Looking for María (The Phantom Finders) — Key Art (VisDev | Digital 2D | 2025)

Process board with references, palette swatches and notes on crowd density and glass glare.

Final key art with hard daylight; characters search the crowd as a warm poster glow anchors the right side

Overcast test: flatter diffuse light to study mood and value grouping.

Night test: dramatic warm spotlight cutting through cool ambient dusk.

B/W lighting thumbnails exploring composition, value structure and focal hierarchy.

Narrative key art for The Phantom Finders set in urban Valencia, exploring a missing-person plot through lighting, crowd density and character focus.

Pipeline
• Sketch & rough lighting keys: Photoshop
• Color & paintover: Photoshop
• Narrative composition: hand-painted 2D workflow

Design context
• Comparative lighting: hard daylight vs. overcast vs. night for mood and readability.
• Real Valencia cues (road signage, AC units, street façades) to ground the scene.
• Controlled palette to balance urgency (warm spotlight) vs. cooler city hues.
• Motion smear and crowd massing to amplify tension and scale.