Those short films used characters from Pixar movies. The original movies were great for reference. I worked on light rigs, then moved to the key shots until final completion for different episodes. I split the shots assignment to my team.

The Incredibles

The scene taking place at the end of day, we went for the dusk. We wanted to have some sunlight to skim the trees and the roofs. The yellow lights from the the house and the backyard provided us a safe environment for the kids, in contrast to the darkness when Syndrome shows up.

Reference of Violet’s force field and Syndrome’s electricity from the movies

Finding Nemo

For the abandoned ship, we wanted a brighter foreground being more neutral. The depth was getting bluer, helped with stacked atmosphere, to blend with the DMP. To sell the underwater feeling, we had a gizmo to blur some pixels and have some overall glow.

For a logo that has been seen so many times, we don’t notice the evolution until we have to replicate it in LEGO. The initial reference provided by production seemed a little outdated. Comparing to most recent movies released, we noticed a few differences.

Cars 3 (2017) Elemental (2023)

The light direction is slightly different, coming more from the left rather than being frontal. With sharper shadows, it’s easier to notice that the terminal of X and R are longer. But they are actually on a different plane. It makes things more complicated for the lighting department when the asset isn’t matching the original. Without any cheat, the letters are clipping with the floor, and it’s impossible to get the correct shadow. I ended splitting those parts in Katana and rotate them until I got matching shadows.

Keyshots

Other keyshots I worked on: