Firstly, we worked with a realistic lookdev approach: Chloé and Elliot spent some time painting graphic textures in Photoshop and substance painter for the diffuse and roughness maps of each asset. Then for the stylized environment, Marc’s matte paintings were used to create a base and the environment artist built 3d models on top of that, while keeping the painting as a texture projection. That way we had a 3-dimensional city while having a hand painted look.
"For every aspect and shot, we would ask that question of how we would blend the two approaches to achieve something we liked. In all honesty, we experimented and saw if it worked while doing it. We didn't have any clear guide, so we experimented until the result was pleasant to us. Sometimes the solutions lied in 2D, sometimes in 3D, sometimes both.