Ryan Irwin
Visual Development
Welcome to ENTO!
I am the Director of ENTO, a 2D/3D hybrid short film about a young creature born with an incredible ability. Ento uses this ability to save his mother and himself from a hungry predator. As you scroll, you will get to peek behind the curtains of our production that started in May of 2021.
This was an incredible and massive undertaking and I could not have done it without my team and SCAD. I will keep things related to my personal contributions here, however.
*** WARNING ***
If you unmute the videos with sound, they will play at max volume automatically
Please turn down your speakers to spare the eardrums:)
ENTO: Animated Short Film
Trailer for ENTO
Stills from the final film
Proof of Concept for ENTO
(animated, comped and colored by Ryan Irwin)
Animatic for ENTO
(boarded by Ryan Irwin and Alana Skinner)
Rough Animation
(See reel below for some of the shots Ryan Irwin personally did on ENTO)
Final Animation and Color
ENTO Animation Reel: Ryan Irwin
Music by Alex Haisting, Michael Pierluissi, and Philip Nauman
Promotional Art and Art Guides
Fall Poster
Character by Ryan Irwin
Background by HP Buck
Winter Poster
Characters by Ryan Irwin
Background by HP Buck, Meera McCarthy
Spring Poster
Characters by Ryan Irwin
Background by Leo Soulis, Ryan Irwin
Creating promotional art and especially the Style Guides, proved to be a massive undertaking, but one that is necessary in any production. Above, you will see some of what I posted on our films social medias as well as the guides I created to help my team stay on model and work though the pipeline if they felt unconfident with the software. This was not as far as my director role extended, however. I was also responsible for many other responsibilities, such as creating schedules, leading dailies and weeklies, doing draw-overs, and overseeing creative vision.
Visual Development
Seen above are preliminary designs along with their final turn arounds, plus one of the first environment sketches I did. It was quite the process to find our final look and colors for the Predator. Thankfully, Ento and his mother's design seemed to find a good foot hold early on.
Here we have my first conceptual idea of ENTO!
Research went into every aspect of Ento. I began by finding some animals on earth with unique abilities. The story was about a glowing beast that cannot camoflauge, so I researched creatures that can camouflage, then I knew I wanted these creatures to burrow which is where Ento's claws came into play. Eventually, I settled on a mix of an Giant Ant Eater, Jackson Chameleon, and the extinct Giant Ground Sloth.
The above images were made for my pitch, before any sort of production even started. Ento was an incredibly strenuous journey, but one that I reflect on and can only be thankful for how much it pushed me as a creative, as a leader, and as a person.
Thank you for taking the time to look at my film! Please do not hesitate reach out if you have any questions. I am always happy to talk about my film, process or other art works.