September 26th, 2008
The client's initial idea for the picture was to use an old oil painting of David and Goliath as a basis for the picture. Hours of intensive Googling and a tour of image agencies later it turned out that no suitable painting was available. We had to start painting from scratch. After an evening of whining in messenger we started to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe it was the project nickname "Dave and Gole" that helped to cheer up the mood.
Tuomas and Mikko collected a bunch of reference images of paintings that had the right biblical mood to them. Mikko, who's a seasonded character animator, started doing pose studies of the main characters. "First I tried to include more football into the poses, but Art Director Mikko Torvinen wisely shot them down.", says Mikko Vormala. "The painting needed more drama to it, like the guys themselves knew they were making history." At the same time the painting couldn't be too bloody and threatening - the idea is that both sides have a change even though one is a huge favorite.
While Mikko was busy with the poses, Tuomas spent a couple of days preparing the overall mood, colours and background. He studied paintings by the like of Michelangelo to see how anatomy should be painted. "The whole painting was to be made from scratch, there were no photographs of the characters to use as a basis.", says Tuomas. It took him about five days to paint the picture while at the same time studying classical paintings. "At the end it went very smoothly. The colour sketches and character studies acted as guidelines and we didn't have to make big changes once the actual painting was in progress."
While Tuomas was painting the final picture, Jani Karvonen too studied old oil paintings from a different perspective. To get an authentic feel of an old painting we needed to add proper paint texture on the surface. "First I tried photographing some old chipping paint on wood surfaces, but it wasn't doing the job.", says Jani. " So I ended up hand painting a texture of aged oil on canvas on the basis of Mona Lisa" Rami Riihijärvi then built a 3D scene with suitable lighting to render the final textured painting.
Credits
Client: VeikkausAgency: TBWA/PHS
Creatives: Mikko Torvinen, Erkko Mannila, Tommy Mäkinen
Art Buyer/Producer: Kirsi Pärni
Account Director: Teppo Juuvinmaa
Account Manager: Maija Nikkonen-Hilli