The Art and Making of Luck E-Book

Noela Hueso

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 103

Beschreibung

The official art book for the animated movie Luck.The Art and Making of Luck showcases, in beautifully illustrated detail, the concept art behind the story of the unluckiest girl in the world: Sam Greenfield. When Sam stumbles into the never-before-seen world of good and bad luck, she sets out on a quest to find good luck for her best friend Hazel, so that she can find a forever family.Journey with Sam as she follows a lucky penny into the Land of Luck, and meets magical creatures including Bob, a lucky black cat, and The Dragon, the CEO of the Land of Good Luck. From Skydance Animation and Apple Original Films, Luck is a charming animated comedy for both adults and kids alike.Any animation buff would be lucky to have this coffee table hardback that explodes with creativity; filled with intricate sketches, vivid concept designs, storyboards, production art, and rendered 3D models for the animated film, alongside insight from the artists, filmmakers and director into the original fictional world of Luck.

Leseprobe

THE ART AND MAKING OF

THE ART AND MAKING OF LUCK

ISBN: 9781789099027

e-book ISBN: 9781803360935

Published by Titan BooksA division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd.144 Southwark St.LondonSE1 0UP

FIRST EDITION: AUGUST 2022

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© 2022 Apple Inc. and Skydance Animation, LLC. Skydance is atrademark of Skydance Productions, LLC. SDA and Skydance AnimationLuck are trademarks of Skydance Animation, LLC. Apple, the Apple logo,and Apple TV+ logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the priorwritten permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in anyform of binding or cover other than that in which it is published andwithout a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

THE ART AND MAKING OF

Written ByNOELA HUESO

THIS SPREAD: By Dominique Louis

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

BY JOHN LASSETER

08

INTRODUCTION

10

THE HUMAN WORLD

16

HUMANS

18

HUMAN LOCATIONS

38

THE LUCK WORLD

56

THE INHABITANTS OF LUCK

58

LUCK LOCATIONS

112

GRAPHIC DESIGN

162

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

168

HAZEL’S NEW HOME

174

AFTERWORD

BY PEGGY HOLMES

175

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

176

THIS SPREAD: By Dominique Louis

FOREWORD

BY JOHN LASSETER

It’s apropos that this movie is calledLuck. I feel very lucky to be workingwith a team of amazing filmmakersand artists who have gone above andbeyond to create a visually stunning film that isboth wildly entertaining and has plenty of heart.

Who hasn’t experienced luck in their lives at one timeor another? Whether good or bad, it’s a universallyrelatable phenomenon. As we set out to createLuck, Skydance Animation’s first feature film, that wascertainly important to us because the story we wantedto tell needed to resonate with audiences aroundthe world. It’s hilarious, adventurous and emotional,brought to vivid, glorious life by the incredible team offilmmakers and artists we have assembled. It’s a movieI’m incredibly proud of and one that I hope will live on inthe hearts of audiences of all ages for a lucky long time.

8

THE ART AND MAKING OF

THIS PAGE: By Michael Spooner

INTRODUCTION

WHEN LUCK RUNS OUT

SOME PEOPLE HAVE ALL THE LUCK.

Sam Greenfield isn’t one of them. In fact, she hasalways had the worst luck ever. For her, lost keys,flat tires and broken pencils happen with annoying,everyday regularity. Some might say that her badluck is the only way to explain why she has livedin a series of group homes since she was a toddlerand why she never found her forever family.

Deep down, Sam secretly worries that she mightbe the problem, but there’s no time to dwell on that.She’s eighteen now and about to move out on herown, even though she’d much rather stay at her latestresidence, the Summerland Home for Girls, right inthe heart of The City. That’s where she has becomegood friends with Hazel, her five-year-old bunkmate,

BELOW:By Lutgardo Fernandez

10

THE ART AND MAKING OF

and Sam wants nothing more than to see the littlegirl connect with her own forever family. She knowsfrom experience that there are only so many chancesbefore it’s too late. Sam is leaving because she has“aged out” and can’t stay at Summerland anymore.So, move she does into a tiny, narrow basementapartment, with just enough space for her Murphy bedto unfold, and it’s obvious that the next phase of herlife is inescapable: she’s already started online classesand a new job begins in the morning. Sam is nervousabout it all, but, as she does with everything in her un-charmed life, she takes a deep breath and approachesher fate with a determined, can-do attitude.

Sam’s circumstances take an even more unpredictableturn when she encounters Bob, a mysterious blackcat, and shortly thereafter finds a lucky penny. “Find apenny, pick it up,” Sam reminds herself, “and all day,

you’ll have good luck!” And boy, does she. Suddenly,every light turns green, every sock matches. Intendingto surprise Hazel with her magical find, it’s a beautifulday without a single mishap until she accidentally,incredibly, flushes the penny down the toilet — rightbefore she was planning to deliver it. Once again,fate turns on her...and then it turns again, when, thatsame evening, she runs into Bob a second time andrealizes that he was the source of the lucky penny.

THIS STANDOFFISH CAT ISCLEARLY MORE THAN HE SEEMS.

For one thing, he speaks — in a Scottish accent, no less— and he’s incredibly lucky. The latter becomes apparentwhen, after she begs him for another coin, the cat bolts.Undeterred, Sam chases after him. For every swiftmaneuver he easily makes through streets and alleys

11

INTRODUCTION

in his attempt to evade her, Sam is somehow blocked,diverted or delayed. Just her luck. But she doesn’t giveup her tenacious pursuit. It’s only when the cat eludesher yet again and she falls into a dumpster that rollsdown an alley, crashes into a building and flips over onits side, that she experiences a brief moment of defeat.Bob is nowhere in sight. But then she rounds a cornerand sees him, luckily, mere seconds before he divesinto a cavernous hole that has inexplicably openedup in the street. Resolute in her mission, Sam quiteliterally takes a leap in the dark and jumps in after him,just before the passage closes. It’s a long drop — anda windy crash landing — into an enchanting locationwhere luck is created and randomly distributed to the

human world, filled with cheerful leprechauns,lucky pigs and rabbits, and the luckiest being of all:an elegant dragon who is in charge of the whole place.

Yep, Sam has arrived in the spectacular and heretoforeunknown Land of Luck…and she’s not supposed tobe there. No humans are. Even so, she is persistentin her quest — she will get another penny for Hazel!There’s just one thing; it’s not as easy as it sounds.Though there’s more than one of them, these specialcoins are protected and hard to come by, and as luckwould have it, Bob needs one, too. The coin Samlost was Bob’s “travel penny.” As a cat who worksin the human world, he’s supposed to turn one in atArrivals and Departures every time he comes back;

ABOVE: By Dominique Louis

OPPOSITE:By Madrid Animation

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THE ART AND MAKING OF

if he doesn’t, he risks banishment to the Land ofBad Luck, a dark and foreboding place that isn’t onanyone’s bucket list. It doesn’t take long before hereluctantly agrees with Sam’s suggestion that theyjoin forces to get what they both need. The unlikelyduo embarks on an audacious search that takesthem around the whimsical Luck world, and discover,along the way, a force even greater than luck.

On the surface, Luck, the first animated filmfrom David Ellison’s Skydance Animation, is abreathtaking, funny and exciting tale about theescapades of an unlucky heroine and a magicalcat, but it’s also about so much more.

AT ITS CORE, IT’S A STORY WITH HEART.

“Luck is the story of a young woman trying to find herway in the world,” says producer David Eisenmann.“What she’s really looking for is value, self-worthand belonging.”

It’s just the kind of story that director Peggy Holmeslikes to tell.

“Peggy is a very intuitive filmmaker and alwaysapproaches things from an emotional point of view,”says co-head of story Lawrence Gong. “I’ve workedwith her a few times now and she’s always led withthis passion.”

“The number one thing Peggy wanted this story to haveis heart, which comes from relationships and havinggrowth within those relationships,” says John Lasseter,head of Skydance Animation. “Peggy has a hugeheart herself and it is demonstrated so well in Luck.”

Creating stories with heart has also been Lasseter’saward-winning approach since the early days ofhis career, when the filmmaker and former chiefcreative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney AnimationStudios created Toy Story, a film that tuggedat audience heartstrings as much as it madethem laugh. It’s a mindset he brought with himwhen he joined Skydance Animation in 2019.

“The heart of the story is the emotion that theaudience feels as they’re watching it,” he says,“and that comes from how much the audiencecares about the main character and the journey —both physical and emotional — she goes on.”

When Lasseter came on board, an earlier version ofLuck was already in production. The original idea hadbeen pitched to Skydance Animation by its productionpartner, the Madrid-based Ilion Studios (now calledSkydance Animation Madrid, since the 2020 purchaseof the company). Along the way, the vision for thefilm changed and it was decided to take the story inanother direction. A new filmmaking team, led byHolmes, set out to tell a different kind of Luck story.

“This isn’t unusual in animation,” Lasseter says.“It happens quite a bit when you’re working on stories.If a story isn’t living up to its potential, we say, ‘Let’sgo back to what we first loved about this idea, rethinkit and build it back from there,’ and that’s what wedid: we took it back to the studs and revamped it.”

Though the first version of the film featured ayoung protagonist, Angela, who was considered“the unluckiest girl in the world,” the focus of thestory was on the action between a group of luckyand unlucky humans at odds with one another,with Angela caught in the middle. In putting thespotlight on the newly renamed Sam, SkydanceAnimation president Holly Edwards says, “we addedso much to her character in terms of the journey shegoes on and what she thinks luck really means.”

Intent on telling a story that was both plausibleand wildly entertaining to a broad audience andfollowing Lasseter’s directive that it be of thehighest calibre in all areas, the Luck team dug intoresearch — conversations with experts, internetsearches and more — to reach their goal.

It’s an approach taken for every Skydance Animationfilm. “We do research for our films to make sure thatour stories are built on a realistic foundation,” says

INTRODUCTION

13

Edwards. “They could take place in a world you’venever seen before, like the Land of Luck, but to makethe movie feel believable to the audience, we wantto know as much as we can about our characters,their motivations and the worlds they inhabit.”

With that in mind, the film’s production designaesthetic also changed, moving away from a two-and-a-half dimensional animation style, “which looksalmost like 2D,” says Esdras Varagnolo, senior VP ofcreative production, to a more traditional CG look,“leaning more on the technology, using things thatlook a little bit more believable, photoreal, but atthe same time, charming. John wants us to producefilms that are of the highest quality possible so weare always in stretch mode and aiming high.” VFXsupervisor Francisco Javier Romero Rodriguez from

Madrid Animation adds: “Every pixel on the screen isa visual effect created to tell and support the story.”

The team incorporated VFX throughout the film.FX supervisor Carlos Lemus explains: “From leaveson the ground which may catch a subtle wind draft,raindrops on umbrellas, jam which gets splatteredon the kitchen wall, to much bigger effects such aswhen the bad luck dust cloud explodes and shutsdown the Land of Luck and the randomizer crystalcrusher where crystals flow to get broken into bits.”