Darin Hilton Art and Design

COWBOYS AND ALIENS

Matte paintings and 3d environments

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AO render shpwing the meshes in the extension. I was lucky to have a lot of resources to pull from with premodeled rocks and Alien tech details.

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Lighting pass before final render. This doesn't show the displacement on the Zbrushed rocks which really sold the look. In the film the aliens are stealing gold, hence the glowing yellow beams.

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One of the environments from the film Cowboys and Aliens. The set was minimal with a partial wall of the ship and a lower chunk where Daniel Craig is standing.

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Apart from the rocky backdrops, we also had to develop the strange crystalline structures that protruded from the sides of the ship. This was look developed in Mental Ray.

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Another view of the Alien ship looking up towards the sunlight, the idea being the ship would drill down into the earth to get at the gold.

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Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

2011 Science Fiction action film starring Daniel Craig, directed by Jon Jon Favreau

I was involved early in the production with shader and pipeline development in in the Mental Ray renderer

We had hoped early in pre-production that the movie would feature more imaginative Alien mother-ship interiors and designs but the final direction was more restrained. I completed some key establishing shots of the Alien mother-ship utilizing amazing rock assets created by Shane Roberts in Zbrush and a blue crystalline aesthetic developed by the art department combined with almost a steampunky feel to the alien machinery.