The Craft Of ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’

Not only is one of the formation of animation, but also depends on the presence of some of the most talented people and patient patients. This is something Aardman animationand The studio is behind the candidate Oscar Wallace & Gromete: Most birds are revengeCertainly known.

Delivery date Talk to six of the main craftsmen – editor Dan Homberri, film photographer Dave Alex Redt, production designer Matt Perry, bridal designer Ann King, supervision of animation Will Will Wayer, the supervisor of VFX Howard Jones – in addition to the producer Richard Beck and Managers Nick Park and Merlin CrossinghamTo discuss how they bring clay dolls to life.

One of the most participating scenes In the film, it will eventually happen, as Gromit continues the feathers through a channel on a “high -speed” boat. This scene was one of the most cooperation in the film, which requires each department to present a hand.

“In order to stop the movement, the purest form is very written,” says producer Richard Beck. “I have prepared the group, put the characters on it, framing and photographing it, while you suddenly have this sequence as all departments have to work together to cooperate in the scene.”

“It is a lot about bringing Hollywood’s feeling to a small town,” says director Merlin Krossingham.

“This is a kind of Wallace and Gromete Humor, right? “Director Nick Park adds,” the director adds. Therefore, we made the bridge much longer than it will actually. “

To achieve this “Feelwood Feel”, the suffocating man managed by the channel managed by the channel as a mini group, as creating a large group on the same range that dolls will take a lot. “We have used some different standards there and we had to photograph some things separately, such as Norbots hanging on the edge of the channel,” says film photographer Dave Alex Alex Red. “It was not easy to shoot the full size of a group that should have been enormous.”

“We have made some decisions early to try to maintain his feeling of extreme frame and do everything in the models,” says production designer Matt Perry. The technical side was very shrinking the camera movements. If we are moving on the real pieces on the waging that all wandered everywhere, we will have to try to simulate it or even reduce this step and do it on the mini model as well. ”

An additional layer of complexity was the water in the canal, which needed that the characters be able to interact with it. “It may be the most complicated Wicked “He falls in,” says VFX Huard Jones. “When it was moving, we didn’t really know what the water was. So, we put the laser line in just to allow us to get an idea about the place where the water will be. We can make the water fit around the animation, but it is very difficult to do this in the opposite. “

“The chase sequence is always completely exciting in stopping the movement, because you have to move the camera as well as everything else,” says Will Superviction Veque Will, who worked closely with both Perry and Riddett to learn how to move on groups. “We have done things like the presence of these huge boats that wander along the channel that included a lot of work. First, how can we get a boat of water on this solid edge? Then we have dolls at the top you need to respond to movement as well and feel realistic, and we have parts From the vegetables, which are actually, physically, wander around.

Even outside the AquedUCT chase sequence, re -feathers and feathers McGraw were a completely separate challenge. “Many dolls have disappeared yet Wrong pants“So we were looking at the references all the time to try to measure them. We had to re -invent the feathers slightly based on photographs and old drawings,” says Park.

Working with doll designer Ann King, Park and Crossingham managed to create a newer version of the film. “I got a very special internal structure,” says King. “The head is crucial. The relationship between the beak and the size of the eyes, and the sculpture with the exact slope of the louder … all of this should be really perfect, because any little moves make a difference.”

Any small defect or difference in appearance will be noticeable to a personality like feathers, because the appearance is simple but it is difficult to move. “Nick Park has a talent to make the characters look simple, but they are already made of really complex forms,” ​​says Bishr. “With feathers … it is a kind of performance where you must almost no Touch it. We have found in the early test that if we gave him a lot, it gives a lot and becomes a little weaker as a character. “

“What they can do with these small dolls is great, but from our end in editing, it comes to allowing him to the screen and be still.” “This is terrifying. This is where the comedy comes, because we deal with this main villain seriously, but it is the plastic penguin in a rubber hat.”

Although they were unable to use a copy of the original feathers from Wrong pantsCrossingham says it was not a bad idea to re -create the character. “Even if you revive a character, these films are often an opportunity to develop them to be right at the present time. Therefore, feathers may be what we think should be, instead of a delicate carbon copy of what it was.”

While the feathers had to be fully made of plastin clay, with the exception of a metal motor inside, Aardman is often used as a mixture of silicone and clay in their dolls. “former Wallace and Gromete “The dolls were completely clay, and it is very arduous for one of the animation to move on a picnic, for example, because you must reformulate every movement you make,” says King. The clay pieces are usually saved to the parts that need to be constantly changed or more expressive, such as GROMIT ears.

On the other end of the spectrum of feathers, Norbut has become a doll made entirely of silicone to simulate its inorganic nature. “Nourbot is the only character that does not employ clay, but she has a final look of clay,” says Park. “Therefore, he still has the texture and minor fingerprints, but it is covered with silicon.”

“It is basically a Wallace -made machine and we need to take this into consideration while we were developing, and that its forms are generally less organic than the other team members,” he added.

Although the mechanical nature of the character often comes on how to move it, King says a lot of time has spent carving. “We had Norbut and then the Norbutz Army, which was the second version, so we had to look at how to distinguish them from Norbut original,” she says. “The main Nourbot gets a warmer paint color on the face, then the army has a more gray, wicked gray tone and a little shade around the eyes as well as to make it look more evil.”

After finishing the sculpture, the dolls are separated into pieces, and internal armament is made from a ball joint and a steel socket that can be used to move the character. Next, the Norbot doll was completely thrown into “a very soft silicone to give us a nice movement with the doll, but also Nick and Mirlin wanted to maintain this simple appearance of clay about him,” he added.

Although the construction of dolls has changed, the hand -made style of Wallace and Gromete Certainly he did not. “In terms of dolls, the way we build it, the amount of silicone against the plastimine clay has changed because this helps in terms of speed, but all these aesthetic changes must be completed Wallace and GrometePake says.

Maintaining that aesthetic was always necessary for both Park and Crossingham, and even for the new members of the crew with whom they grew up Wallace and Gromete. “My wonderful energy … all of them grew up with things like Wrong pants Reddett, who was working on this work because they entered this work because they saw it as children. Wrong pants With Park. “We really got to the ground in this project because all the people who worked on it, especially the lighting team of my cameras, were one of these fans and guaranteed in this world from Wallace and Gromete“