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www.postmagazine.com 36 POST MAR/APR 2019 CITY TO JUNGLE In addition to building the Medici Circus, MPC also created an Expressionistic version of 1930s Manhattan, as Dumbo flies over the Brooklyn Bridge near the end of the film. Here, it is a full-3D environment, which is seen in close- ups as well as in distant shots, and is highly stylized. Like with the circus sequence, the team also had to design a particular aesthetic for the sky, giving it a unique look and feel in terms of composi- tion and color. "Tim [Burton] was very particular about the sky composition and mood. His story was being told by the mood of the sky palettes. He wanted every frame to look like a storybook. So, for every shot, we literally had to design the sky, and it had to be completely artistically driven," says Patrick Ledda, MPC VFX supervisor. "That was almost a project in itself." The team started with extremely high-resolution photos they had added to a library of sky imagery, and then the artists adapted them for an ideal- ized, fantastical look, with beautiful fluffy clouds and specific colors — over the top and surreal to complement many of the elements and sets. Perhaps most complex of all the environments was the fully-CG jungle, Dumbo's home at the end of the film, with a plethora of waterfalls requir- ing water simulations, done in SideFX's Houdini. There are also trees and all manner of vegetation, as well as a herd of elephants, created using a com- bination of keyframe animation and MPC's proprietary crowd software. with the iris and muscle structure, before mov- ing on to the design realm to finish this part of Dumbo's anatomy. THE REST OF THE HERD The MPC artists used the skin simulation setup on the other elephants in the film, as well. "We did Dumbo first; the other elephants came later, and we used all the techniques we had learned earlier," says Ledda. The rest of the elephants more closely resemble real Asian elephants. However, they are an ideal- ized version of an actual elephant: healthy, visually attractive, with the perfect size head, the perfect trunk, the perfect legs. Like Dumbo, the others couldn't be dirty or hairy — or too wrinkly — per Burton's directive. And that includes Mrs. Jumbo, who at times is shown in extreme close-up. "It took us more than a year to develop Dumbo as a character, whereas the other elephants came along much quicker," says Ledda. In addition, MPC created a number of secondary CG characters, including a trio of white mice, an old, ornery Capuchin monkey named Barrymore, a python, bear, werewolf and crocodile, plus back- ground animals. Mostly these animals are photo- real, although they are dressed in costumes in the film. For the fur, the team used the studio's Furtility, while the cloth team (which also does skin simulations) worked closely with the riggers to develop high-res skinning and wrinkle sims. For Dumbo and the other animals, the artists used a range of in-house and commercial soft- ware: Pixologic's ZBrush for sculpting, Autodesk's Maya for modeling, Foundry's Mari for texturing, and Foundry's Katana and Pixar's RenderMan for rendering. For animation, they used Maya, which is customized with proprietary tools. The artists also created digi-doubles of the Medici children, Joe and Milly, as well as the tra- peze artist Colette, for complex flying shots. UNDER THE BIG TOP Life under the big top can be exciting and unique; it can also be challenging. The same can be used to describe the work by the MPC artists, who had to bring this amazing world to life in a way that is very different from what we have seen before. Re-creating nearly lifelike versions of beloved animated characters for live-action remakes is no easy challenge, particularly when there is a fine line between realism and fantasy. But, it is one that Disney is committed to crossing with some of its most beloved properties. "You feel a big responsibility when you work on these iconic characters; it is a huge privilege," says Ledda, who worked on the CG characters in the 2015 live-action remake of Cinderella. "Many of us grew up watching these films, so when it's your chance to do work on them, obviously you want to make sure it looks fantastic. And, I think we've come up with something that is adorable here, which is ultimately the most important thing. In the end, it needs to con- nect with the audience, and I think this will." Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW, Post's sister publication. The stylized Brooklyn Bridge. Dumbo's jungle home is one of the most complex environments.