Behind The Scenes: Jurassic Park (Patreon)

I've shared my sentiment about Jurassic Park many times and it still stands. For me, it's one of the best movies ever made (not counting the rest of the franchise) and I especially enjoyed art direction behind every detail like the overall park branding, vehicles and architecture. It just works!

Also, I got many requests from people trying to get better at their 3d work inquiring about where to go for their own ideas. My response is very similar every time. It doesn't matter which techniques are you trying to learn, you can always look up to some of your favorite things and try to recreate the best scenes, or objects.

Do you like some particular movie? Find the best scene for your skill and try to make it your way. Do you enjoy music? Try making instruments, or concert stage dioramas. Whatever excites you will help you get in that zone, where you just enjoy every bit of the process and at the same time, aim for some final result.

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This one was pretty straightforward in terms of references. I needed as much angles of the Ford Explorer I could get to see all the details and paintjob. It's important to not just gather the images, but to study them with attention too. That way, the small details like the side logo placement inversion will not slip you.

I was not going for full realism here, so I've focused on some stylized pieces as well, like the physical diorama model (it's awesome right?) with those nice cracks and damage on the gate.

And last, but not least, you need some moodshots as well for the colors and lighting reference.

It may not seem that way, but the sketch is important here as well. Although you don't need to come up with unique architecture shape, or custom vehicle, you need to see how it all comes together and if it works. 

For example, one of the challenges here are the proportions of the vehicle and gate. If you check the reference, the gate is quite larger, but that wouldn't fit into isometric diorama setting, or it would make the car really small. And I really wanted to put focus on the car on this one, so I came up with proportions, that allow the scene to show what I want.

Also, some tentative foliage and rocks placement is great to see the final composition and how the scene will be balanced. Of course, after the 3d scene is assembled, I take a liberty of adjusting it how I want, but the sketch helps me to guide me along the way no matter it's quality.

So that's it for the Jurassic Park illustration and I hope it will help you in your own work.

See you in the next one! :)