We’ve recently announced it, and it’s almost here: ReDefine is at SIGGRAPH this week! François Schneider, CG Supervisor on ‘100% Wolf‘ will be giving insights into the creation of fur for 51 characters on Wednesday 26th. To mark the occasion we asked him a few questions:
Hi François! Can you finish this sentence – ‘100% Wolf’ is…
ReDefine’s very first animated movie, co-produced with Flying Bark Productions. We follow Freddy Lupin on his quest to figure out who he is, and see how he ultimately accepts himself. It was my first project when I joined the team in Montréal in October 2018. At the time the crew over here was very small – it is great to see how much we’ve grown since then and I am thrilled to see that ‘100% Wolf’ is doing well in cinemas!
Can we talk a bit about the fur work, which is the topic of your talk at SIGGRAPH this week – what was it like to create fur for not 1 or 2 but 51 characters?!
It was a challenge! *laugh* I’ll always remember the face of Dennis Petkov (Fur Supervisor at DNEG) when I told him that we needed fur for more than fifty characters AND that some shots would feature ten furry characters. It had never been done before!
All the groom work was done with DNEG’s proprietary software Furball. When we started creating fur for ‘100% Wolf’, Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame and Togo for Disney+ were also in production at DNEG. Between Rocket Raccoon of Avengers, the CG huskies of ‘Togo’ and the characters of ‘100% Wolf’ I think it is safe to say that Furball and our fur pipeline have been put to the test! The teams at ReDefine and DNEG worked together to optimise Furball for the production’s need – it was a great collaboration.
Find out more about the fur work on ‘100% Wolf’ here.
Who was your favourite character in ‘100% Wolf’?
Oh that’s a difficult question! I’d say Mrs Mutton, she’s a badass grandma (she rides a cool motorbike!) I really like her personality.
What was the most challenging shot or sequence in the movie?
It’s not the most “spectacular” shot of the show but at some point in the story Freddy and Batty end up at the back of a truck. It goes really fast and the animation is quite intense. At first we had a delay between the animation of the dogs and the fur. Also the motion blur was a bit challenging!
What is your favorite shot or sequence?
The opening sequence when the werewolves are running in the city. I love that shot! I’m very proud of how it turned out.
Last but not least – what are you working on at the moment?
I am supervising CG out of Montréal on ‘Silk Road Rally’. It’s my main show at the moment, however I also work on other ReDefine animation shows like ‘Rock Dog 2‘ and ‘Rock Dog 3‘. I can’t wait to see more of ReDefine’s VFX and animation work on the big screen!