IFX Animation Training Centre

How to translate the Smurfs to CG? That was the challenge for Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks in bringing the original blue crew to the big screen under the direction of Raja Gosnell.

Clearly, it wasn't easy taking Peyo's beloved characters off the page and into the computer for The Smurfs. There were major design considerations, first of all, they involved capturing the silhouette, making the eyes believable and expressive and getting the skin texture right so that it was fleshy but not creepy. Plus they created a model (Troy Saliba was senior animation supervisor for Imageworks) with subtle variations, including pliable facial rig and proper bone structure. There were around 36 character models for film, with Gutsy (voiced by Alan Cu***ng), being totally new.

"There were physical limitations of anatomy that we had to deal with in creative ways," suggests Rich Hoover, the Imageworks visual effects supervisor. "We wanted humanistic profiles, joints, muscles, bones, human-like wrinkles in the skin. But we also had to maintain volume for these [7 1/2 inch-tall] characters. Raja wanted them to have a spring in their step, so we made them jump 10-feet-per-second to keep up with the human characters they interact with."

And when it came to hair for the ever popular Smurfette, they actually started from scratch after animating 20% because the old design just wasn't convincing in CG. So they tweaked the volume and gave her a prettier makeover with a more modern sheen. Now it hangs down straighter.

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IFX Animation Training Centre

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