I’m going to point out some details you may have missed in shots from #TheMitchellsVsTheMachines trailer to show how @michaelrianda & team created a film with such groundbreaking visuals. A thread!
Mike wanted the film to have a hand-painted watercolor style so we brought @mlasker - a genius from the Spider-Verse team - to use some of the techniques developed on S-V to give this movie its own look. Some examples:
Look closely at the texture on the fur collar of Rick Mitchell (the dad)‘s jacket. Instead of super realistic detailed fur simulation, it’s a bunch of hand-painted squiggles. Which is actually much harder to pull off.
These trees are 3D CG but look hand painted:
The characters themselves have subtle hand-painted outlines as well as the props and environments -even hair is made with watercolor washed shapes accented with linework.
Katie Mitchell is a filmmaker who uses technology to make mixed media short films so her world is filled with her aesthetic...
Production Designer @lindseydraws had her team including @lilynishita & @AliceLemma draw 2D “KatieVision” around her to represent her worldview. Everything from little squiggles to more complicated cartoonery:
The world of Olivia Coleman’s PAL has a totally different palette and is much cleaner and looks like a Journey album cover:
But even in the clean world of PAL everything still has watercolor textures and hand-painted outlines. Look closely at this robot:
And also there’s a funny dog and a giant Furby.
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10 years ago today, THE LEGO MOVIE released in cinemas. It was a joyful experience making the film - a celebration of creativity.
To celebrate, I’ll post some memories and behind-the-scenes tidbits on this thread throughout the day.
The scene where Emmet wiggles on the table next to Will Ferrell was done in an old-school method: we put a magnet inside the minifig and I hid under the table with a magnet on a stick and puppeted him through the thin table
One thing @philiplord & I were passionate about was making every environment & effect - even explosions, smoke, and water - out of animating LEGO bricks. It was tricky but the team at Animal Logic built a methodology to make it happen & the results were gorgeous.
An early test:
Animated by Shadowmachine (doing new #CloneHigh eps), led by the talented @Annam8tor
@philiplord@rachelsmitts@lindseyolivares@Annam8tor This was the most ambitious episode to produce. We'd snap pictures of the actors in costumes on the 1st day of shooting (like this) and email them to Lindsey Olivares to draw caricatures from. Then while we shot a scene I'd take phone pics of the sets so BG designers could start
#TheMitchellsVsTheMachines watch party begins!
We all wanted Katie to own this movie right up front and this Columbia logo sets the tone for the movie and Katie Mitchell’s aesthetic #MvMwatchparty
Katie drinks “Mountain Rush” soda. In college while making student films, Phil and I would consume a case of Mountain Dew a night. One night we bought caffeinated water (called “Javaqua”) and then made coffee with it. #MvMwatchparty
There is a wooden etched sign above the door in the kitchen that says “NO SCREENS AT THE TABLE” but like at my own household, nobody follows it