As for character animation, there were subtle, flexible facial controls for more serious acting moments, including, for the first time, teenage mannerisms with the introduction Artie, who even has dimples. "We had realistic design needs and motion that matches the look that is completely keyframed," explains Tim Cheung, who heads a department comprised of 32 animators divided among four teams, with two dedicated crowd animators -- a first for the Shrek franchise. In fact, crowd animation worked in conjunction with visual effects. They created simulations for clothing to complement a series of walk cycles.

As for character animation, there were subtle, flexible facial controls for more serious acting moments and skin layers were added for the first time to the proprietary Emo software.

Skin layers were added for the first time to the proprietary Emo software, and there were five controls for the nose and various textures added to the face, even in low-res.

"We had faster computers to give you instant feedback, providing animators more iterations to refine animation," Cheung adds. "We had to redo a lot of animation to adhere to story refinements."

In terms of vfx and lighting, under the supervision of Philippe Gluckman and effects lead Matt Baer, there were 40-50 lighters, 20 vfx artists and, as reported earlier, the use of global illumination system wide for the first time to add greater dimensionality. For fire (such as the destruction of the palace and theater), they created a new fluid dynamics engine, called Emit, for greater speed and scale. This fluid dynamics engine was also used for Merlin's rusty displays of magic, which also included particle effects, 70% of which begin in Maya and were enhanced with own particle render, surface render and new mode-based compositor.

As co-director Raman Hui concludes: "We had the same crew, but we didn't have to worry about accomplishing any of our artistic goals on Shrek the Third."

Bill Desowitz is editor of VFXWorld.