It was extremely inspiring working with such a skilled team as part of the Oblivion art department. Joe Kosinski's compelling vision for the world, architecture and technology of Oblivion required the invention of a unique story-driven design language and the coordination of that language between artists and across the project. Production Designer, Darren Gilford, set an extremely high bar for design excellence and kept it a very inspired, collaborative environment despite the production being geographically spread out at times.
Andree Wallin created hundreds of illustrations over the course of a four year development that were foundational to defining the overall mood and look of the film. I had the opportunity to touch nearly every aspect of the film's visual design, along with Andree, but the bulk of my design work for Oblivion involved developing the Sky Tower, including Jack's Workshop and the stripped down Mech variant of the Drone. It was a designer's dream getting to develop this remarkable piece of architecture. Darren Gilford, Nick Pugh and Ben Proctor laid the groundwork for the Sky Tower in early development. I spent months iterating extensively on the design beginning with the Workshop level, then moving up through the structure to visualize the living level interiors, Vika's control tower and finally the Sky Tower exterior envelope. There were a number of source inspirations driving the Sky Tower's look, but it was Daniel Simon and Nick Pugh's gorgeous, iconic Bubbleship and Drone vehicle designs that came to function as the style guide for the Tet technology in the film. Joseph Hiura, set designer and extraordinary 3D designer, along with Kevin Loo, took the concept art the extra mile and made these spaces and prop designs really work. Doug Harlocker and the team at Studio Art & Technology, in collaboration with Joseph Hiura, did an astounding job translating the Drone Mech concept to the final prop. I also have to applaud the stellar graphic and UI design of Ellen Lampl and GMUNK's team that populated almost every surface and prop in the Sky Tower, in particular the large interactive touch displays. The execution, lighting and photography of the final SkyTower and Workshop sets was phenomenal.
There were a number of concept artists that contributed to the pitch and early look development of Oblivion with Andree, Nick, Daniel and I before the project moved from Disney to Universal including: James Clyne, Nick Pugh, Ben Proctor, Steve Burg, Harald Belker and Ed Natividad. Neville Page and Raj Rihal were part of the early costume development. |
