BERKELEY, CA -- Visual effects and animation powerhouse Tippett Studio [1] is expanding its work to include television, bringing Ted, the titular character of Universal Pictures' eponymous summer blockbuster, to ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" for a sit down interview.
In collaboration with director Seth MacFarlane, Kimmel's writers and producers, producer Jason Clark and Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Tippett Studio supervisors Blair Clark and Scott Liedtka oversaw the Kimmel shoot highlighting the December 11th release of Ted on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD. Filmed in front of a studio audience, MacFarlane performed the voice and seated movements of Ted in a MVN motion capture suit. Animators at Tippett Studio key-framed Ted walking out on stage and his facial movements. For the interview segment they utilized the motion capture and added nuanced body performance throughout the 3:50 segment.
After delivering over 380 shots for the film, Tippett Studio's challenges were different for broadcast. For feature work, Tippett Studio works at 24 frames per second (fps) but they had to adjust their pipeline to work with 60fps required for "Jimmy Kimmel Live." This requirement nearly tripled the rendering time and affected the look of the character. Careful attention had to be paid to produce the same quality of work as in the feature film. The end result is Ted perfectly integrated into the program.
Seth MacFarlane was thrilled with the results. He tweeted "Blair Clark and the Tippett FX team nailed it."
Tippett Studio continues to bring its stellar character animation and VFX to features and, in response to the advertising industry's demand for quality character animation, they have just signed commercial agent Laura Zinn of Zinndependent as their East Coast and Midwest regions representative.
Tippett Studio, founded in 1984 by animation pioneer Phil Tippett, is an Academy Award-winning visual effects company specializing in a wide range of CG animation and digital effects for feature films, television and commercials. The company has created VFX for 70 films including Ted, The Twilight Saga, Cloverfield, Hellboy, Starship Troopers, Jurassic Park and Robocop. Tippett Studio has won two Emmy's and four Clio's. Tippett Studio is in production on M. Night Shaymalan's After Earth.
Source: Tippett Studio
Links:
[1] http://www.tippett.com/