ANIMATION
TOP TO BOTTOM: The debut animated feature for Animal Logic was their collaboration with filmmaker George Miller on Happy Feet. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros.) Sony Pictures Imageworks breaks out into song with Lin-Manuel Miranda in Vivo. (Image courtesy of Sony Pictures) Cinesite’s VFX work on the Kikimora spider for The Witcher. (Image courtesy of Cinesite and Netflix)
Emerging from the shadows with the release of Ron’s Gone Wrong is DNEG Animation, which was established in 2014. “The first two years was entirely spent on prep,” states Tom Jacomb, President at DNEG Animation. “It was looking at what the visual effects studio had, and seeing where the differences were and where we were going to be lacking for a feature animation pipeline and talent. We were trying to build a strong artistic team to be able to do that. That takes time. You can’t just take it on and start on day one.” DNEG having the ability to push through a vast number of renders and shots at scale for shows like Fast & Furious meant that their animation studio did not have to begin from scratch. “There are huge benefits in the way that we work and do things in animation,” adds Jacomb. “It’s methodical and planned. You’re able to look at a schedule two and a half years down the line and say, ‘This is what I’m doing at this stage.’ That is something visual effects doesn’t often have the opportunity to do.” DNEG Animation is a separate studio within the visual effects company. “You may be able to leverage 80% of a talent set from a certain department or pipeline, but the 20% that is different, you have to make sure is taken care of,” notes David Prescott, Senior Vice President of Creative Production at DNEG Animation. “Previs in animation is a lot of the same toolset used for live-action, but a lot of the time what the directors are trying to get out of the process is something different. I know that a lot of people see visual effects and animation colliding closely together. There are live-action directors and producers who have cool properties that they haven’t figured out how to do because coming to the market with high-end animated projects wasn’t a thing even five years ago. DNEG Animation allows them to bring those projects to the table. Within that realm, there are a lot of properties out there that have a different storytelling method animation is used to, like more long series story arcs. The properties that we have right now from Ron’s Gone Wrong to the short film, Mr. Spam Gets A New Hat, to the other projects coming out after that are all different filmmakers and styles of storytelling.” Despite Weta Animated being a new venture, Weta Digital had previously combined motion capture and animation for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and has become renowned for crafting CG characters, like Gollum, Caesar, Thanos and Alita. “Creating our own animated content has long been a dream for our founders, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, as well as many of us across the business,” states Prem Akkaraju, CEO at Weta Digital. “It’s a natural extension of the creative energy and work at Weta Digital. We consider our visual effects background a strength as the scope of visual effects work has moved well beyond photorealism, so the style of our work is driven more by the director’s vision and creativity than reality or the laws of physics. This lends itself well to animation where there is even more freedom to let your imagination guide the worlds and stories you create.” Weta Digital’s new cloud-based software service will be a key component in creating next-generation animation pipelines that enable collaborations with artists from around the world. “Ultimately,” states Akkaraju, “our goal is to pursue excellence in storytelling and creativity, unlock the imaginations of some of our generation’s greatest storytellers and make thoroughly entertaining animations.”
96 • VFXVOICE.COM WINTER 2022
PG 92-96 ANIMATION.indd 96
12/5/21 4:40 PM
