ALIEN: COVENANT, Ridley Scott, 2017.

I worked as Concept Artist for the David flashback scene, conceiving and designing it as well as concept artist, art director and supervisor during the production of the scenes in MPC.

Very first concept (for sale on SuperRare:

superrare.com/artwork-v2/alien:-covenant---the-very-first-concept-art-27457)

Here a frame where I designed how the bombs falling over the engineers, inspired by Busby Berkeley choreography.

De la película "42nd Street" (1933) Warner Bross Tema: "Soy joven y saludable también". Película musical dirigida por Lloyd Bacon con coreografía de Busby Berkeley. Las canciones fueron escritas por Harry Warren (música) y Al Dubin (letra). Extraído de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvQtAnh_CI

Busby Berkeley choreography example.

To design the way the bombs fell, also in this case inspired by Busby Berkeley choreography, blending it with a dna helix shape.

As far as the explosion was concerned, I resumed the concept of atomic bomb, which did not explode on the ground, but at 600 meters above it. Regarding the shape of the explosion, I was inspired by an 18th century illustration of the artist and biologist Ernst Haekel.

Scientific Illustration by Ernst Haekel.

The kaleidoscopic shape of falling bombs, is inspired by the phenomenon of Chladni plate.

To design the black goo sloping down, I was inspired by the ink's behavior in water. Evolutions and movements had to look like under the influence of various magnetic fields, as iron dust under the influence of powerful magnetic fields that create shapes as in the picture below. When I showed this concept to Ridley Scott, he called it dearly and rightly, a tree of death in the atmosphere of a Victorian painting.

Iron dust under the influence of powerful magnetic fields.

At some point, during our conversation, Sir Ridley Scott tells me: "Alessandro, I do not want Metachaos, but I want it to be inspired by Metachaos."

Alessandro Bavari: Camera Tremula 1, Noise Melange, XYZ Ocula Depth Fulvio Sturniolo: Camera Tremula 2 Jeff Ensign aka Evolution Noise Slave: Sonic Harmonium Format: Pal Widescreen 1050x576 Duration: 8:27 mins --------------------------------------------------------------- Prizes - Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica 2011. - Special Award IED at Skepto International Film Festival. - Best Experimental Film at the 2nd Stortford Film Festival. - Best Direction Prize at the Cinemavvenire Video Festival. - 1° Prize Art Lab at the Festival Internazionale del Cinema d'Arte. - 1° Prize ex aequo at the Corto Dorico Short Film Festival + a Special Mention Prize. - Best Design Prize at the 13th Animation Film Festival Animated Dreams. - Finalist as Best Direction at the Animago Award. - Finalist at the Bolzano Short Film Festival. http://www.alessandrobavari.com/ info@alessandrobavari.com --------------------------------------------------------------- SINOPSYS Metachaos, from Greek Meta (beyond) and Chaos (the abyss where the eternally-formless state of the universe hides), indicates a primordial shape of ameba, which lacks in precise morphology, and it is characterized by mutation and mitosis. In fact the bodies represented in METACHAOS, even though they are characterized by an apparently anthropomorphous appearance, in reality they are without identity and conscience. They exist confined in a spaceless and timeless state, an hostile and decadent hyperuranium where a fortress, in perpetual movement, dominates the landscape in defense of a supercelestial, harmonic but fragile parallel dimension. In its destructive instinct of violating the dimensional limbo, the mutant horde penetrates the intimacy of the fortress, laying siege like a virus. Similar to the balance of a philological continuum in human species, bringing the status of things back to the primordial broth. STATEMENT METACHAOS is a multidisciplinary audio-visual project, articulated in a short film, a set of photography (http://www.alessandrobavari.com/english/Metachaos-photographies/gallery_Metachaos-photographic_series.htm) and mix-technique paintings. The purpose of the project is to represent the most tragic aspects of the human nature and of its motion, such as war, madness, social change and hate. An accretion of feelings that are metaphorically represented by specific visual forms, which are abstract conceptually, but concrete and tangible formally. The application of acid and monochromatic tints, besides the strong contrasts, makes everything intentionally more oppressive and tragic. In order to obtain a more immersive and plausible version, the shot was taken adopting the camera live technique. The extreme and frenetic motion of the shoulder camera, similar to the subjective one, becomes a main constant, so that, along with the persisting cuts used to edit the video, create a bigger sense of instability and danger. In fact, thanks to the dissemination of Technology, it is possible to notice that the unconscious-esthetic potential of the shots available on Youtube, characterized by a pseudo-documentary and amateur approach, often offer an unexpected emotional involvement, which trigger an exhibitionistic-voyeuristic interchange between the author and the consumer. The irrational gesture and action of the bodies, as if a collective form of madness controlled them, are inspired by artists like Bosch and Bruegel who, between the ‘400 and ‘500, produced an iconography where irrational images show sickly madness and pain. The project has been realized using different techniques: live shots taken in discharged industrial sites, CGI animations, tracking and motion captures, besides various other analogical ones. American Jeff Ensign, aka Evolution Noise Slave composed the original sound track, which has been progressively updated during the video production. The musical score was inspired by 6 separate pieces Jeff had previously created that were then combined into a hybrid. The composition was also based in part from a sonic interpretation of the ideas presented in Antonin Artaud’s the Theater and Cruelty overlaid on Bavari’s images. JURY STATEMENT FROM PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA 2011. Alessandro Bavari’s “Metachaos” is an impressive display of the amazing graphics that can be produced with leading-edge hardware and software. The 8-minute clip begins with a sequence of clear, geometric forms that suggest a serene world. But it doesn’t take long until it’s apparent that this was just the calm before the storm. Shadowy creatures and shockingly grotesque figures intrude into this domain rendered in black & white and sepia tones and rip it to pieces. Using the interplay of light and shadow, intentionally shaky camera movements and quick cuts, Bavari takes us on a tour de force through an unsettling imaginary cosmos that grips viewers and doesn’t let them loose. In addition to its extraordinary visuals, “Metachaos” features an i

Metachaos, that inspired Ridley Scott for several film concepts.

As for the neomorph, I have dealt with his behavior, such as posture, the way he walks, the unpredictable and unstable character, etc.

In the Flashback sequence, MPC then had to destroy this environment and the Engineers congregated in the plaza with a huge release of "Black Goo" as first seen in Prometheus. The creation of this fluid, and the decay of the engineers affected by it was a great challenge for the MPC FX team.

This is the make-of by MPC (Moving Picture Company) of "Alien: Covenant" Flashback sequence.

MPC's VFX team lead by VFX Supervisor Ferran Domenech worked alongside Director Ridley Scott and Production VFX Supervisor Charley Henley to create more than 700 stunning shots for the Alien: Covenant. As lead studio, MPC's work included the creation of the movies terrifying creatures, alien environments, vehicles and complex FX simulation work.

Another MPC Alien Covenant VFX breakdown. There are also some scenes that I created as concept artist, from minute 01: 35 to 02: 45

From interview to Charlie Henley, production VFX supervisor.

"During the post an unconfirmed scene where David recalls the genocide of the engineers as a flashback was given the green light and MPC London put together a great team who I'd just worked with on THE JUNGLE BOOK, including DFX supervisor Audrey Ferrara, CG supervisor Ben Jones and Compositing supervisor David Griffiths. They took on the challenge and worked with concept artist and film maker Alessandro Bavari to create this standalone scene that involved many full CG shots including the Juggernaught, Mother Tug Ship, Engineers City, thousands of Engineers and a huge amount of FX simulations for the Pathogen and black goo FX that explodes out of the victims."

Full article here

From interview to Ferran Domenech, VFX supervisor MPC.

"The adult Neomorph was designed to be very flexible and double jointed so it could get into extremely contorted poses. Ridley Scott was inspired by the work of Alessandro Bavari’s ‘Metachaos’ film. He was invited to join the production where he created sketch poses for the Neo, very dramatic extreme profiles where the knees would raise higher than the head. This created a challenge where the hips and elbows would pinch and lose mass. To help with this, Asset Supervisor Dan Zelcs, introduced a set of very specific corrective blendshapes to help the problem areas."

Full article here