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By: Feng

Introduction

Working in a film art department is definitely one of the more enjoyable experiences I’ve had in my career. The amount of talented designers I’ve come across (many of whom are now my good friends) is just tremendous. The pressure and stress can be great but the reward is also pleasurable.

A typical art department consist about five to six concept artists, one production designer, and a few assistants. For example, in JAK (name given to the Star Wars art department; many teams have “inside” names), we started with four artists and ended up with seven by year’s end. On Transformers, there were about six in-house artists, and 3 to 4 external artists. For the James Cameron movies, the art department was extremely small, with only 3 concept artists and 1 production designer. These teams can form a close bond during their usual seven to nine month of working together and share many fun memories.

Welcome to the Art Department

One of the first things you realize
when stepping into a high caliber art
department is the amount of
extremely talented individuals
around you. I still remember my first
day at Skywalker Ranch. Walking into
the secret third floor was thrilling
enough, but to suddenly step into a
small room filled with beautiful
paintings, from floor to ceiling, was
overwhelming. For the inexperienced
designer, this can add a lot of stress.
But if you’ve been through it enough,
it only adds excitement.

We usually report to three people: The director, the producer, and the production designer. The production designer is always in the art department, where as the director and the producer(s) are typically running around the entire studio. However, the ultimate design decision (what makes it into the film), falls on the director.

At the Ranch, we had design meetings every Monday morning. After getting my assignment, I would start sketching right away. I like to basically have a rough idea of all the designs, in thumbnail form, before Monday is done. This way, I can spend the next three days flushing out the designs into more finished drawings (meetings are on Fridays, so the deadline is Thursday night).

Working out the designs in thumbnails is the highest priority for me on Mondays. The demands were very high, and we were personally producing around 10-15 finished designs/renderings by Friday. This means not only do you need to come up with good designs, but also leave enough time to render them out. By having all the designs “done” by Monday, it left me plenty of time for the fun stuff – finishing.

A Typical Week

As mentioned, Mondays are spent doing thumbnails and rough designs. I would typically sketch out a few dozen thumbnails per design. It’s very easy to end up with a few hundred rough sketches by Monday’s end.

So what happens if no good ideas come? I get asked this question a lot; And there is only one answer: you better force yourself to have good designs. Missing deadlines or not delivering on presentation day basically means loosing your job. Under such pressure, I’ve learned to always come up with interesting ideas no matter how brain dead I am on that day.

On Tuesdays, things are still pretty relaxed. I have a very good understanding of how long it takes me to finish a rendering. For example, for a typical environment drawing, it’ll take me about three to four hours to sketch, draw, and render. This means for 10 environments, I’ll need about 40 hours. Now I can divide up my day, and try to finish 3 and half renderings per day (3 days total). Once I make up my schedule, I stick with it. This means if things fall behind, I’ll skip some sleeping hours to make up the difference.

By Wednesday, things get more serious. Now I can judge if I’m on schedule or not. I should have reached about 6 or 7 finished renderings by day’s end. If not, then I need to hurry. The art department gets pretty quiet around this time, as everyone is deep in work.

Presentation

A good presentation is the key to “selling” your design(s). Directors are very busy, and they often don’t have much time to spend looking at every design carefully. This means all your renderings must be super clear. You don’t want the director to be asking “what am I looking at?”

Always be professional during presentations. Remember, you are designing for someone else and not yourself. So if the director doesn’t like your designs, then that’s their choice. Don’t get mad or take it personally. Just try to meet their design taste next time.

After the presentation, the art department usually holds another meeting to discuss all the notes and feedback from the director. We talk about what to fix, what do design, and just summarize the entire meeting. Now everyone takes a well deserved weekend break.

Conclusion

Working in a film art department is definitely rewarding. You gain so much experience
just by working with such high caliber designers. The work pressure is some of the toughest
I’ve been under, but at the end of the day, I also gained the most. The network of friends
I’ve made in these teams will last me a life time, and so will the wonderful memories.