Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
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FALL 2021 19 S T O R Y & V I S I O N Wizards and the movie. Still, he says, things could get tricky. "When you are finishing Trollhunters, you are in the middle of 3 Below, and you are starting to think about Wizards. That critical moment, even more than the movie—three shows running at the same time—that was the most intense in terms of learning." It was also intense because of the need to keep each elaborate world distinct. "For Trollhunters, the dichotomy between the troll world and the human world was the focus," says Chen. "So establishing those two worlds to make sure that there was a contrast between them was really important. Then with 3 Below, because aliens were the lead characters, we tried to switch gears and do that new world justice. Guillermo was very adamant [about] seeing aliens that have no interloping design sense with the trolls. He wanted it to look special and unique." The team worked hard to stay true to each world's aesthetic while making the series feel united. Numerous inspirations helped, from del Toro's own live-action films to movies like E.T. and Star Wars that combined intimate and epic vibes. "With every show, we knew that we wanted to keep that kind of story, that kind of humor, that kind of adventure," says Francisco Ruiz-Velasco, who started as a vis-dev artist when Trollhunters was being developed as a film, then returned as an art director and director for 3 Below and a director for Wizards and the movie. "I think that helped thread the three shows so they feel coherent, similar but different." The characters were also a key to continuity. Chen remembers an early meeting where del Toro said that "the relations between the characters are what weaves the entire story together. It can't just be massive movements and giant fights and lots of fire. There has to be an underlying relationship story there to make the series resonate. That was the focus for him from the very beginning." FREE REIN With del Toro's background as a strong visual director and most of the core team coming from film, they were used to feature techniques like lighting keyframes. "Most [animated] T V shows don't use that," says Ruiz-Velasco. "They just do a basic lighting for the whole show, and every [episode] looks the same. We wanted to have that more cinematic look, so we started doing color scripts [from the beginning]. It wasn't planned, but we wanted to push it." Blaas recalls creating these keyframes, trying to figure out colors, lighting scenarios, and shape languages for the epic world del Toro had created within the time and economic restraints of a T V series. He and the rest of the team pushed the bar, figuring out what worked and what didn't, and by the second series they had improved the production pipeline to fit the show's unique needs, establishing a dialogue to make things more efficient and figuring out how to get more out of the budget. " We were always trying to take the knowledge we learned from the first series and use it for the next and improve upon it," says Chen. "I really do feel like that was one of the aspects where we were the most successful." "We just designed with no limitations... and then tried to make smart decisions on how to keep the massive feeling of the world, the massive feeling of the lore behind the show." – Yingjue Linda Chen, Art Director