Directive 8020: Cinematic Lighting I
A selection of my favourite shots I worked on from Directive 8020, lit in the game's dominant steely blues look.
As part of my role as an Asc. Art Director, I supported the cinematics team with sequence lighting across the experience.
The steely blues look was designed as a visual bedrock for the game, to accentuate the drama of other palettes in key chapters, and establish a cold, futuristic mood. It also provided an analogous backdrop for the purples of the alien substance, helping bed it in to the environment and control colour contrast.
It was a pleasure to work with such a talented art team, huge thanks to them for their excellent work, and for the expert guidance from Robert Craig.
Lighting team:
https://www.artstation.com/chingyayang
https://www.artstation.com/samspice
Karthik Sreekantan
Art Director: David Hirst
Creative Director: Will Doyle
Lit in Unreal Engine 5, Lumen.
Mitchell's reveal as a Mimic. Lighting deliberately obscured the face until the head turns.
Young in the cockpit, leaning into a more desaturated royal blue hue
Crew assembled at Bridge Ops.
I cut to an extreme close up here focussing on the eyes to delay the reveal of the threat, the audience relies on his horrified reaction.
Shadow cast by the antagonist engulfs the room, keeping it out of sight and maintaining tension.
With body horror, focus was put on specularity and the feeling of wetness to hit the gross factor!
Heavy use of volumetrics, long shadows and rim lighting
Mimic revealed, using high contrast lighting
An off kilter shot mirroring Young's disorientation, with hard rim light
A softer, more melancholic look was the aim to underline the desperate situation
Before the gravity of the situation is revealed, characters lit with more fill, and higher key overall
Wide lens, off kilter feeling as Williams suffers a nosebleed
Aiming to capture a surreal, disorientating feeling
Cooper Hero shot