All images from Inspired 3D Short Film Production by Jeremy Cantor and Pepe Valencia, series edited by Kyle Clark and Michael Ford. Reprinted with permission.

This is the first of four installments on art direction.

The visual style of your film will undoubtedly evolve and solidify over the course of your production, especially when it comes time to model, texture, light and render your characters and background elements (see Figure 1). However, it is highly recommended that you spend some pre-production time assuming the role of an art director, collecting reference images and videos and creating drawings, paintings and perhaps sculptures to establish a preliminary standard for style and quality (see Figure 2). Will you aim for a simple and fairly abstract, bright, futuristic look or perhaps a dark, claustrophobic, dirty, ominous, realistic, medieval scenario? Ornate and colorful Victorian architecture or a gray and smoggy cityscape made of simple geometric shapes? As you collect and create inspirational material, it is a good idea to hang or place these pictures and objects on the walls or surfaces of your studio and periodically reference them during your production to maintain consistency and motivation, especially if you are working with a team (see Figure 3).

The overall art direction of your film will hopefully provide your audience with a unique visual experience and will also assist you in indicating setting specifics, such as geography, era, size, depth, climate, season, time of day and perhaps genre. But most importantly, the look of your film will help to create a mood (see Figure 4). A dark and rainy atmosphere with lots of grays and blues might make your audience feel cold, as in the opening shot of Red’s Dream from Pixar. A bright, sunny landscape with plenty of soft yellows, light greens and other earth tones will probably make your audience feel warm and comfortable. A bright red and orange sky, cracked surface texture, atmospheric haze and perhaps one or two cacti should bring out a few portable fans. Clear blue skies, a snow-covered tundra and a resident penguin will create the opposite effect (see Figure 5).

[Figure 1] Many CG short-film directors stick very closely to their original art direction plans when creating their final imagery. Your results may vary.