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We are happy to introduce you Science and Fiction, a 284 pages, A4, hardcover book where you will find in-depth and first-hand information about the lastest projects on which the Pixoloid team has been involved. Having worked on more than 18 films and series, the studio has experience in many areas of production – from pitch development through to concept art and matte painting. The selection in the book attempts to give you an overview, showcasing their work in all of these fields, including character and creature design, environments and set design, and keyframe illustrations. Not only do you get nearly 300 pages worth of inspiring artwork, but there is also a section dedicated to the development of certain pieces from early sketches all the way through to the finished illustrations. These walkthroughs aim to give you an insight into how they get started after reading a brief, the workflows they might choose for tackling a problem at hand and their approach to working in a team.
Characteristics: 284 pages / A4 – 297 x 210 mm / Hardcover / English / Full color ISBN: 9791096315338 Price: 25 € (tax incl.)
about
Pixoloid
We are a Budapest based concept design studio specializing in pre-production design and visual problem solving for projects of the entertainment industry (films, games, animation, advertising and publishing). We offer a wide range of creative services from complete pitch development, concepts for movies and animations, cinematic game design and art direction. Founded and led by industry veterans, who are artists themselves, our team values creative freedom and artistic skills above all else. Our workflow focuses on the creative energy that a team can put into the visual storytelling of the work and not necessarily on an individual artist’s personal style. This means that most of the art is created by multiple artists, ensuring the best possible outcome for the actual needs of the production.
Our team is in the habit of creating production artbooks as a summary and closure after every longer project since we began. We use these unique, super-limited-edition books to showcase our artwork for directors and production designers. They have acted as our physical portfolio at events for years. When numerous people started to ask us at conventions where they could buy these books, we started to think about collecting a selection of the best projects into one artbook and publishing it. So thanks to your interest, and the help and endless trust of our publisher Editions Caurette, you are now holding this book in your hands. We hope you are going to enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it! The Pixoloid Team
meet the
Core team
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MARK MOLNAR
GASPAR GOMBOS
DAVID METZGER
Founder/Lead Concept Artist
Founder/Art Director
Senior Concept Artist
He has been creating concepts and illustrations for the entertainment industry for 12+ years both as in-house artist and as a freelancer. After living and working across three continents, he moved back to Hungary to help establish the studio. His previous film and game credits include the multi-award winning Hellblade, Maze Runner, Planet of the Apes, Hercules, Splinter Cell: Backlist (cinematic), Godzilla and Riddick.
He has been creating concepts, storyboards and illustrations for various clients for 12+ years. Besides his broad experience in the advertising industry as an art director at leading international agencies, he is teaching visual communication at a Budapest-based design university. His previous clients include Leo Burnett, McCann Erickson, Saatchi&Saatchi, Brownbag Films, Vodafone, Team Red, Pioneer Productions.
After working mainly in the games industry as a freelance designer and as an in-house artist at Pocket Scientists on mobile titles, he joined the studio as the first hired artist in early 2016. Since then he has grown a lot as an artist, and also introduced alternative processes into the studio’s workflow. He is responsible for handling game illustrations and focusing on vehicle, prop, character and costume designs on film projects.
artstation.com/markmolnar
artstation.com/gombosgaspar
artstation.com/davidmetzger
“Creativity in touch with tomorrow.” (Free online slogan generator)
JANOS GARDOS
ZSOLT ‘MIKE’ SZABADOS
ORSOLYA VILLANYI
REKA KOVACS
Senior Concept Artist
Concept Artist
Graphic Designer/Creative Illustrator
Production Assistant
He started his career at Digital Reality as a concept artist working on the game classic, Imperium Galactica, amongst many other pitch and development projects of the company. After that, he moved towards the fast growing mobile market and joined Pixel Perfect Games as a senior concept artist and illustrator. He joined the studio in 2018 and is responsible for key environment and set designs for films and detailed key illustrations for game projects.
He started his career as a 3D generalist creating detailed models and textures for online multi-player games. His passion for creating illustrations and concepts quickly became his day job, when he became a concept artist at Zu Digital Games. He joined the studio in 2018 and mainly works on detailed 2D/3D prop designs and also creates detailed mechanical and keyframe illustrations.
She started in the studio as a design uni intern and was hired right after graduation as a Creative Assistant and Junior Artist. Beside her university studies in visual communication and graphic design, she completed a course in Autodesk Maya, ZBrush and Concept Design, making her a really versatile designer. Besides her illustration works, she is responsible for the studios’ visual communication as a graphic designer.
As a community addict, she started volunteering at various international creative and design festivals and worked as community assistant for the Oatley Academy. She is responsible for the studio’s social media platforms, helps create promotional materials and keeps the studios’ ongoing projects run smoothly. She is also an artist, drawing and painting traditionally most of the time - favoring watercolor, ink and pencil.
artstation.com/j-flow
artstation.com/mikeszabados
artstation.com/orsivillanyi
felerisketches.com
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[-125]
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Concept Design for Movies
Drone Ambush [page 10] Fifth Department [page 24] Balance [page 40] Mars [page 60] Year Million [page 82] The Alienist [page 100]
Sci-fi and Fantasy Illustrations -
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[-179]
Eclipse Phase [page 128] Starfinder [page 140]
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[-223]
Workflow and Process Insight
Character [page 182] Alien Creature [page 188] Environment [page 191] Spaceship [page 196] Prop [page 199] Set Dressing [page 202] Action Scenes [page 212] Key Frame [page 216]
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[-279]
Personal Work -
Everyone’s Own Love Story :-)
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01
CONCEPT DESIGN FOR MOVIES We work at multiple phases of a film’s production, from early pitch development to creating actual production artwork. Our work varies in set and environment design, costume and character design, creature, props, even VFX sequence design sometimes. What is common to all these projects is that we are there to help the director, art director, production designer to create a cohesive and believable world, so the story can take place without distraction. In this chapter you’ll find a careful selection of our completed professional work, showcasing a variety of genres, design directions and projects.
[p-03]
BALANCE /PILOT/ This ambitious science fiction project started as an early pitch presentation package, which had two major steps. The first one included only a still presentation for the investors. The second one was a live action teaser which led to the full-preproduction of the pilot. Our task was to establish the visual world for this episode of the planned series. This included full pre-production of the key elements, including environments, sets, costumes, vehicles, weapons and props. Before the pilot we helped create a live action teaser, where we also had to manage the 2D aspects of the post production. This involved VFX design, matte painting, set extension and replacement of live shots and management of the complete VFX pipeline. Directed by Hamzah Jamjoom Production Designer: Hamzah Jamjoom Patrick Wimp Artworks by Gaspar Gombos, Mark Molnar David Metzger, Ferenc Nothof Orsolya Villanyi
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VFX Supervisor (Teaser): Neal Allen Antoine Durr Production Companies: Digital Hydra Space Prophet All artworks Š 2015-2019 Digital Hydra. Used with permission.
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Moon of Io, Data Center [Environment concept]
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Prophet [Spaceship exterior design]
Prophet -
This would be the main hero ship, disguised as a garbage hauler. The shape design, color, texture and pattern choices are all intended to produce a used, worn, industrial look. Our main references were actual garbage trucks, loaders and heavy-duty machinery.
Battle Cruiser Hangar [Environment concept]
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Commonwealth Battle Cruiser [Spaceship exterior design]
Auction House [Location concept]
The Auction House -
This is the interior of a temporary auction house made for highclass buyers where black market items are being bought and sold. The environment itself is a large closed underground factory abandoned long ago. The islands of light are both meant to indicate places of interest in the picture, as well as function as area dividers and a means to make the forms more understandable.
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how we design
Environment
[using Photobash]
[the task] The task at hand was to create the mood of a black market auction house, established in an abandoned factory. This scene is about selling different kinds of fancy articles and rare art pieces to rich people on the black market, so the space had various functions. The space had to have different functional areas: - A separate place for the audience - An announcer kiosk - Places to transport and store bigger goods - A place to display the articles for the audience The first thing to do is search for photo references and then create a well-designed montage from the best photos. A Photobashed base has the same function as a sketch, so for it to fulfill its purpose, the most important thing to keep in mind is that it has to clearly communicate the main action and story in the composition.
[01]
Therefore, during the process of collecting images, we had to have a clear vision about the hierarchy of spaces and how we will keep the main space (or action) in focus. All the elements have secondary meanings, mostly an addition to the mood, style and design. Apart from the stage segment, we had more room for improvisation in terms of searching and bashing various images
together. It was more about playing with composition and perspective. Tip: Try to avoid from a strict method of research - allow yourself to browse in a more associative way! For this concept, we looked at images of giant abandoned spaces, metro stations, modern architecture interiors, industrial environments, monuments, brutalism, strange places, etc.
[02]
[01-02] Initial Composition In this case, we used 7-8 photos for the base and they all had to fit into one perspective grid. The easiest way to match them was to draw a perspective grid on top on a separate layer and try to retouch, transform and paint over the elements to fit them together. Try not to lose the scale attributes of the details! It’s useful to put a human figure
as a reference in fore/mid-ground and background. Since our eyes and mind easily get lost in details, we often flip the canvas horizontally, and occasionally vertically to take a look at it with a fresh eye. If the geometry seems to be okay, we continue with matching the brightness, contrast, values, colors to achieve a believable cohesive mood instead of a montage feel.
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[03-04] Detailing The next step was to detail the auction area. We used heavy light sources hanging from the ceiling, put in multiple displays, hanger flags, seats, graphic elements and a giant kiosk with the main character in focus: the auctioneer. The uplifted kiosk and upper position of the
[03]
man creates enough contrast compared to the sitting crowd below to make him the center of interest even though he is on the side of the picture. There is a floating drone displaying the actual goods for sale, which echoes his pose, reinforcing the storytelling.
[04]
[05] Finishing Besides the composition (which is locked by this stage), lighting and color are the most important tools to lead the viewer’s attention. We used warmer colors for the auction area, and cooler, nearly monochromatic colors for the rest of the place. To lose contrast on the left side of
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the picture and near the edges of the frame, we added darker tones (on a multiplymode layer). Highlights only appear on the auctioneer and around him, and this is also the area where we used the strongest color contrast across the whole image.
[05]
Heroes [Costume designs]
Costume Designs -
With the costumes of the rebellious faction, we wanted to show a hermit-like, vagabond-type of appearance with tattered, torn organic materials and faded, warm, earthy colors. The opposing side has more of a rigid and functional quality to theirs, being the military faction. Their costumes got a less natural, more angular
design, and metal-like colors with bright accents. In the center we can see our heroine - who switched sides - wearing clothes with both of the factions attributes.
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Soldier [Costume design]
In this page, you can see our main antagonist dressed in furs and exotic materials with more saturated colors. He is the leader of a dictatorial organization and is maintaining a personal cult-like status, thus the large robes, animal fur and bones, little shamanlike trinkets that convey the feeling of a tribal leader.
Ming Chan [Costume design]
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Eridu temple -
Two of the main characters find a longforgotten underground temple under the Martian surface. These are the remnants of a human culture established by shipwrecked researchers of a bygone era.
Our main idea was to establish the vastness of the temple, but confined within a closed space. We wanted to push the epic feeling with the lighting and the scale, showing how small our main characters are in comparison
with the temple, but with a voyeur-like, confined, almost intimate point of view to show the underground environment.
Eridu Temple Interior [Location concept]
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Temple Exterior [Keyframe concept]
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Temple Interior [Keyframe concept]
Balance Teaser Matte Shot [Keyframe concept]
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