The Color Purple

We were absolutely blown away by The Color Purple. After our first viewing of the film, we sat, tears streaming down our faces, and realized that rather than creating a showy, “extroverted” sequence, the audience would need a moment of quiet reflection after the final emotional scene. We noticed that quilts were prominently displayed in the production design throughout the film and thought this would be the best brush with which to paint our graphic vignettes that would make up the title sequence.

We became inspired by both modern and turn of the century quilting techniques ranging from Bisa Butler to the quilters of Gee’s Bend. We pitched the quilts concept you see here to Director, Blitz Bazawule and Film Editor, Jon Poll who both loved our concept and execution.

Illustrators Ross MacDonald, and Andrew Covell, alongside Associate Creative Director Nolan Borkenhagen drew the scenes as simple pencil sketches. These outlines were then brought into photoshop where fabric textures, patterns and colors were applied. The photoshop images were then brought into our 3d sculpting program where they were sculpted into virtual 3-dimensional objects complete with textile textures and virtual stitching. Finally, our virtual camera was gracefully animated into a single, unbroken shot by animator Robin Roepstorff.

You can see more of Ross’s work here:
https://www.ross-macdonald.com/illustration