Prospect
I had the honor to work alongside many other artists and creators while working on the feature film, Prospect. Prospect is pretty much a western, but in space.
A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They’ve secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon’s toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Forced to contend not only with the forest’s other ruthless inhabitants, but with her own father’s greed-addled judgement, the girl finds she must carve her own path to escape.
I was tasked with creating graphics that helped build the universe that the characters were in. All of the artifacts that I created tell their own unique story that might not be overtly stated in the film. This helps the world to be more believable, and feels “lived in”.
Here are some of the props I helped create.
Vintage Style Prospect Trading Cards
I was contracted post-release of Prospect to create a vintage style trading cards, similar to classic movie cards. I created the frames, and then placed all of the movie assets, as well as body copy on the cards, and then edited them to create a distressed look.
Here are some examples from other films.
We started out compiling cards like the ones above, and strove to create something similar to them, while still keeping the spirit of the movie alive.
These cards also showcase some of the design assets of the film that didn’t get a lot of screen time. All of the emblems in the corners of the cards are sometimes only seen on screen for a quarter of a second.
Cee Pod Screens
These are small screens that were placed inside “Cee Pod”. All were designed in illustrator, then placed on clear plexi-glass with dry-rubs (an industrial grade adhesive that is especially good for intricate pieces).
Each screen shows a different level of fluid needed to fly “Cee Pod”, as well as showing some navigational information. A strong piece of world building that all of us creators were told, is that this universe evolved very rapidly. So much so, that even the creators of these space crafts were somewhat unsure how they worked. The read outs on these displays wouldn’t be precise at all, and perhaps wouldn’t even be helpful to a pilot. In the cold void of space, maybe a soft glow is helpful enough.
Jata Bhalu
Jata Bahlu is a species of three eyed, dreadlocked, sand bears. Jata Bahlu started out as one of the creatures that was going to be in the film, however ultimately got cut. They live on in spirit, in the back ground of the film in various places. Pink is a universal color of danger in the Prospect universe, thus Jata Bhalu was made pink.
These are some of the early versions.
Here’s Jata in the background.
Cee’s Watch
Cee’s watch shows how much time is left before the freighter returns to pick up anyone left on the Green Moon.
I helped create the decals on the watch face, as well as one of the other pieces. This watch is similar to the screens in Cee Pod, in that most of its functions aren’t actually all that helpful.
Here is the rendered version of the watch.
Merc Playing Cards
I worked alongside an illustrator to create these cards. The merc playing cards are a set of cards with their own unique rules that work and function like a real card game. I took sketches from an illustrator, vectorized them, colored the cards, and put them all together.
Only the shadiest of characters play with these cards. Friendships are more often ended than gained when playing this game. You can see where a game was left off on the floor of this abandoned tent.
