Conclusion

I'm out of Coraline art that I think is worthy of showing to the public, so this will be my last post on the subject. The art shown on this blog is only a small percentage of the work that comes with the territory of being a production illustrator. The majority of the time is spent doing rough drawings that might become a more finished piece or in most cases, food for the trash can. And sometimes concepts are needed so quickly that a rough doodle is all that is required.

So, I hope you guys enjoyed it. From now on I'll be posting my personal work on here or whatever else I think might be cool.

And Coraline just came out in England (and will be hitting the rest of Europe over the summer), so if you're reading this from across the pond make sure to go see it!

Image (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Buggy Furniture 4

There was an early idea for the bug living room where it was going to be a natural history museum of sorts, with stuffed animals and display cases to show off entomological wonders. That idea changed into what it is in the film, but there is still an element of that first idea that you see for maybe ten frames in the final movie. On one of the walls is a display case with a bunch of bugs pinned inside of it. If you blink, you'll miss it, but the actual prop was one of the most gorgeous props made for the film and I wish it had more screen time.

These are designs for the bugs that are on display in the case.


Image (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Buggy Furniture 3

And in case you thought these props couldn't get any weirder...


I had to take the nordic track from the real world (designed by Andy Schuler) and make a bug out of it. Maybe the strangest thing I've ever had to design. I got multiple comments that the thing looks like me. I'm not really sure how to take that.

And the table.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Buggy Furniture 2

A couple more...


radiator bug.


Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Buggy Furniture 1

Here are a couple concepts for some of the bug furniture. They're kind of weird.


Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Bugroom

Here's the final concept for the Other World version of the living room, where the furniture is bug-shaped and the Other Mother begins to reveal her true form. Like in the other sets, all the bugs have a corresponding real world version.


Here's a screenshot from the trailer of the final version of this set. When I did the concept I was really unsure how the final product would look since every part of the design had something crazy going on with it, like the glow of the furniture and walls to the way the bugs moved. But I shouldn't have had any doubts because the builders and riggers and lighters on the crew are amazing and they nailed it perfectly.


Also, my buddy Graham posted some storyboards from this scene on his blog. Check it out!

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Tables and Cannons

Here are a couple more real-to-other Bobinsky prop conversions.

First a table and some boxes...

Become a circus tent and carnival stands.

And a barrel that turns into a cannon.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Chicken Popper

Thanks to everyone who showed up at the Emerald City Comicon! Kevin and I had a great time and it was amazing to hear feedback from people who saw Coraline. Glad you all liked it!

Now back to the concepts. In the last post I talked about translating the real world props into Other world variations, and this chicken is a good example. It starts out in the real world as a pet chicken standing on a box with an old wheel propped against it.


And in the other world it became this:

I wish I could take credit for the concept of the chicken popper, but I believe my friend Michel Breton was responsible for the idea. I just painted the final version of it.

And check out the sculpt of the chicken on Tony Merrithew's blog.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Other Bobinsky's Attic

Here's the other world version of Bobinsky's attic. It's viewed from the same angle as the real version so that it's easy see how the real world props translate to the other world. A priority in creating the other world sets was to try and take the real world props that inhabit the sets and make fantastical versions of them to populate the other world. I think this set best illustrates that idea.

Image (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Real Bobinsky Props

Here are some prop designs for the real version of Bobinsky's attic. Even though the big concept for the set contains a lot of props, it's still important to go in and break out each prop and describe it in better detail so that the model makers have good reference for what they're supposed to build. The clearer it is in illustration form, the more accurate it'll be to the concept in the final output.


Also, with the design of these props I tried to give Bobinsky some history that is never explicitly stated in the film by making them seem like relics from a distant past he may have had working in the circus.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Real Bobinsky's Attic

Here's the final concept for the real version of Bobinky's attic flat. Because the architecture of the house was already established at this point Henry wanted the attic to reflect the space that was already defined by the roof of the the house. With the help of my friend Morgan Hay who was assistant art director on the movie, I built a half-scale mock-up of the space using foam core so that Henry could look at it and we could make spacial adjustments on the fly. After Henry approved the layout of the attic I took a picture of the mock-up and painted this concept on top of it to establish the lighting and feel.

Image (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Random Plants

Here's a concept for the poplar trees that line the driveway of the Other House.


And some other plants.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Real Garden 2

Here are a few more shots of the real garden at the beginning of the film.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Real Garden 1

Here's a wide shot of the dead garden at the beginning of the film. The Fantastic Garden was designed first so the geography of the real garden is almost identical which is why this one still resembles Coraline's face. But you never see it from this angle so it's impossible to notice in the film.

And here's a detail drawing of the bridge and tree.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Plants & Gates

Here are some more plant concepts. Most of these are really rough, but the general idea was to figure out what plants would fill out the rest of the garden behind the featured plants. Some of them are based on early Tadahiro designs, others are based on plant rigs the rigging department had already come up with. They generally had to be the colors that would make up Coraline's face for the reveal at the end of the sequence.

And here are some gate concepts. I think the final prop ended up being the middle design, but without the "C" shapes in the doors.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Color Script

Here's a color script I did for the garden sequence. They used a lot of blacklight paint and LEDs with fiberoptics to create the different lighting illusions in the flowers so it was hard to predict exactly how the colors would turn out, but I think the final result looks pretty close to this.

And here are a couple more black and white studies.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

I'm not going to post anything else for the next week as I'll be out of town, but make sure and check out the blogs I linked on the right. All those guys created amazing artwork for Coraline and they've all posted work from it on their sites.

Plants & Animals

A few more concepts for inhabitants of the garden. The trumpet plant is based on a thistle plant that you can usually find in fields and grassy areas. They actually used dried versions of the real plants in the film that were rigged with wire to make them animation-friendly.


These are color studies for the frog and hummingbird, painted over CG renders.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

B+W studies

Here are a couple black and white studies I did for the garden sequence. Most of the plants are based on early Tadahiro designs, but I also had to take into account what was physically possible with the rigs that would be used to make the plants move. With stop-motion, this is always something that has to be considered in the design phase.

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Bleeding Hearts

Here are a few concepts for the bleeding hearts in the Fantastic Garden sequence.


And here's the final version that made it into the film:

Images (c) LAIKA Entertainment

Coraline!

I set up this blog specifically to post production art from the stop-motion animated movie Coraline that I worked on for over a year. It just came out in theaters so make sure and see it (in 3D if you can)! I'll post a piece or two of art every few days.

Here's the first one. It's a design for the Fantastic Garden set in the film.

Image (c) LAIKA Entertainment