DC comics, Milestone, & Ally Bank

Ally bank was interested in highlighting and elevating Black American artists and creators. When DC agreed to work with us our studio was elated. They suggested Milestone comics, and as a comic book reader and fan I was thrilled. It was an honor to be able to work with Denys Cowan, one of the founders and creators of Milestone Comics.

DC is an enormous organization that is responsible for protecting a large body of art. Advertisers working with them are given strict guidelines and limitations concerning how to use their IP. To avoid continuity issues with their characters, we were limited to using art that DC had already published; Meaning we had to coherently tell a story using assets that weren’t made with our project in mind. The boarding process was essential to ensure that we understood what DC expected of us.

The plan was to have Denys tell his story. Instead of animating the characters directly, we decided to add context by bringing the Milestone universe to life. After DC and Ally approved the boards we went into production. Tragedy struck as Denys tested positive for COVID days before the shoot. The actor who we hired to play the “next generation of artist” agreed to fill in. With slight tweaking to the direction, we moved forward with the shoot. My next step was to clean the plates and prep them for an outside studio. This mostly involved removing light sources and wires. However, production doesn’t always go according to plan.

There was no VFX supervisor on set due to COVID restrictions, so some things fell through the cracks. Our Director didn’t notice the spot light behind the curtain until we were in post. We attempted to hire outside help but they responded with, “No amount of time or money could make this possible.”

Director came back to me with the ask and I was able to find a solution that fit within out timeline. I uploaded before and after shots below:

The rest of the project was fairly standard. The plates had to be prepared for the studio we hired to add the animated special effects (lightening, fire, sparks, etc.)

On this project, I was mainly responsible for storyboarding, but I also worked on scripting, creating a shot list, helping plan SFX, preparing plates by removing objects from scenes, and other standard VFX asks.