Paperman Process

Hey guys! Thought I'd post a look at what a frame of Paperman looked like before it was painted and dressed. We would get a scene with proxy geometry like the one on the top of the frame, and from there I would deconstruct the perspective and repaint the scene, so that it could be reprojected onto the simple geometry for the final shot (to support stereo).

Paperman is unique in that most of the lighting was placed in the hands of the artist painting that shot, as a result, EVERY shot is individually designed. Some were easy since the crazy awesome Jeff Turley would have a key, others we'd just kind of go with it. Personally, I loved this approach because it gave me a chance to explore lighting scenarios appropriate for the scene and a little for my own satisfaction. I prefer black and white work since color is not my strong suit, so this was a lot of fun for me.

We also tried to paint characters in all our scenes, because that would serve as a value guide for the final frame.