The BFG: Exile Island
Concept for a digital set extension at the end of The BFG, where the giants are banished to Exile Island.
Sculpted the island’s primary form in ZBrush from real-world reference, developing coastal detail, scale, and silhouette through kitbashed cliff and rock assets, helping define the overall layout. Character placement and lighting/atmosphere passes for paintover.
Rough comp of the passes in Photoshop, before being passed to the Art Department for final concept paintover.
Various lighting and utility passes rendered out.
Set extension kit-bashed, using rock and cliff library assets from the Models Department.
Base model after sculpting in ZBrush, roughly matching the perimeter & topography of Eilean Mhuire island.
I used photo ref from various angles to sculpt the topography. Later in the pipeline the island would be LiDAR scanned, but sculpting from ref was good enough at the concept stage.
Island perimeter converted to a vector and extruded to form a base mesh.
Satellite view of the island.
Director's sketch, describing the brief for the set extension concept.
Director's sketch showing the existing island - Eilean Mhuire, Shiant Islands, Scotland.