The award-winning visual effects studio delivered 550+ shots, using its trademark mix of artistry and innovation, creating a breathtaking underwater kingdom – harnessing its ‘Fibre’ groom tool, the project team ensured Ariel and the kingdom’s other inhabitants all had ‘great hair days;’ check out their magical reel.
Award-winning VFX studio Framestore delivered over 550 shots, leading the creation of Disney’s The Little Mermaid’s underwater kingdom and its inhabitants, from a photoreal Ariel and her family to best friends Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle. The studio drew on its trademark mix of artistry and technical innovation to create CG digi-doubles, pushed the parameters of its groom technology to realize characters' flowing hair, and tested the skill of its animators as they sought to match director Rob Marshall's ambitious choreography for iconic musical sequences such as “Under The Sea.”
Preparations began almost a year before the shoot. Framestore’s visual effects artists worked closely with its virtual production supervisors, who now form the studio’s dedicated pre-production offering, Framestore Pre-Production Services (FPS).
BAFTA-nominated VFX supervisor Andy Kind (Gravity, Paddington, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) oversaw the creation of the complex underwater environment consisting of several key sets. The artists overcame challenges to produce a visually stunning, photoreal world on the ocean floor, which plays host to complicated ensemble dance numbers (Under the Sea) and carefully crafted props. To create the musical number, the filmmakers worked with The Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation to perform in costume on a large set, which Framestore’s animators then used as reference footage, transforming the performers and their movements into hundreds of individually choreographed sea creatures.
“It was such an interesting process,” commented Kind. “Walking the line between human and animal movement - how do I take this beautiful dancer, and translate their movements into a seahorse or a starfish, and make it feel authentic?”
“Lighting was a huge challenge for us, for all of the underwater scenes,” continued Kind. “It’s completely fictional laws of physics - in reality, light from the surface wouldn’t make it to the ocean floor, so we had to write our own laws which dictate the lighting and how it would refract through the water.”
Framestore’s studios across London and Mumbai untangled the complex hair simulation to deliver the merpeople’s locks using the studio’s own groom tool, Fibre. The team’s innovations allowed all the hair types and textures to move naturally.
“The hair was very much considered as its own character, in that we had to establish a pattern for how it would move and behave in different conditions,” noted animation supervisor Pablo Grillo (Paddington, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Golden Compass). “We knew how important it was to get right.”
The studio’s visual effects and animation teams adapted Ariel’s three best friends – characters Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle - from the 1989 animation to deliver a performance without their previous humanized expressions.
Grillo added, “The thing about Sebastian especially is that he’s so minimal, he’s a set of eyes and a body, but he’s able to give so much range during his performance - he’s an emotional character, and you’re really able to see that all through his eyes, timing, and movement.”
Watch: The Little Mermaid | VFX Breakdown | Framestore:
The Little Mermaid is now streaming on Disney+.
Source: Framestore
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
