Dillon shared his day to day practices as a comic book illustrator during pre-production stage. He started with some rough ideas of the story, and put them into treatment. He specified that the first page of the treatment should refine the rough ideas, the next four pages should lay out a detailed plan of the setting of the story and the characters (concept art), and the rest 11 pages should have every single thing happens in the story. After finishing the treatment, he made a few sample pages of the comic strips, then he went to his editors who will read the script. If they like it, the project will commence. These practices are quite similar to what we do in college during the pre-production process of our animation which we learnt on the Process and Production module. However, there is a clear difference between comic book and storyboard as he told us; comic book and end product while storyboard will be further processed to produce film.
Transitioning from traditional to digital medium was not easy for him either, he got his friend, Rob Bliss, who worked for the concept art of the Harry Potter film, to teach him to paint digitally. He is much better now in terms of using different brushes in Photoshop, but he told us that he is not that familiar with the digital medium still, and that he learnt what he needs to know. I do see the need to prioritise in this as we do not have the luxury of time to be good at everything, but sometimes I do get jealous of people who can do something that I can't, and I challenge myself to try it out.
Being a Star Wars fan since a really young age, Dillon always aspires to work in the production of Star Wars film. How did he get the dream job and how did he manage to live up to the expectation of the spectators? He told us that years of experience in the relevant industry made him get the job, while he's happy with the job, he also felt pressure as a concept artist as he needs to redesign the costumes for a giant franchise like Star Wars. He told us that it is not a one-man job, he highlighted that communication is important in such big projects. For instance, he sought advice from expert in the fields of military outfits and consulted with his friend who worked on the costume design for Kingsman by showing his sketches and ask for their opinion about it. While creating a new villain for this new Star Wars movie, he also took into consideration that it should be as good as the iconic villain in the preceding Star Wars film, Darth Vader. It took the concept artists 8 months to independently develop designs for the new villain to get a design that is really captivating for kids, and less of dark elements.
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| Star Wars: The Force Awakens Costume Concept Art |
At the end of the interview, Dillon gave us some food for thought like being persistent and trying out new things. In the end, to be successful an artist needs to be persistent, and he can't just rely on his talent alone. Make relevant good work, present them to impress the people we want to work with so that we have our dream job. Getting a dream job is not the end, it is always good to take on the challenge of doing something that's out of our comfort zone.
Some specific advices:
- For those who aspire to be a comic book artist: make zines, show your work at comic festivals, also show ability to draw different range of poses from extreme poses to neutral poses like sitting in a cafe.
- For those who aspire to be a storyboard artist: Be fast, be clear, know the 180 degree rule, learn cinematic knowledge, have a drawing bootcamp once in a while or, for starters, draw out some scenes from your favourite movies.
- Getting a job: Find list of names of people from IMDB, contact them, present relevant portfolio and give them a concise CV, be proactive.
I think it is the most inspiring talk that I've went to since I get into the college, I'd be glad if the Animation department can invite a speaker like Dillon to our class.
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| Dillon working on his comic |
