PROJECT: KLAUS
Netflix
THE SPA STUDIOS
Directed by: Sergio Pablos
Art Direction by: The incredible duo Szymon Biernacki and Marcin Jakubowski, aka PapaSzymon and DaddyJakubowski. 

For my role in it:
I started in Visual Development in February 2017. After pre-production ended I was allowed to move into the Layout & Backgrounds department for the last year and a half of production. Given the lack of dedicated 2D-Layout artists available, the studio opted to train the Background team to be able to fill that role. This allowed for a scenario in which each of us were able to take our assigned shots all the way from rough layout through to the final, on-screen backgrounds. For the most part, at least.

I'm happy to be able to share a selection of my Layout & Background work from the movie, hope you enjoy. 

This shot did not make the final cut of the movie, but was intended as the reverse angle to the one at the top. 

This opportunity was fascilitated right here on Behance, actually. One day I messaged Szymon (on February 25th, 2016, to be exact) to tell him how much I appreciated his work, mentioning, among other things, how excited I was about the Klaus teaser specifically. A very surprising and pleasant conversation ensued, and one year later I began working as part the Visual Development team on Klaus. Surreal.  

A special thanks to the Color-script/Color-Key team for the incredible pallettes and moods they developed for this film. I learned so much from attempting (paintstakingly) to emulate their sensibilities.

- Alexis Liddell
- Samuel Smith

- Daniel Merchan Ruiz
- Gabriel Soarez

I look forward to sharing more backgrounds and concept-work from the movie in the following weeks.