ILM.com is showcasing artwork specially chosen by members of the ILM Art Department. In this installment of a continuing series, four artists from the San Francisco, Vancouver, and London studios share insights about their work on the 2025 Netflix production, The Eternaut.
Supervising Art Director Fred Palacio
During pre-production, one of the key ideas here was to show how the characters were trapped in the city, isolated from the external world. The snow here is the first lethal weapon that killed most of the population, but something else is happening. A barricade along the Puente Saavedra shows that something else is happening, something more extraordinary. This keyframe shows the character isolated against all the odds, the snow, the loneliness, the urban chaos.
One of the most important things working on the project was to have the vision of the people who live there when this is happening. The Client and the novelist were from Argentina where the film is played. So the first step for authenticity was to become immersed in the Argentinian world. Diving into memories of the city I visited and merging with an exact location, walking through street views online. Finally, translating the situation into a frame, one by isolating the character, but also using the bridge to undermine his power, the point of view and camera position is determinant to sell the situation of the character.
The resilience to overcome the giant wall made of all sorts of human-made things to suggest the Alien presence, even the sign in the bridge is a message to the viewer translating “everything has a prelude.” The element here needs to reflect how an ordinary man in an ordinary world resists all the extraordinary events and obstacles. The green bag means a forward action, the red light tells not to go back, the perspective of the bridge points back to the car and another figure hinting to cohesion…all these elements tell something about the story but also about the character’s attitude toward those obstacles.
Art Director Amy Beth Christenson
This is an early study for a specific neighborhood in Buenos Aires, just after the snowfall, where Juan is discovering the aftermath. I worked to position cars and people so that it conveyed a sense that what happened was sudden and unexpected. I researched the original comic quite a bit, and also did a lot of research to make sure that the specific neighborhood was accurate so that it felt very real.
I like the sense of a rosy pre-dawn, almost peacefulness to the scene, which is a contrast to what has happened. Looking at the day-to-day life images of people, and thinking about what it would look like if they were taken mid-stride, gave me ideas, like a woman walking her dog, people carrying groceries, etc., which helped the images feel more eerie.
I was on the project just for the very early initial concepts, specific to the immediate aftermath of the snowfall, and what those moments might look and feel like, and didn’t iterate beyond these. At these early stages, I wanted to get ideas for lighting and composition down early, and worry about details later.
Art Director Tyler Scarlet
This piece depicts alien creatures that are about two feet tall and who can work in a pack. The client really liked the look of microscopic dust mites, so I used that as a starting point and expanded from there. They responded to different elements from my first round, so I worked on combining the hard-shelled version with one that looked similar to a dust mite. The next step was to show it in action. I explored concepts of it attacking people, wrapping bodies in its web, and dragging them away. They are also scavengers so I did an illustration showing that as well.
For the first pass I wanted to give the client a range of different types of creatures while still fitting the brief of a six-limbed dust mite-like creature. One version was very close to a realistic, large dust mite, another version had a hard shell, jointed legs and claws at the end of its limbs to grip onto its prey, and the third version was more aerodynamic and looked like it was built to move fast. I like how it looks when it’s coiling its web around its victim! [laughs]
This client was one of my favorites I have worked with. They came to every meeting with such excitement, passion, and appreciation.
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See the complete gallery of concept art from The Eternaut here on ILM.com.
