Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1485933
D E PA R T M E N T 33 KEYFRAME WINTER 2022 33 Wragg says that one of the methods for achieving a film that feels like a modern fairy tale "was developing our surfacing style in the computer digitally." Using digital painting techniques and custom digital brushes, "we would generate the look and feel of materials like wood, metal, cloth … in place of using real photos or reference on our models. In the end, it helped us create a digital feeling of wood or metal, without it being an actual image of wood or metal." This was spread across the whole production. They created an entirely new surfacing library for the film, which "paved the way for an artistically driven look to our characters and environments," says Wragg. In addition, tools were developed that allowed artists to put a textured edge on any object in a 3D space. "Using this tool, we can control the level of asymmetry and irregularity at the object's edge, which gives it a painterly feel," says Wragg. "Much like if you took a paintbrush and swiped it. It's a tool we can control as a dial. If we want more of it, turn that dial up. If we want less of it, turn that dial down." Overall, the dial was turned up for the perimeter of the frames to create an impressionistic look, and it was turned down in the center around the characters to make it more believable as they touched and interacted with objects and one another. The result, says Gilbert, was "stunningly beautiful. Multiple times we would stop a frame, and everyone would think it's a painting. But no, it's a still from the movie." Of course, no matter how gorgeous the art is, animation is about motion, and this was given the same attention to detail as the movie's style. For emotional scenes, spline animation was used. This is typical of CG style, with the computer helping to fill in all the frames between keyframes, creating the realistic, smooth flow of movement needed to keep the audience immersed in Puss's moments of sadness and despair. For the action and fight scenes, on the other hand, filmmakers looked to the hyper-realistic but, at the same time, larger-than-life spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. Framing included the dramatic use of close-ups and wide shots, and this is where the use of step animation came in. Dropping frames or holding a single frame onscreen for a count of two frames gave these scenes "a kind of choppy feel, which is more true to hand-drawn animation," Gilbert says. This, in turn, heightened the tension. While step animation has been used in features before—Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse being the most notable example—Bouancheau points out that Puss and Boots: The Last Wish used it to very different effect. This was a big part of the creative challenge. Not only breathing fresh life into a legacy character, but also expanding on existing tools in new and innovative ways. "It's easy to go to what you're comfortable with or what you know," Wragg says. "We know how to make a movie like the previous Puss in Boots. But really turning the style on its head and this page: Despite its emotional resonance, The Last Wish is a true action-adventure movie with lots of comedic elements like street-smart Goldie and big-hearted Mama Bear (bottom). pushing it in a whole other direction, it's a little scary, but at the same time it's also exciting and rewarding."