Fifty Shades of Violet

"I want you to roll Ms Beauregarde to the Juicing Room at once!"

"The Juicing Room? What are they going to do to her there?"


Well, somehow doing stuff in AfterEffects over the weekend, helped me kind of get 'my groove' back. Though as it stands now, the stuff I've done on After Effects is still highly classified, but it did lead my brain to start doing some other thinking.

This afternoon, seeing some giant steel vats in a large-scale brewery when looking through Google, I suddenly switched my mind to another concept: the idea of what a Juicing Room from the 2005 "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" could look like.

The concept sprang from thinking of the steel parts and metal of The Inventing Room, and keeping the industrialized design in this often-thought-of-yet-never-seen room.

The floor is a little more like a 'clincal steel tone,' almost like a steel table in an operating room...as well, the inclusion of a steel grate going down the center, added an additional touch of ominousness. The grate was one nut that I was determined to crack, and finally did so an hour ago, using stroke, light, and shadow in Photoshop.

The addition of the Oompa Loompas was a touch I wanted, to give the room more life. In a way, they almost make the piece look like a lost bit of actual concept art from the film, something that definitely makes me happy! The one walking towards Violet's body on the left, just helps add a little extra life to the piece.

Violet is the result of an experiment that I did on Sunday, finding a spherical-mapping tool in AfterEffects (and what led to my unseen-by-the-public video compositions). However, the results of what I've done using Photoshop and AE, are definitely on display. AE also has an incredible lighting tool that follows the rounded contours, helping give Violet's body a great spherical look.

This is one of the few composites and digital mixed media pieces I've done, that I've incredibly happy with. Once I got going, I just couldn't stop! I loaded it with all sorts of little details, such as the colored reflection of Violet's body in the tanks, as well as some rather dark overhead pipes, that are tinted purple (most likely, fluids being sent here and there amid a complex array of unseen pipes off-camera).

Btw, I know many are making assumptions on the shadowy figure to the left, and it's not who you think it is (and I know what some of you are thinking!). I left the figure ambiguous, for you to use your own imagination (heck, it could very well, be you!).

I did toy with animating this in After Effects. You can't see it because of Violet's body, but there's a super-long corridor with one of those giant round doors at the end, along with a couple overhead lights illuminating the floor and grate work. I considered animating Violet being rolled towards the camera, her body catching the light a few times, before resting in the central spotlight.

On a final note, I have not read or seen "Fifty Shades of Grey," but given the content and the colors of the piece, it seemed a rather catchy title to use. Once again...use your imagination.


*This also marks my 150th DA image, so it makes sense that I'd post something really amazing for such a milestone. And as I often think, who knows? If things keep going in my brain, maybe some more cool stuff may make it on here*