The Alleyway - Creation of a 3D environment

Lou Thoby

“With each job, I try to approach the subject in a way that allows me to try out new ideas and learn new skills. A fan of digital painting, I wanted to incorporate my 2D work using camera mapping, a technique that consists of projecting an image onto 3D surfaces. It follows the same principle as light shows which are projected onto buildings, like in Lyon.

One of its main advantages is that it can "move" around the image, even if it is basically flat. However, as camera movements were not encouraged for this project, I decided to light my design with 3ds Max – the main software we use – and then edit it by compositing in the same way, using Nuke. Although this process could have been completed just as fast if I had painted the light directly onto my image, it allows for many more possibilities: incorporating animated characters into my set, animating lights to recreate a sunset and many more. In other words, to have the "painting" side of things and all the freedom that implies, along with everything that 3D effects offer. Eventually, I would like to be able to research and develop other techniques that combine 2D and 3D, so as not to be constrained by either one.

I particularly like working with colour, composition and light, and I always try to have at least a bit of storytelling in what I do. The idea of the cat mise en abyme came to me gradually because I wanted my shapes to convey something, rather than just having a simple street seen from one perspective. The retro-futuristic aspect came to me as a result of one of the themes that was set for this exercise: futurism.”