifts every day. In this project, I saw the irony of being too inflexible and demanding high-quality results using a large pipeline. When there were significant changes in schedules and from clients, we were slow to react and had to do the heavy work only, which led to a lack of planning. I believe that we should have included preparations, such as planning for how the Matte Paint team could help in dealing with clients who give a lot of random instructions from the start of the project. This project was an excellent experience that made me reconsider the pipeline's meaning and value.

I worked on this project at Digital Domain.

TRON

I was in charge of Matte Paint for the movie "TRON" This project was the reason why I transferred from Santa Monica to Vancouver. During the time when the Lehman Shock occurred in the US and all companies in the creative industry, not just VFX studios, were going bankrupt one after another, my company was a little late to go bankrupt. So when I was looking for work, I immediately received an offer to come to Vancouver for "TRON" I had never lived or visited there before. Still, I didn't have the time to think about it, so I hastily gave up my Unlimited visa in the US and moved to Canada to start working as a matte painter. There were many concept arts for this film, and I think there was enough for all the shots. Thanks to that, it was easy to share the worldview, and it was easy to get started on the work. There were some hero shots I had to design myself without any concept, so I had a lot of satisfaction in the work, and I succeeded in several big shots. I am also a VFX artist, and since I had done a lot of design work in Japan and Santa Monica, I was very good at designing the stylish worldview of TRON. Some shots were adorned with decal patterns I designed from scratch, and even the white neon light design in the large background shots was created from scratch. Although many shots were unrealistic, it was a very satisfying job where I could show off my skills to the fullest. After this job, I have not encountered a job with such a high degree of design. If possible, I would like to participate in a similar project again. At the time, I felt that if we could produce both matte paint and CG at the same time, I could have done a lot more shots alone, and I would have been able to study various things. It was a job that produced bright results suitable for beginning a new life in Canada.

This work was done at Digital Domain.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

I was the Generalist Lead for the movie "Alice in Wonderland." At the time, around the period of the Lehman Shock, many unexpected events occurred, including cancellations of future projects, which led to the layoff of many contracted artists. In place of these artists, permanent staff like myself had to take on an unprecedented amount of shots. It was a rare and chaotic experience that I hope never to have again.

Initially, I was only responsible for shots for the trailer, but the situation quickly changed. I had to design and create shots from scratch that had no concept or layout, set up scenes within the same sequence, and create various assets from lighting to texture. At the same time, I had to complete the final versions of each shot, and the night shifts continued, causing fatigue and lowering my work performance. However, not only was the industry but also the US economy itself causing anxiety. I thought that if I could complete even one shot with the best quality that could make it to my demo reel, it could be a backup plan for me in case something happened to the industry or the company. So, without worrying about overtime, I spent an enormous amount of time finishing several shots.

One of these shots was the scene where the main character Alice jumps over people's heads, crosses the swamp, and arrives on land before looking up. This shot took the most time as there were rough plant assets available, but none were prepared for close-up shots. Therefore, I made every effort to add details like moss, fallen leaves, and small branches to increase the overall quality. Ironically, the shot I spent the most time on turned out to be of high enough quality to be used for my demo reel, and it became the backup plan that I hoped would never happen.

I realized that not giving up until the last minute and preparing for the future was not in vain.

This job was done at CafeFX.

SHUTTER ISLAND

I worked as a Generalist on the movie "Shutter Island". As it was directed by my favorite director, Martin Scorsese, I not only applied to participate but also worked harder than ever before. Prior to this project, I had mainly worked on creating backgrounds using CG as a Generalist, but this time I was able to mix in matte painting work for the first time. I was very excited when I learned about the story of the film and the meaning behind each shot, as I love creating dark, damp, and eerie worlds. In particular, I enjoyed planning the scene in the hall made of bricks, using the same shape of the hall that my SuperVisor had made out of paper and testing various angles with a mobile phone camera, from the entrance and inside the hall.

This project was not difficult, but I learned a lot from Scorsese about how creating a beautiful and meaningful image for each shot is more important than prioritizing the maintenance of something that actually exists. For example, in the hall scene, lamps were hanging uniformly from above, but they were not visible from the camera angle when shooting the protagonist from below. Therefore, we intentionally lowered the CG lamps in front of the camera and adjusted the position of other lamps to an impossible distance or height, creating a new layout that made the shot eerie and beautiful. I learned various tricks about "presentation" from this project, which were very informative. The experience of participating in this project led to great results one after another. Scorsese, who supported these efforts, was amazing, but I also felt that going to various companies and participating in various projects with different leaders was also important for my growth.

I worked on this project at CafeFX.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I worked as a generalist on the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". It was the first project I worked on with Robert Stromberg. I was honored to work with him because his matte painting work on the scene where Tom Hanks looks out at the sea from the top of a cliff in "Cast Away" was very famous and memorable. Starting with a concept art of a 20th Century Fox sign that he provided, I expanded the background range while maintaining the atmosphere and texture in CG, and designed longer and wider scenes. The stage starts with a view of the smokestacks of a 19th century London steel mill, with the 20th Century Fox logo of the distribution company blending into the scenery on the roof of the factory, and the camera descends several tens of meters to connect to the next sequence. I did all the design and CG production for the factory area that appears in that scene alone. The work was done with just Robert and me, which was a very rare case. It was the first and last time that a client-side art director and a VFX studio generalist worked together directly as a team of just two people. However, since I am a generalist, I was used to doing everything from modeling to texturing, lighting, and precomping alone, so Robert's instructions were shared straight and our values were aligned, without being distorted through anyone else. It was very easy to work with him, and I was able to finish the work with high-quality concentration as a solo worker. Robert's matte painting skills are well known in the industry, and I was happy to be able to work with him, but as we worked together, I was impressed every time with how accurate his opinions, insights, and ideas were, and how clear and specific his explanations were. It's not that supervisors I've worked with before weren't good at giving instructions, but Robert is someone who can draw high-quality images by hand, so he already had a finished image in his head, and I was able to have a very simple and valuable experience of just him telling me what to do to create that image. He has since become a famous director and it's unlikely that I'll be able to work with him in the same way again, but I'll never forget that very content-rich and refined time we spent working together.

I worked on this project at CafeFX.