Willow - Immemorial City Concept Art
This city had exsited for over a thousand years and the clients wanted giant statues to be present throughout. I liked the idea of these monolithic, imposing structures, that watched over the city - in this case as part of an ancient stone bridge.
The final city created by Industrial, Light & Magic as seen in the series
Looking along the main through road from city main gate towards the pyramid with inner archways, midway.
One of many statue concepts for the city.. sadly some of my preferred concepts that made it into the film can't be shown here
screenshot showing main thoroughfare, city entrance statues in the foreground.
Whilst I can't show the original concept, the above image shows one of my concept designs for some of the internal city gates
The main set piece was positioned at the base of a pyramid where the Crone was living. This view shows the pyramid and surrounding area of the city
3D block out / concept sketch looking towards the Central Plaza and pyramid - home of the Wyrm and Crone.
View from set looking out at vastness of Immemorial City
I built the city in 3D, including the use of lidar scans of the set in situ, so I could work with the clients to design the surrounding city and design it on a shot by shot basis.
Willow - Immemorial City Concept Art
Working closely with VFX Supervisor Mark Bakowski, I was asked to work on developing the look of Immemorial City. There was some great concepts from the Production Art Department that set a tone for the city - and I had the freedom to create additional details, architectural designs and elements that reflected both these early concepts, and the physical sets.
By creating the city in 3D, I was able to place cameras wherever Mark wanted, matching in specific scenes to locations within the city. This included incorporating lidar scans and geo from physical sets, working out where best to place them in the city and designing the surrounding space to give maximum impact.
I had some good buildings geo from the Art Department that proved super useful when creating the wides of the city, but most of the statues, bridges and additional details were created by myself in Zbrush, Blender and Maya (big shout out to Kouji Tajima for sculpting additional statues!).
Having the entire city in 3D, I was able to give ILM both concepts and camera moves through the city which really helped with shot design and development.
Most of these development concepts were monochrome - mainly as I was looking at the structures rather than lighting. But also, this city was covered in ash and initially, I was looking at giving the city a stone, dead feel.
So good when your concepts match (or come close to) the final shots and elements used in the show