Boots - Gift Happily
For this exciting Christmas special we were tasked with bringing a modern day interpretation of the classic fairy tale character of Puss In Boots to life. Referencing the more than 300 years old original illustrations of the beloved character and real world tabby cats we set off on a journey to carefully craft every little detail from Puss's anatomy and body proportions, allowing him to act out the story that directors Dom&Nic had in mind, to his delicate fur and a wardrobe that's been his trusty companion on all his adventures.
With an invitation to the Snow Queen's ball Puss realises he need gifts for his ragtag friends to go there in style. And something nice and cosy for the matriarch herself of course. After asking his magical mirror for advice he sets off to the magical store of Boots. Traveling from the fairy tale village to the real world is no easy task but Puss made it there and back again just in time to make a spectacular entrance at the festivities.
Credits
Client: Boots
Agency: VML, The Pharm, Hogarth, WPP Media
Production: Outsider
Directors: Dom&Nic
Colour and VFX: RASCAL
Creature VFX: LORE
-
Production Company: Outsider
Director: DOM&NIC
DoP: Simon Chaudoir
Producer: John Madsen
Agency: VM / The Pharm / Hogart
Executive Creative Director: Julianne Paracencio
Creative Director: Gary Arnold
Associate Creative Director: Pete Bastiman & Bish Aylesbury
Executive Producer: Susie Innes
Producer: Eleanor Hardcastle
Assistant Producer: Georga-Rae Ash
Editors: Final Cut
Editor: Ed Cheesman
Colour & VFX by RASCAL
Head of CG & Creative Director: Andy Steele
Animation Director: Tim Fox
VFX Supervisor: Chris Tobin
2D Lead: Kalle Lundberg
2D: Mikael Theander, Richard de Carteret, Matt Mcdougal, Al Ford, Joe Wreford & Adam Maynard
3D Lead: Dan Newlands
3D: Daniel Westerlund, Andrea Lazzarini, Belinda Sandberg & Dale Alexander
DMP Artist: Aurélien Ronceray, Nils Firas & Nicolas Knoll
AI Specialist: Philip Maddock
Colourist: James Bamford
Colour Assist: Michael Sherlock-Pearce & Rory Leighton
Head of Production: Mireille Antoine
Senior VFX Producer: Rosanne Crisp
VFX Producer: Alessandra Milani
Production Assistant: Noemi Seminara
Creature VFX by LORE
Executive Producer: Thomas Deutschmann
VFX/Animation Supervisor: Janak Thakker
Producer/Head of Operations: Daniel Rådén
CG Supervisor: Mattias Forsström
Production Manager: Hanna Sundman
Asset Build: Joel Sundberg, Ahmed Ghazy, Tom Whitehead, Sian Warren
Rig & Cloth Sim: Josef Sima
Previz: Micha BoströmAnimation: Devika Nagarkar, Pankaj Kumar, Aman Bhanot & Anders Freij
Groom Sim: Mario Reitbauer
Light Lead: Mark Harrison
Light: Joel Göthlin, Aaryan Modh, Jean-Yves Teillet
Pipe TD: Mikael Johansson
Puss In Boots
Creating a furry character is always a great challenge. Creating a furry character who is wearing clothes is an even greater challenge! Our character team rose to the challenge and worked relentlessly on developing the anatomy of Puss, both for the body and the face. The sculpting of this and the fur grooming went along hand in hand to find the right balance between anatomy and fur to do justice to this fluffy little fella. Balancing fur and look development was the final stages and continued into the wee hours of the actual shot production.
As soon as we had some overall proportions nailed we started crafting the animation rig with which we can control both Puss and his wardrobe. We implemented machine learning to have a cloth preview already in the animation scenes. As the shots progressed we simulated the cloth of the costume, how the fur moves and interact with everything and lit the scenes to match with the live action plates- there’s also a few full CG shots for which we worked together with the VFX team at Rascal to make sure both environments and Puss looked their best.
The wardrobe of a feline
As if it’s not enough with all that fluffy fur Puss obviously needs his boots as well as a coat and a hat to keep him warm on his adventures. The same level of meticolous attention to detail that went into the character went into making sure his wardrobe also have a story to tell.
Obviously Puss can’ go to the ball in his rugged adventure clothing so we also made a fancy version for him to slip into for the end sequence.
BTS
Come back for a behind the scenes look at how everything was created!
