Page 92 - 3D Artist 110 - 2017 UK

project focus

The Red Turtle

How 3D and 2D were combined
for this Oscar-nominated
animation with Studio Ghibli

hen we irst sit down with animator-turned-
Website dudokdewit.co.uk
director Michael Dudok de Wit, it’s in a rare
Location France/Japan
Wmoment of calm in his schedule: he’s just come
Project The Red Turtle
back home to London after a promotional trip to spain, and is
Project description Produced
in collaboration with Studio bound for Bordeaux the very next morning.
Ghibli, this dialogue-less ten years ago, his life completely changed when he
animated feature tells the life
story of a castaway on a received a phone call most animators could only ever dream
deserted tropical island of. It was from studio Ghibli in tokyo, and they wanted to help
populated by turtles, crabs
and birds. support him in directing his very own feature ilm. the result
Studio N/A was this year’s critically acclaimed oscar nominee for best
Director bio After being animated feature – The Red Turtle.
passionate about drawing since “coming from creating shorts, I was just not used to doing
childhood, Dudok de Wit
studied animation in the UK none of the animation myself, or being divided over so many
before working as a freelancer different tasks,” he begins. “At the same time, I remembered
in the advertising industry for a
decade. He began making his how frustrated I was when there was a hierarchy and no room
own animated ilms in his free to explore while working as an animator in London. every
time, and in 2000 won an
Academy Award for short animator is different with a unique approach and you have to
Father and Daughter. The Red accept that as a director instead of trying to control it.”
Turtle is his irst feature ilm.
using his extensive industry experience to his advantage,
Contributors
• Michael Dudok de Wit, Dudok de Wit decided to work with a small crew of less than
director 50 artists, and ensured everyone was in the same building
• Jean-Pierre Bouchet, VFX and and lived in the same small town throughout the nine years of
compositing supervisor
production. they would all walk to work together in the
morning, then chat at the nearest café together at night.
Introducing 3D into The Red Turtle pipeline – which featured
everything from 2D charcoal drawings to Wacom cintiq psD
iles imported into tVpaint for animation – was not a choice
that was made lightly. “I’m an illustrator at heart, and I love
01
the personal imperfections that every animator will bring to
their work. With cG, I was worried we would lose that magic,
but I was very wrong,” Dudok de Wit reveals.
“Animating characters like turtles slowly rotating
underwater and swimming away with hand-drawn
techniques would very quickly get quite wobbly,” adds VfX
and compositing supervisor, jean-pierre Bouchet. “It
becomes really ineficient unless you introduce some cG.”
With 3D artist Dominique Gantois, Dudok de Wit, Bouchet
and the rest of the team began by modelling elements like the
turtle character in 3ds Max. the 3D animation was then done
by keyframing one drawing for every two frames to match the
2D animated work from tVpaint.
Next, textures such as the turtle shell were created in
photoshop for a simple uV, which was then passed on to the 02
art department who further reined line and shadow work 04
using the inaltoon for 3ds Max plugin. everything was then
exported as a pNG image sequence for compositing in fusion.
“We chose to use the fusion compositing stage to be able
to fully control every colour and material without having to go
back and forth into 3ds Max,” Bouchet continues. “We would
have up to 20 separate layers for elements such as the sky,
clouds and sea. We then had different layers for the
characters including shadow and line iles from 3ds Max,
and a colour psD texture. finally, we would add a slight
overall noise to the comp to avoid any of the elements
looking too digital.”
92