THE L ION K I NG | DRAMA
ANIMATION
Once the camera shoot was completed and the voice performances recorded, the production shifted to the animation phase. For animation supervisor Andrew Jones, it was all about improving upon the past. “In terms of realism, I think this is a big step forward,” he says. “We achieved a certain level that I was quite happy with in The Jungle Book – but we wanted to push it even further in The Lion King . We wanted the animals more believable. We wanted to take a really beautiful story that everybody already loves and tell it in a new, unique way. It feels a bit more documentary style because you’re not anticipating everything the characters are going to do or possibly could do.” Once character designs were approved, artists from MPC built each character within the computer, paying close attention to anatomy, proper proportions, fur or feathers – applying textures and colour, shading eyes and ensuring their movement was authentic to their real-life counterparts. New software tools were developed by MPC R&D teams of more than 200 software engineers to better simulate muscles, skin and fur.
ABOVE Before in Unity and after with a final rendering by MPC London
location, you’re just using different tools. What’s special about the virtual production side is that you’re not taking away the filmmaking process from the filmmakers, it’s just using different techniques. It really only takes a day or two to adapt to these new tools so you don’t have to know too much about VFX as you’re using familiar gear and terms. “Real-time engines will get more capable and what you’re seeing through your view port will become more realistic,” he continues. “I know Deschanel adapted to it fairly quickly mainly as the tools are
designed around what you need. You can bring in your own gear and we will track it, if you’ve got a certain focus pull that you like to use bring it in, if you’ve got a special fluid head bring it in and we’ll encode it so we can capture it. A lot of the filmmakers respond to that because we’re here to offer a service and to help people make their films, we don’t want to be people who take the work away from you, it’s a collaboration. To do VFX properly it has to be involved from the start, it’s not just about people being in dark rooms and adding stuff at the end.”
SEPTEMBER 20 1 9 | DEF I N I T ION 25
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