Pioneering a Hybrid Style
With Monster House, Sony Pictures Imageworks has confirmed how versatile its ImageMotion system is. It was produced 18 only months after The Polar Express using the same technology, yet the results couldn’t have been more dissimilar. “As the process evolves and those who are aiming for the alleged ‘holy grail’ of replicating reality with the technology get closer to that goal, I think there are still many other ways to use the technology for stylized animation and storytelling,” Hofstedt concludes. “I think the use of mocap will evolve and expand. It doesn’t have to be limited to only attempting to emulate photographic reality. It has a lot of potential to be used in new and different ways.”

Adds Redd, “Monster House is a very stylized film. Our main characters are humans, but our universe is particular. After all, it’s called Monster House! We combined performance capture and keyframe animation throughout the film to create a unique hybrid style. The technical challenges were really driven by style. We wanted to make a movie that looked different, felt different, something that no one had seen before. This was all driven by the story as well — it’s not often that we get to make an animated horror film!”

Alain Bielik is the founder and editor of renowned effects magazine S.F.X, published in France since 1991. He also contributes to various French publications and occasionally to Cinéfex. Last year, he organized a major special effects exhibition at the Musée International de la Miniature in Lyon, France.