Cold Blood - ESMA

In a cold and dark city, a kid named Oliver tries to survive the snow and the ruthless frost. When he finally finds a solution, he discovers the mysteries of the city, but it is not without danger...

" - There is no justice, there is only our will... "

This short movie is the outcome of more than one year of production. Building a story and creating an original universe from scratch to this final result with a group of 8 people. This was a difficult but amazing journey that we'll never forget !

We hope you'll enjoy it !

Teaser

Full Movie

Stillframes

Pre-Production

Finding the design of Oliver, our main character, was challenging. We wanted him to reflect on this implacable world he lives in, where the cold is your enemy.

We tried different types of clothes, balancing between something that should be warm but also not restraining his movements, and giving the feeling he created his outfit from stuff gathered from all around.

In opposition to Oliver, finding Edward's character design was easier. We wanted to show the wealth he comes from through his clothing and an innocent, fragile-looking face. We tried a few fancy outfits inspired by Asian/Russian culture with many accessories such as the lantern.

Though, the biggest challenge of all of our characters was Jack. Creating a robot is always complicated because it needs to be coherent in its functioning when it has to be created in 3D.

But most of all, we wanted something threatening, creepy and mysterious... We analyzed a lot of references, and we tried to detail his purpose in the scheme of the city to create an original design.

In Cold Blood, we created two very different environments with their own unique atmosphere and feeling.

The surface is a dead city, silent with only the wind shrieking through the buildings, where the snow spreads everywhere, covering the victims of the ruthless cold.

The underground is a mysterious place where no one dares to wander. Old machinery echos in the dark tunnels.

The vibrant colors of the lighting are here to intensify the feeling and emotion of each scene, to feel the warmth sources lost in the biting cold, or to realize that danger is about to emerge from the darkness.

Production

Animation:

As a thriller/horror movie, we chose to keep a mostly realistic animation style, focusing on the emotions.

To create an original style for the animation, we decided to do a stepped animation baked with a very specific sequence of frames. It gives a more dynamic feeling to the animation and matches the painted visual style to give an identity to the movie.

FX:

Cold Blood was a big challenge in terms of special effects. Snow, snowflakes, steam, fire, breathing and all of that considering the interaction with characters. Almost every shots of the movie contained at least one of those FX. But developing a template for each one of them was very helpful !

Compositing

A major part of the visual identity of the movie comes from the compositing. We developed our visual style to have kind of a 2D style with a painted effect on the texture and the lighting.

Directed by:

- Elisa BELMONTE : Concept Art, Storyboard, Animation, Layout, Animatic, Compositing, Editing, Modeling

- Léna BOEDEC : Compositing, Lookdev, Texturing, Mattepainting, R&D

- Grégoire CASELLA : Rigging, Skinning, Blendshapes, CFX, Animation, Character Modeling, Scripting, Scenario

- Estelle DO HUU TIN : Rendering, Script & Pipeline, Rigging, Lighting, Sculpt, Modeling, Texturing, Compositing

- Capucine FORTUNIER : Concept Art, Storyboard, 2D Animation, Modeling, Texturing, Lookdev, Compositing

- Mariachiara PALUMBO : Texturing, Lookdev, Compositing, Matte, Modeling, Production, Enviro Concept Art, Scenario

- Iris ROZSNYO : Animation, 3D Layout, Prop Concept Art, Modeling, Texturing

- Axel VACHETTA : FX, R&D, Lookdev, Lighting, Rendering, Compositing

Interns:

Robin DELAPORTE  -  Marie PACREAU  -  Gaëlle Pandraux

Original Score:

Mathis COOPMAN

Sound Design & Mixing:

Mickaël MERRHEIM  -  Tristan LE BOZEC  -  José Vicente  -  Yoann PONCET