Whether it's from the office or the director's chair, Adrian Bobb's 15+ year career as a 3D artist for film, TV, and games has made him a jack of all trades. Although you'll find Bobb's credits on countless projects over the years, these days, you'll find the Toronto-based multi-hyphenate focusing his energy on writing and directing roles instead. His latest short, the independent sci-fi horror/thriller The Fore-men, is currently traveling the North American film festival circuit following its premiere earlier this summer at the Fantasia Film Festival.
What the short lacks in runtime, Bobb and his tight-knit VFX team more than make up for in clever environmental storytelling and character designs that elevate the familiar yet subtle horrors of The Fore-men. The film is so emblematic of Bobb's ethos that great VFX should improve a film's story or themes, not just look pretty. We recently caught up with Adrian Bobb to learn more about the world of The Fore-men, his hands-on approach to filmmaking, the instrumental role of Maya in his storytelling process, and so much more, only on AREA.
Adrian Bobb: Hi, my name is Adrian Bobb, and I'm a writer-director. I mostly create genre films – recently sci-fi, sci-fi horror. Those are the kind of projects I love to do now. I used to work in the VFX, animation, and video game industries for over 15 years. I do a lot of consulting and contract work for various film VFX studios, but in the last three or four years, I've shifted more into writing and directing.
I started in this industry in a strange place. I began in concept art, and from there, I was asked to do more 3D work, primarily because I have a background in sculpture, and sculpting was a big thing. So ZBrush brought me into it, and then eventually, I came into Maya from ZBrush. Maya was one of those great things that benefited me, especially on hard surfaces. My last short EXT involved a lot of robot characters, so Maya was instrumental then for all those hard surfaces. I use Autodesk [tools] for almost everything within the pipeline. So I might sculpt and design a lot of the detail in ZBrush and then come back to Maya, and then from that point, it's a matter of rigging, texturing, and, eventually, animation with Autodesk.
I went to school in the fine arts and visual arts. So I started off with traditional illustration, taught myself Photoshop, and then slowly worked my way into the 3D development pipeline. When I did that, Maya was just the program everyone was using, and while I didn't know much about how to use it, what was helpful was using it for hard surfaces. I used ZBrush for everything organic, but for everything else, I used Maya. It just was very cohesive. I understood precisely how to build everything and where everything was, which was helpful, mainly because everyone else was using it in the same pipeline. So it was a pipeline tool.
And that was the thing that I liked the most about it. It worked with every other program too, so it was easy to export and import, but also, you model, UV, texture, rig, and animate and render now. So we also rendered using Arnold in Maya. So as much as there are other programs, this one is the most useful for the entire pipeline, and to me, it's easier for everybody if we can all work with one thing. We understand the layout and what we need within that program for each other's needs. It makes it easy to send and work on the same files without having to change anything or worry about incompatibility. It's all in one place. So that's always kept me with Maya.
Was most of this production done remotely?
Bobb: Yes, it was all done remotely. And that's something we did even before COVID. For the other projects I did before, we did it that way anyways. Within the VFX animation industry, we jump from job to job quite often, so we're usually in different places. But we make friends in the studio, and after a project's done, we disperse, but we keep in touch, and that's really how it works. It was just easier. It wasn't even a choice to find a studio or physical space; it's just not feasible for projects like this.
It was much easier to get on a call, talk about it, show what we're working on, put it into a Google Drive, and share those files through a basic non-corporate style of working. This way, we could all be in a different city. Most of the time, it was people traveling or working in the US and then back to another country. So we were always in motion but somehow in the same space, making it feel like a crew. That's how I approach VFX, thinking about it less as a corporation and more as a group.
How did you approach designing the "creatures" in your new film? Are they the titular "Fore-men" or does the title refer to the surviving heroes?
Bobb: I'm actually quite glad that they have an ambiguous intent. I would definitely call it a creature design. So [the creatures] are the Fore-men. They always exist in the film's background, even if they're not on screen at the moment. In the film's story, an event collapses all of the earth's past and future into the present. Now the only "real" things we start seeing from the future are the Fore-men. They're essentially what we would evolve into millions and millions and millions of years in the future. So they technically are humans. There's an element there that's not just purely alien; there's something very connective between them and us. They're a mishmash of organic and tech but in an indecipherable way. That was [important] for me.
I went through a few iterations before settling on the final design in the film. I wanted it to be mysterious and scary but still identifiable as a human. They have five fingers and toes and are a little lankier and taller than we are, but they still have our anatomy. It's just slightly stretched in some areas, more so than others. It's a relatable figure but also unfamiliar enough to feel obscure and terrifying. It was about trying to find a line between understandable and foreign; a big part of that was the eyes. They don't have any, and because of the tech hooked up to them, you can't really tell how they see you. You know they [perceive] you, but you don't know how.
The Fore-men have many biotech elements, and some of that biotech breaks into the real world. What role do these objects have in the film, and what are you trying to do with environmental storytelling?
Bobb: Sure. One thing about this film that I wanted to do was making it feel as grounded as possible. If this event were to take place, it would be messy and unclean, like a bomb went off, and there are consequences everywhere. Everything organic that's [monstrous] now is something that existed already on the earth. I did a lot of research into all the different animals that have existed in different periods, primarily pre-dinosaur leading up to the Mesozoic [period], and really took from that. So everything else wasn't really designed. It's all real things that have existed in the past. I'd think "What's a new take on this animal?" and how can I integrate it into the scene?
As far as biotech goes, I wanted to think about it in an almost anthropological sense. We view tech, at least in the West, as disconnected from culture and humanity in some objective way, which is not true. Technology is very much a cultural thing and always has been. So with the Fore-men's [design], I wanted to make that very indecipherable too. You're not sure what's technological or organic, but to the creatures, it's clear that they're the same. Whatever their organic structure is, they're in control of it and can mold and manipulate it the same way we do with tech. So with their design, you're never sure if their clothing is skin, or some kind of leather or plastic. Some of their metal might just be calcified bone. I intentionally tried to make it very indecipherable, and the line is no longer there.
When is the official release of The Fore-men?
Bobb: In July, we had our world premiere at Fantasia. Such a fantastic festival with amazing people that run it. We opened there and then had our US premiere at HollyShorts in mid-August. It premiered at the TCL Chinese Theaters on Hollywood Boulevard, which was an amazing theater to show in, and then we'll be in SITGES next month. We have yet to set the screening date, but that's near Barcelona, so I'm also looking forward to that.
Did you enjoy a more intimate understanding of the VFX supervision role as a writer-director with a 3D background?
Bobb: Yeah. One of the things I learned the most in my 15 years of working in VFX and animation is that VFX these days is often used as a creative get-out-of-jail card. Many directors spend less time thinking about what things will look like or what kind of effects they want because it's usually seen as something that solves itself if you throw enough money at it. You'll have the teams involved come up with something cool to fill that space, but it can feel a little disconnected from the story being told.
The difference between the great projects I've worked on and the not-so-great ones has been the director's involvement and how designs work on thematic and visual levels. That comes from the script, too, where there's a very clearly planned idea and theme for the end result. I took a lot of these lessons to heart so when I'm writing, I'm also drawing, I'm also designing. I'm doing it all at once because the story is as important as your cinematography and how you plan your shots. If you know early on what you want to do, I think you end up with better projects and something that people appreciate more.
As VFX supervisor, how do you pass on that same ethos to your team?
Bobb: Working on this film, I knew my team clearly understood that I knew what I wanted and what I was looking for, but that didn't mean I didn't need to hear their advice or their experience because that's why I have them on board. So for me, modeling and sculpting have been my focus of expertise. But rigging, texturing, rigging, UV-ing, that stuff, I always need help with. I have a pretty good understanding of it, but there's people on my team that have a better understanding of it, and that's always the point. It's the same with your crew on a film set. You rely on their expertise to fill up for your misgivings or your blind spots, and that's what I love about the team I work with. I've worked with them on older projects, and I will continue to work with them because they're the people I've learned I can trust. They know what my strengths are, and I know what their strengths are.
Bobb: I had the seed of the idea in 2020, and then I started writing in 2021, and in that time, it was also a matter of planning when we can shoot, where we could shoot. This was also during the height of COVID, so we had to take a lot of things into consideration in terms of precautions. But I think it's always helpful to write to limitations. It just keeps you more creative. We started filming last year in May, which was just a weekend shoot, mainly inside the cabin with the two actors. After that, I knew that it would just be a lot of me doing the VFX.
I had already started with all the models that needed to be made. I made all of those before we even shot, which was helpful because I was able to show the actors what they were going to be looking at and dealing with. From there, it was pretty much just my team and me up until we finished technically at the end of May this year. So it took about a year. I think it was a great amount of time for that project, especially considering the number of effects in it and essentially just a handful of people working on it.
Awesome. And my last question for you: do you have any advice for other artists who want to create films on a similar scale? Someone might have these individual skills but doesn't know how to put them together for their own project. Where would you recommend they start?
Bobb: Sure. I mean, it starts with the team. It really does. Obviously, there's some superheroes out there that can do it all. However, even for those people, I think it's still beneficial to keep in touch with your colleagues, your friends, and the people you're working with. If you have that bug where you want to work on something, and you want to make something yourself – and not everyone has that mindset – look out for other people who do. It doesn't have to be in a studio; If you're on forums, it can just be people you know who are interested in the same projects. Build up that team. My team probably took around five to six years to build; even then, it's a friendship. It's something that we know we love working together on and it doesn't feel like a job. It feels like a passion project, which it is.
Not everyone has the budget for a team, but always respect your team and help your people when they need help. That's something I always try to do. People ask me: "Hey, can you do this thing for me? Can you model this for me, and I can do some animation for you in exchange?" I do that all the time. It's cool to think about it like a small community of filmmakers, each of you with different teams and skill sets to play to. If you are a modeler, a designer, or something like that, think about how your stories could incorporate that. Play to those strengths because you'll be able to do stuff that no one else can. Showcase your skills and what you can do.
There's a misconception that to direct, you have to come from the traditional film side or film world of things, but I don't think that's true. In older days, filmmakers were effects artists. Even if you want to go back to Georges Méliès, he was making effects and making films. James Cameron and Ridley Scott started from arts backgrounds as well. So play to those strengths because those are things that no one else can do. It will help showcase your vision and what you can bring to the table that no one can replicate. The more you do that, the more you're going to find that voice and really stand out from the crowd.
Especially these days when I think the VFX industry is in such a shaky place because there are so many projects, and the industry itself is overtaxed in many ways. It's left room for VFX artists to pursue more intimate and more individual projects that utilize those talents but in a much more storytelling-centric way. I think Everything Everywhere All at Once is a perfect example of that. Their VFX team was very small but you saw something unique and very different from all the big blockbuster films. They still used the same programs as all the big studios, but in a team-based project instead of a corporate-sized one. I love that film, and I love their work. It's a good example of where things can go and are going. It's leading to better projects because it's forcing creativity. I think that's exactly the kind of frame of mind that we need to be as VFX artists and creators.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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