Amina Muench

Pre-Production

Digital Matte Painting - I painted concept backgrounds that were later composited into live-action footage replacing green screens. This set the characters in an environment and provided painting reference for the animators. For each digital matte painting, the directors provided me with extensive research, photo reference and Van Gogh’s paintings of each specific location. This heavily informed the way I imagined the design for each set and allowed me to create a more authentic representation of the original environments Vincent inhabited.

Shot Preparation - This was a crucial part of the production pipeline to prepare shots for oil-painted animation that were originally filmed in live-action. I isolated the characters and replaced green screen with a backdrop I digitally painted or was provided with. Subsequently, I added filters to the footage that helped create contrast in the image and emphasize the outline of the characters. This vital step allowed oil-painters to concentrate on the key details while reinterpreting the shot in Vincent van Gogh’s style.

Post-Production

Digital Clean-Up - Each of Loving Vincent’s shots was painted on its own canvas. Once the animator completed the initial key frame they took a high-resolution photo. To produce the next frame the artist projected the reference footage onto the canvas, scraped away and painted over any strokes related to moving elements in the scene. The painter repeated this process twelve times for each second of film, taking photographs after every frame. However, the difficulty of covering dark paint with a lighter colour, often resulted in a ‘ghost effect’ since the characters left a trace behind them.

When the director decided the effect was too distracting, I corrected this in post. I rotoscoped characters out in After Effects and edited backgrounds in Photoshop by repurposing the best of the painters work from earlier frames. This helped maintain the look of the original canvas.

I also did digital clean-up to correct several continuity errors in the film. For example, in the scene where the postman walks under Railroad Bridge the original script called for rain. However, after later rewrites the rain no longer made sense so I was asked to paint it out frame by frame.

Compositing - Sometimes the director decided to alter a shot that had already been painted, requiring artists to make adjustments on another canvas. For example, in the scene where Armand crosses Boulevard de Clichy, the artist had originally forgotten to animate the horse and carriage. Therefore they painted it separately. I then rotoscoped all the moving elements and composited the two images in After Effects.

In the shot where Armand leaves the train compartment, due to time constraints, different parts of the sequence were assigned to multiple artists. This resulted in slight variations in style and hue that were noticeable as the character moves across the upholstered bench. Therefore, I rotoscoped Armand out, edited the backgrounds and made colour corrections, with the help of my supervisor. These small adjustments delivered a cohesive shot while maintaining the animators’ work.