Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
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D E PA R T M E N T 31 KEYFRAME WINTER 2020 31 "To some extent, the imagination led the story" – mark swift, producer but also allow them to layer even more rich, inventive detail into the nature- gone-berserk Croodaceous era the Croods inhabit. The dreamy, Shangri-La of the Bettermans' compound in particular invited a visual perspective defined by more saturated colors, a "blast of sensory overload," as Crawford puts it. According to Production Designer Nate Wragg, the mantra in the design and art departments was to use a richer palette to paint bold, whimsical landscapes that "feel like National Geographic on steroids." For example, they used the Maldives and Hawai'i as inspiration for the lush greenery of the Betterman farm's resort vacation vibe and an invented watercolor turquoise they called Betterman Blue. The story's mythical Paleolithic setting offered endless potential for such whimsy, and the story and art departments were encouraged to pitch ideas and sketches, the stranger the better. "To some extent, the imagination led the story," says Producer Mark Swift. One idea—a forest where the trees turn out to be giant butterflies—had been pitched by an art modeler for the first movie. The designers developed a "prehistoric version of fall in Vermont" to dial up the greens and devised lighting that shines off and through the butterflies' wings to create a stained-glass look. Where the first film emphasized naturalistic effects with characters and environments, the new Croods pushes into more stylized territory. "You could feel the tactility of the world," says Wragg. "It was stylized first rather than photorealistic in the details." Several sequences involve groups of characters falling into water, and the resulting splashes were a favorite for the this page: Concept art by Peter Zaslav.