To any animator, the brief mentioned above would automatically convey that it was a plan for a 2D show. But it wasn’t.
US based Mike Young Productions was planning Pet Alien, a 3D TV series which would feature squash & stretch and a vast range of other 2D characteristics that were thought undoable for a 3D TV series.
The show demanded feature level experience and expertise even though it was budgeted and scheduled for Television. This made it a tall order for any digital animation studio in the world, more so for an Indian animation Studio.
In meeting the Pet Alien challenge the team at Crest Animation Studios outdid themselves even as their animators outperformed the rigs, time and again. Interestingly, it was the manner in which the rigs were created and handled by the Crest team that made it possible for their animators to perform.
Animation ‘xpress proudly presents ‘Outperform that Rig!’a case study on on the 3D squash and stretch in the Crest Animation co produced Pet Alien. Click here for pdf (additional info & images)
Page 1 – Basics of Squash & Stretch
Page 2 – Show Sensibilities
Page 3 – Team Building
Page 4 – Rigging
Page 5 – Facial Animation
Page 6 – Animation
Page 7 – Compositing
Page 8 – Technology
Page 9 – Scripting & Plugins
Main Page
Page 10 – Production
Credits & Team Bytes
Compilation, Research and Layout by Anand Gurnani
With special thanks to
Crest CEO AK Madhavan for taking the initiative to share Crest’s production experiences,
Andrew Young (Director-Pet Alien)of Mike Young Productions for his valuable insights and comments.
This case study has been made possible by a group of people sparing their time, sharing their knowledge and hands-on experience. Crest’s core team on Pet Alien, including Vivek Karandikar (animation director) Anish Mulani (executive producer), Aby John (line producer), Vijay Anand Raju (Technical Director), Upen D (compositing supervisor), Amit Phand (setup controls supervisor), Krishna Prasad (Technlogy head) and Pramod Patel (R&D). All images, screenshots and diagrams courtesy Crest Animation Studios
*PET ALIEN is currently being aired by major kids broadcasters across the world and is produced by Mike Young Productions with co-producers Antefilm/TF1 (France), Crest Animation Studios (India) and Telegael (Ireland). Pet Alien is based on a property created by Jeff Muncy of John Doze Studios.