MPC and 4Creative take Arthur the tortoise on a romantic odyssey for Channel 4’s ‘Mating Season’ . The team shot a life-like tortoise puppet in camera. MPC’s VFX team, led by Michael Gregory was charged with bringing the tortoise to life and giving him very human expressions.
A 3D scan of the puppet head was re-built in CG, then using modelling tool ZBrush the original texture and bumps were re-applied. A number of tests were carried out, beginning with the artists studying footage of tortoises and lizards, as well as human expressions before exploring the best way to apply them using a facial rig.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/66556531[/vimeo]
Credits:
Agency: 4creative
Creatives: Chris Bovill, John Allison, Molly Manners and Alice Tonge
Directors: Chris Bovill and John Allison
Executive Producer: Shananne Lane
Producer: Nicola Brown
Business Director: Olivia Browne
Editor: Dan Sherwen @ Final Cut
VFX: MPC
VFX Producer: Marianna Bruynseels
VFX Supervisor: Michael Gregory
CG Supervisor: Fabian Frank
VFX Team: Sean Ray, Chris Antoniou, Grant White, Gian-Luigi Granieri, Tom Harding, Chris Fraser, Jama Djurabaev, Levente Peterffy, Jacob Oommen, Sugumar S, Venkatesh R, Vivekananthan R, Sumesh Chammancheri
Grade: MPC
Colourist: Jean-Clement Soret
