Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1058642
14 cgw | e d i t i o n 4 , 2 0 1 8 brighter, and louder celebration this year, well, he reaches his breaking point and hatches a plan to steal Christmas. Of course, an expanded story means more characters and environments that are new to the tale while seamlessly fitting within the original world. "We set out to create the most spectacular sort of Seuss-like world," says Mosier. We visit inside Grinch's expansive cave, complete with its Seussian-like inventions. We are introduced to Bricklebaum (Kenan Thompson), Grinch's perpetually cheery neighbor who resides at the bottom of the mountain, and Fred, a portly, lackadaisi- cal reindeer that Grinch needs to pull his getaway sleigh. Meanwhile, the tiny hamlet of Whoville has been turned into a bustling city filled with shops and restaurants, a town square, and so forth – a place view- ers would want to visit, Mosier adds. And, we learn more about the Whos – inhabitants with real-life struggles. Take Cindy-Lou (Cameron Seely), whose role has been extended far beyond her previous few minutes on Christmas Eve. In this version, she is still a child, but now older than a toddler "not more than two." She and her friends plan to corner Santa as he makes his rounds and ask him not for more toys, but to help her overworked, single mother, Donna. "It was time to bring this story back for a new generation and for people who have loved it for years and years," Mosier says. "I was excited and terrified all at the same time, though. This is the kind of thing you cannot screw up." In a nutshell, they had to keep the tale relevant for a new, modern audience, while maintaining the essence of what made it a beloved classic. That involved translat- ing the visual style of the book's drawings using cutting-edge computer graphics – no simple task. However, Illumination em- braced the challenge, immersing viewers in this unique world while giving it an Illumi- nationesque-Seussian aesthetic. "Stylistically, we tried to honor the source material and take all of that won- derful stylization and apply it to a three- dimensional world where you really feel immersed," says Cheney. "We wanted you to almost feel the snow crunch under your feet and smell the waffles at the waffle stand. We wanted to evoke all the good things about the holidays that we can all relate to." Characters Big and Small The artists used a combination of commercial and proprietary software to create the film's CG characters, including Autodesk's Maya along with Pixologic's ZBrush for modeling, Maya for animation, in-house software for rendering and light- ing, and Foundry's Nuke for compositing. When designing the unique characters, the artists avoided using straight lines, according to Meledandri. "Everywhere we could replace a straight line with a curve, we did, because these were motifs from [Dr. Seuss'] work," he adds. Illumination's films are stylized but ground- ed in reality, enabling a full range of emotion for the characters. "Our goal isn't to simulate real life; it is to make things feel real while also supporting the stylization and performance aspects in the scenes," explains Cheney. "We try to capture emotion and subtlety when the scene calls for it, but we don't hold back when there is opportunity for fun and humor. When the Grinch tries to steal Christmas, the team went more broad, a bit more cartoony with his motions and physics." Then he slid down the chimney. A rather tight pinch. But, if Santa could do it, then so could the Grinch. The characters have rather basic shapes, but their rigs are more complex in order to achieve a wide range of emotion through an entire physical performance, not just with facial expressions. According to Bruno Chauffard, CG supervisor, the animators started with a generic rig that is already fairly extensive, then pushed it rather strongly in terms of elasticity to meet the animation director's requests. CINDY-LOU WHO AND HER FRIENDS PLAN TO TRAP SANTA, BUT HAVE GOOD INTENTIONS.