Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
My excuse for posting these images is to remind everyone again of the
General Membership Meeting tonight at Local 44, and the panel discussion on visual development. But my ulterior motive for posting this is because DreamWorks never did any "Art of" books for their most beautiful films, and there's a mountain of absolutely beautiful work that pretty much no one will ever see. Here's a tiny sampling of development art by Paul Shardlow, one of our panelists tonight, from DreamWorks'
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron . . .
These are from a couple of sequences that ended up being cut from the film. Originally Spirit descended through the stages of horse hell, continually escaping and being recaptured, each time ending up somewhere worse. The human world was to be a disorienting nightmare for the wild horse, and he would eventually end up in a mine, sentenced to work until he died, without ever seeing the light of day again. One last escape would land him in the middle of a forest fire, where a frontiersman would help him -- the first human to treat him with kindness, and the first human to be allowed on his back.
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
I absolutely love this last image. This scene would have taken place moments after the images in the dark mine, and you can feel the change in mood. Ultimately the story was judged to be simply too painful to watch, and people in the studio began to refer to it as "Schindler's Horse." There was a sardonic playfulness to that tag, but the original version of the film would have been as dark and heartrending as "Schindler's List." I think that version would have been a better film, but I also think it would have scared everyone away from the box office.
Art by Paul Shardlow, (C) DreamWorks
I had a copy of this last image taped up in my room while animating on Spirit. It perfectly captured the insanity of animating herds of realistic horses by hand. What masochists we were.
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4 comments:
Shardlow's work is indeed superb, as was much of the other vis dev work for Spirit, but I have to object to correct your statement that "...DreamWorks never did any "Art of" books for their most beautiful films" by pointing out that there was a book for their first animated film, The Prince of Egypt. I don't think I'm alone in considering that one beautiful.
You're right, of course. I hadn't looked at the Prince of Egypt book in years, and my recollection was that it was more like the Shrek book DW recently did (a complete waste) than one of the "Art Of" books Disney did. Paging through the POE book again, I think what I was recalling was that the book was short on art from the animation and clean-up departments, but it does indeed have a rich selection of development, story, and background art.
By the way, DSK, I dig your Henry Valley blog. It's a wonderful example of the power of blogging.
Thanks for the kind words, Kevin :)
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