Grigor and the team have been working hard at adjusting textures to work with the lighting. The night shots are challenging because of the subtlety involved in night lighting. Certain textures do not react well under all lighting conditions, so there is some back and forth testing involved.
Here are some lighting sketches by Grigor.
Here is an aerial image of Ur. Click the image to see the larger version.
Pichech is one of my favorite characters. She and Haran have one of the funniest scenes in the show when she comes to the idol shop to buy an idol from smooth talking Haran. Pichech is a wealthy, and vain, citizen of Ur, but becomes one of Avram’s few conversions from idolatry when he is 13. Pascal Colpron created an amazing design, and Sarah Zamic, has done a marvelous job of giving her a voice.
We are releasing a peak at one of our scenes in it’s raw animation stage. What you will see is the animation applied to the basic models without textures and lighting. That will come much later in the production process.
This scene comes very early in the story, and takes place right outside of Terakh and Amaslai’s house the night Avram is born. Terakh is walking off down the street to make an offering to the city fertility idol. Stargazer has been spying on them, being directed by the shining star over the house. He has discovered that Avram is a cursed child. Togarma, the servant girl, is leaving the house with her child, and she surprises Stargazer and confronts him for sneaking around. This was beautifully animated by Pascal Grenier, our lead animator.
Nimrod was the baddest bad guy who ever lived. The Midrash says Nimrod was either very diminutive in stature, or extremely large, like the giant Philistine who David killed with a stone. We chose, for obvious reasons, to make him large and formidable in appearance. The Midrash also tells of a legend that Nimrod had the animal skin cloak of Adam. It had been handed down through generations and Nimrod swiped it. It gave Nimrod special ability as an archer. With the cloak on, he could hit anything that moved.
Above is the character design by Pascal Colpron. Below is the costume design by Grigor Kuzmanov.
The Midrash indicates that Terakh and his family were not only idolators, but idol merchants as well. In our story this presents Avram with a serious conflict. While he loves his family, he does not condone their idolatry. Avram eventually gets into big trouble after he smashes all of the idols in the idol shop, and must flee Ur for his life.
These designs and sketches are by Grigor Kuzmanov.
Avram’s two brothers are Haran and Nakhor. They both run the family idol shop. We played Haran as the smooth talking, business saavy salesman. Nakhor is the one who does the hard labor of deliveries and idol installations. These character designs are by Pascal Colpron. The costume design is by Grigor Kuzmanov.
From his birth until he was 13, Avram lived in the wilderness. These paintings are by Grigor Kuzmanov. This is a concept sketch of Avram’s cave.
Some distance from the cave, down in a small valley, is an oasis with a little pond. Many key moments in Avram’s life happen at the oasis.
Avram meets Utz, a self-styled, idolatrous wise man, who has hidden his ‘god of plenty’ in Avram’s oasis.
At first, Utz appears to be a wise man who knows a lot about the gods. Avram quickly realizes that Utz is nothing more than a clown who needs to be delivered from his idolatry.
Design by Pascal Colpron.
As a wealthy merchant and leading military figure in Nimrod’s kingdom, Terakh has a big house by Ur standards. Below is a sketch of the exterior structure by Pascal Colpron, and the finished model with texture.
The first time we enter Terakh’s house we are in the birth room right after Avram is born. The design of this room is meant to be comfortable, warm, wealthy, and to reflect the culture’s dependence on idols. Below is an interior sketch by Grigor Kuzmanov of the room in color and lighting.
The next image shows the room modeled and textured with a basic light.
And finally we have a render with proper lighting.
Nimrod’s two sons hold significant positions as palace guards, yet add comic relief to our story. Here are some of Pascal Colpron’s beautiful sketches and a render test of the fantastic modeling and texturing done by the Big Bang team.
We have a first poster possibility.
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