Rodrigo Sousa
patreon
Lion creature design
🕑 Added 2023-08-19 17:35:17 +0000 UTCSome people asked for the references and thought process behind some of the creatures int my Playground-trailer. I thought I could make a post explaining it!
One of the main ideas behind the different creatures of the playground was that they each represent a childhood game, in this case I was thinking about "green light red light". In french it's called "1,2,3 soleil" ("1,2,3 Sun" in english), so I thought of a creature that could kill with only an eye contact (like medusa), and his face would change between an aware state (sun) and an asleep state (the moon).
This were some of the first ideas I had for the creature. Then the creature quickly became feline, because as a cat owner it's sometimes creepy how cats and big cats stand still without moving while they hunt you. And also I was inspired by asian representations of lions ( Indonesia, China and Japan).
Here are some more rough concept arts for the creature, but with all the ideas and references mixed together.
I tried different designs for the head, trying my best to make them as scary as I could. The big round eyes stairing right at us was something I really liked and wanted to keep in the final design since the creature gives a deadly stair.
This were one of the first storyboard ideas for the lion creature sequence. On top of the design, I really like to think of the light and general ambience. The idea of a face that acts like a torch light was interesting visually so I gathered some reference on how the light looked.
The two first images is how you would see the light of the creature face before seeing the actual creature. And the last is the face of the lion in the distance looking at you, the creature sees you before you see her.
Here are other references I had for how the light acted on the background and on characters. Here is a first rough layout for the Lion shot.
Here was a final rough layout, the body of the lion is longer and thiner, just like the tube slides. In fact I like the idea that the creature is adapted to it's surrondings just like a real animal is. His long and thin body mimics the slide and makes it easy for the creature to move inside it.
Here is a rough sketch of the long body of the creature.
And here is a final layout.
I used the line of the layout for the final background.
Since my graduation film I co-directed with friends (Tamerlan BEKMURZAYEV, Antoine CARRE, Alexandra PETIT, Martin ROBIC) I really like drawing backgrounds in wich the lines are curvy and the perspective is slightly off, it's much more fun to draw and gives the shapes an organic dreamy feel to them. "Ponyo" and "Lu over the wall" both have bendy twisted backgrounds and were a reference for us when doing our graduation film ( go see both of those films if you haven't).
The background was composed of two layers (above and below images). You can see above the ugly parts of the background that should be hidden never to be shown again. Dividing the background in two helped me do a slight paralax effect on the final shot (the two parts move at different speeds to suggest depth)
Here is the final Background.
Here is the image once I added the character, you can see the character is striped like a tiger, his skin mimics the patterns of the tube slide. All of this image was made in photoshop.
And here is the final composited image! ( I added glow on the head, and grain)
And an animated gif of the shot! (you can notice the paralax on the two parts of the background)
This is how this shot came to be, all the other ones have a similar thought process. If you liked this "making of" let me know. I can do more of these formats for the other shots if you are interested!
Comments
Austin Hillebrecht
I'd love to hear about them all! But if I were to pick one, what was the thought process behind the guy coming down the stairs with the eyeball in his mouth?
Rodrigo Sousa
Oh thank you so much i appreciare that. Is therea scene in particular that you would want me to talk about?
Austin Hillebrecht
I'll echo what everyone else is saying. I LOVE seeing the thought process behind all of this. The fact that the monsters are inspired by children games is truly fantastic. I'd love to see more of the process behind the other scenes and monsters should you have time to assemble them.
Sine Masumoto
PLEASE, more like this!! Your creature designs and their presentation in "Playground" are really one of a kind. I would love to see more process breakdowns like this!
maushorn
This is so interesting and awesome. I´m glad I found your patreon. Please more like this.
Rodrigo Sousa
Thank you very much Esther! I will post them all then! On the following weeks !!! Super happy you enjoyed it!
Esther Morales
SO cool! I love to see your thought process and references from your designs :D It would be amazing to see the rest of them too n.n Thanks for sharing it with us!
Rodrigo Sousa
Oh Thank you for your kind message !
ro bie
Seeing you design this world is super inspiring. Keep up the good work :)
Rodrigo Sousa
Happy you liked it! I will do more idea/process posts for some of the other designs!
LemonJings
wow super cool! thnak you for sharing! the lion scene was one of my favorites
Rodrigo Sousa
Damn thank you! Happy you enjoyed the step to step process I will be doing that for the playground trailer, old projects I did and upcoming stuff! Let me know if you have questions/ suggestions of other stuff you would like to see!
August Charters
Wow seeing your process in such detail for this design is so cool! I love the lion creature, its so spooky, and it's awesome to see all your notes and ideas on how it came to the final stage! 🤩
Rodrigo Sousa
Oh now that you say its true that they have a type of transformation two different forms, this world of Playground has some dream/ nigtmarishness to it, so mixing together different elements from reality but in a twisted eerie way was really cool. Like the spider and a face on its back, or the insect like humanoid with little toys popping out of its belly. Happy that it inspires you!!
Marianne
Alright thank you so much! the part with the spider like creature with eyes on its back particularly made me go crazy - it was very surprising to see that each one of your creatures have a sort of "jump scare" form -- different from the beginning of the shot in question !! (like an evolution) it inspire me to work on my storytelling skills ! Have good day as well :)
Rodrigo Sousa
Hi! Thank you! Really happy you enjoyed! In my instagram and youtube I never go this much into detail on my making ofs, so in patreon I will do my best to do complete making ofs and step by steps tutorials. If you have any question about a part of the "making of" let me know! I give access to all the tutorials and behind the scenes to the (super, mega and ultra supporters) but I will sometimes give supporters access to part of the behind the scenes. A good day to you!
Marianne
Thank you for sharing such a closer look on your process !! Being able to see all your steps like this is very helpfull for a student in 2d animation like myself :) cant wait for more 🧚♀️
NikoDraws
Me too! I'd love to see more, this one has already given me new stuff to think about in my own approach to my work, I can't wait to see more
Rodrigo Sousa
Happy you liked it ! I'm always happy to hear other people thaught process for coming up with ideas so I was happy to share mine, I might to more of this posts in the future!
NikoDraws
This is super cool to see! Thanks for sharing such a detailed run through
