Darin Hilton Art and Design

THE GOLDEN COMPASS

Concepts, 3d projection matte paintings

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Golden compass concept

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Golden Compass geometry render

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Golden compass city matte painting (zoomed in)

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Golden Compass city matte painting panorama left side

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Golden Compass city matte painting panorama right side.

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Golden Compass terminal concept

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Golden Compass terminal concept

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Terminal rough geometry paintover and mood board,

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final terminal geometry and matte painting.

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Another shot from the film.

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The Golden Compass (2007)

I joined the Matte World digital team to finish a sequence of shots consisting of several establishing views of an alternate London. It was an honor to work with Craig Barron and his team including the incredibly talented Chris Evans. Both Chris and Craig worked together in the original ILM matte department on projects like the original Star Wars trilogy and Dragonslayer not to mention many, many more. We had only a short time to complete several complex shots but the sequence ended up looking great.

Originally the sequence had been given to a vfx shop in the UK but the VFX supervisor wasn't happy with the results. He supplied us with the 3d models and we used those as the basis for several complex projection matte paintings, including a huge panorama of London from the alternate universe of the film. I worked on concepts and development images to help guide the look and completed the large establishing matte shot with help from a beautiful sky from Heather Abels under the direction of Chris Evans. I also modeled and completed a Matte painting of the airship terminal

Sadly most of our work wasn't used. The original studios version of the London establishing shot is the one you see in the final film. I personally feel our version looked warmer and had more life to it. As a consolation my terminal design, matte painting and the surrounding shots did make it in and the film went on to win an Academy award for Best visual effects in 2008.