Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1485933
F E AT U R E His team was adapting that Puss design while "trying to find a new visual treatment for the fur—a treatment that would change the way the fur's volume would look in the end—so we had to be conscious about both aspects," he says. "The delicate part was to know how to change the skin—shaved cat—to affect the fur that is attached to it without losing the design now that we introduced a third variable through the way we rendered that fur. A lot of back and forth and teamwork had to happen to find the right balance." At the end of this process, hand-sketched lines were digitally added to enhance the look and the motion, "things like impacts or sword hits," Bouancheau says. "They were painted by animation either on an animation movie or early lighting movie, then taken over by our 2D compositing department for the final compositing over the final image." Bouancheau explains that the addition of the hand-sketched lines first came up as part of the step animation process used in some of the scenes because those lines would help complete the style when a scene shifted into step animation, "but we ended up expanding the use of those lines to many more moments in the movie. [We] even added brushstrokes over motion blur to enhance the look of some quick frames." The Fast and the Furryous Meanwhile, Heidi Jo Gilbert, Head of Story, had to find ways to convey Puss's complex personal journey through storyboards. "We really wanted the audience to feel the stakes and the weight and the emotion that Puss was feeling." In describing one scene, she says: "You want to draw him small so he feels small on the screen. There's storytelling through the composition that makes the audience feel a certain way." Gilbert notes that each scene required its own unique solutions because so many different tones were covered throughout the movie. Those tones weren't just driven by Puss and his moods. The Last Wish has a significant cast of side characters, all with their own story arcs. Kitty Softpaws returns in an amped-up role, and she has her own personal demons, beginning with trust issues when it comes to Puss. Then there's the endearing Perrito, a scraggly mutt who is optimism incarnate. His dream is to be a therapy dog one day. Along with these two sidekicks, the villains build on classic fairy tale characters. "But they're definitely reinterpreted for Puss in Boots," says Bouancheau. The Goldilocks and The Three Bears crime family are scene stealers with their Cockney accents and rough ways, and mob boss Big Jack Horner is a sociopathic baby man using his plum pie business as a cover for his illegal dealings. Most notable, though, is The Wolf. "[Because] Puss's fear is the engine that drives the whole [story]," says Gilbert, the film needed a character as spine-chilling as The Wolf to drive that fear. Puss is in pursuit of the magical Wishing Star so that he can wish for his lost lives back. The problem is, most everyone else wants that star too because they have their own wishes to make. This storyline, while entertaining, required a certain mindfulness according to Gilbert. "We have to make sure we focus on Puss and we're telling his story and not getting sidetracked by all these other fun characters," she says. Pitch Purrfect As much as the filmmakers wanted to play with a traditional fairy tale aesthetic, they didn't want a movie that looked aged or vintage. "Our approach was, let's elevate the design and the world into this more contemporary illustrated space," says Wragg. "What's great about this is, it's given it a little bit more of an artistic sensibility and flair across the whole scope of the film." this page: In The Last Wish, Puss evolves not only emotionally, but also physically with a look reminiscent of classic fairy tales. 32 KEYFRAME