Lighting
Lighting for Night Shift presented a unique set of challenges, as there were two distinct visual styles that needed to be reconciled across the 4 minute short. While the bookending shots were rendered using a more traditional 3D lighting and compositing pipeline, the dream sequence utilized a cel-shaded, painterly style, highlighting the fantastical landscape.
In order to help develop and maintain cohesion across this style, I worked closely with my fellow lighting artists and technical artists to provide feedback and develop the tools used for our shots. This collaboration included developing lighting rigs for fixed environments, such as the house, as well as coordinating with artists for adjacent shots to ensure consistent lighting and exposure.
Finally, several of my shots required special compositing work to achieve their specified transitions, such as the moon transforming into a woman. Only being provided a start and end frame, I managed to create a blend and bloom effect to merge the two forms together, creating the final result shown in the film. The completed short can be viewed here.
Additional Work
Beyond lighting, I also worked closely with the production team to plan and execute a live event during our show’s premiere. As our short was released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, all planning and communication had to be executed virtually. Furthermore, the event itself was live-streamed, allowing hundreds of viewers to participate in a safe and engaging format.
The entire event was hosted on Twitch utilizing OBS, allowing for multiple scenes and effects to be utilized throughout. In addition to showing the final film, I also coordinated a live interview with several production members, patching together many live video feeds in a virtual roundtable format.
