Wylder: Production Dairy 04

So, we are four weeks into production now on Wylder, the short film based on the book by Maia Walczack. It’s time to meet the cast!

We’ve been working away on the two main characters in the story - the boy and his dad, as well as a few animals such as a deer and a family of boars.

Each character goes through a step by step process - usually starting with concept design, where the character is sketched out to nail down proportions, features and give an overall feel of who that character is. As we are working straight from illustrations in the book, we moved straight on to modelling. 

This usually takes a little bit of time to get right; how much you push certain facial features and body shapes really changes the character and the way an audience will perceive them. It can also determine mood, atmosphere and audience. 

We needed to keep in mind not just making 3D models of the characters, but trying to retain what we can of the illustrative style. This led to a change of plan with the hair, going from hair cards initially (which was to retain the textured feel) but then switching to the Unreal's new Groom system which creates more realistic hair, but renders much more cleanly. For the texturing we applied pencil strokes to the main colour, and kept brush strokes visible on the skin, although subtle, helps to keep the storybook feel while translating it into 3D.

The hair is key for these characters - their actual features are so small that much of their performance will come from the way the eyebrows and the dad’s beard moves.

Once modelled, they are rigged - the skeleton is added and the joints where they bend and move are created, giving the controls for animation. There’s not a huge amount of action in this short, so the controls are fairly simplistic.

Both the main characters need to be extremely sympathetic, warm and emotive. We are including subtle details - the texture on their jumper, the handful of silver hairs in Dad’s bear to really bring them to life. 

Meanwhile we are progressing with the Unreal edit, having started replacing some of the previz shots with the created environments. As you can see, we create the main environment and then bring in flat background elements to create depth. 

Readying ourselves for the next stage of production, we’ve been working through the prop list and prioritising any items that are directly interacted with by the characters. We need these ready first to animate with, set dressing props can be dropped into the scene at any stage.

Alongside all the progress on the short, we’ve been busy working away on lots of client projects this week. We’ve always found that having a core full time team, matched with a contracting team of freelancers is the best way to work for our studio. We have had freelancers working on the character models and rigs this week, freeing us up to crack on with other projects. We quality control and give feedback at each stage, ensuring the Engine House stamp of approval.

Next week should be more of the same on the production side of things, but we will also be looking into distribution of the short. Festival time!