In 2023, I had the opportunity to be deeply involved in the preproduction of our 3D graduation short film Cold Blood, where I contributed to various aspects including props, character design, and environment design.
This was a challenge for me, as it was outside my usual style and comfort zone. However, embracing this challenge helped me grow as an artist, pushing me to explore new techniques and ideas. Despite the initial difficulty, working within the film’s artistic direction was incredibly rewarding, and I found myself falling in love with the unique vision we were bringing to life. It was an enriching experience that deepened my passion for creative collaboration and storytelling.
Characters & Props
Edward “Eddie” Hightower
Talking about artistic direction, we took a while before understanding the style we truly wanted. We started with more realistic references – such as Dishonored – to more stylized ones, which led us to these tests.
We decided on choosing quite the stylized, “brushed“, “painted“-like style and I got inspired by those extremely detailed Asian porcelain dolls (those who sometimes are made to resemble idols).
My favorite part on designing Edward was imagining his clothes. I got strongly influenced by Mongolian and traditional Chinese winter clothes as well as European traditional school uniforms. He is a rich and proper boy and his clothes are made for cold weather.
Here’s the final look!
I also had to design quite important props linked to the short movie plot, here are the final looks:
Oliver “Ollie”
Just like Edward, Oliver got a few style tests before we decided on what we truly wanted.
The few first drafts were a team effort: Grégoire Casella, Capucine Fortunier and Mariachiara Palumbo helped in the making of those.
The final design (you’ll see down below) was made by Capucine Fortunier but redraw by me to fit the artistic direction.
Here’s the final look!
Environments
Buildings
The few concepts I helped doing for environment were for the buildings and how we would do them in 3D so it’s easier for us to do in only a year.
Wall Posters
If you ever watch our movie, you’ll see some posters all around on the walls. Some are missing people’s, others are propaganda‘s. That’s me!
Movie Poster & Title
I was in charge of the poster concept, as well as the movie title design, and here are some tests I’ve made:
