Inkheart's hero, played by Brendan Fraser, must defeat forces of evil that come alive when he reads aloud. The Shadow is one such evil-doer. Courtesy of Double Negative. All images © New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. Pictures.

Inkheart (now playing from Warner Bros.) is the latest film adaptation of a best-selling children fantasy novel. After Disney showed the way with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005, other studios quickly followed with Bridge to Terabithia, The Seeker: Dark is Rising, The Golden Compass and The Spiderwick Chronicles. Inkheart tells the story of Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett). Both share a passion for books, and a miraculous gift for bringing characters from books to life by reading aloud. But this power is not harmless, as when a character is brought to life from a book, a person from the real world disappears into its pages.

Given the nature of the story, vfx played a key role in the production of the movie, a mission that was overseen by Visual Effects Supervisor Angus Bickerton and VFX Producer Crystal Dowd. "We started with about 260 shots," Bickerton recalls. "It went all the way up to 689, and then down to 594 shots in the final cut. We had approximately five months of post-production. Director Iain Softley is very aware of visual effects and was always keen to seek a real practical alternative, or if vfx were inevitable, that they be as real as possible. He has a keen critical eye and pushed for photographic realism. Although we finished with a lot of visual effects, the aim was always to create a believable world and not stray into a realm that was too fantastical. We didn't want the film to have an unreal visual effects veneer."

Six different vendors contributed to the project, along with an in-house production unit:

• Double Negative (259 shots): End Shadow sequence, Flying Monkeys, Body-to-ashes demise.

• Cinesite London (123 shots): All fire scenes, Dustfinger fire juggling and fire breathing, Rooftop sequence, Establishing shots of Capricorn's town (Capricorn is the story's villain).

• Peerless Camera Co. (55 shots): Twister sequence.

• Rainmaker UK -- later CIS London, which is now closed down -- (43 shots): Inkworld scenes, End scenes, Elinor's House.

• The Senate Visual Effects (9 shots): Minotaur enhancement.

• In-house department (105 shots): Fixes and matte shots.

• Mattes and Miniatures: miniatures of Capricorn's castle, Dorothy's farmhouse and collapsing building.

The creation of the Shadow monster required the most attention from Double Negative, using Francisco de Goya's painting of El Coloso as reference. Courtesy of Double Negative.