After taking care of set dressing in Unreal Engine, I assembled the colour script with final paintings done over those shots - This way I could give the most precise idea possible of the final look of the film to the Lighting & Comp department.

Matte painting of Kalalau Valley - Opening shot

Pre-production art - Timo's stick shot

Final painting - Timo's nest
This painting ended up setting the mood for the first part of the short film.

Final painting - Timo's nest reverse shot

Final painting - Rainforest shot

Process from storyboard to final painting - Rainforest shot

After layout approval, set dressing was done directly in Unreal. The render was then exported and finalized in Photoshop.

Pre-production art - Broken trunk shot

Pre-production art - Dead tree shot

In order to help the modelling department stay as close as possible to the shape of the tree presented in the art, I created a proxy model to share with the team.

Process from storyboard to final painting - Dead tree shot

final painting
After my initial input, bespoke assets were modelled and shaded and the shot was exported in Unreal where I took care of set dressing before producing the final art that informed the Lighting & Comp departments.

Pre-production art - Cave clearing shot

Process - Cave clearing shot

Final painting - Cave clearing shot

A selection of early rough compositions from the pitch deck - most of the shots in the final film stayed pretty close to the original pitch animatic