“Stuart Little” by Sony Pictures Imageworks
Conference:
Title:
- Stuart Little
Director(s):
Company / Institution / Agency:
- Sony Pictures Imageworks
Description:
Stuart Little, based on the classic story by E.B. White, represents one of the most ambitious challenges to date in photo-real, 3D, performance-based digital character creation. Fully vested with a personality, digital wardrobe and fur, lan-guage, and the subtlety of expression, Stuart stars with live-action actors Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, and Jonathan Lipnicki in over 400 shots (one sequence was selected for submission to SIGGRAPH 99). Michael J. Fox is the voice of Stuart Little. Rob Minkoff (Lion King) is the director.
In addition to creation of the lifelike character and his performance, with its wide range of movement and emotion, the challenge for the Sony Pictures Imageworks team was to integrate Stuart into the live action, placing the completely digital star next to live actors and cats (with real cloth, real hair, real fur, and other genuine textures and lighting character-istics) throughout every frame. This sequence also features digital examples of dry, wet, and partially wet fur and cloth, water, and lighting. Stuart Little is scheduled for theatrical release in December 1999.
Additional Contributors:
Director: Rob Minkoff
Sr. Visual Effects Supervisor: John Dykstra
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jerome Chen
Animation Director: Henry F. Anderson III
Sr. Visual Effects Producer: Michelle Murdocca
Visual Effects Producer: Lydia Bottegoni
Associate Producer, DCG: Audrea Topps-Harjo
Digital Production Manager: Jody Echegaray
CG Supervisors: Jim Berney, Bart Giovanneti, Jay Redd, Scott Stokdyk, John, McLaughlin
Visual Effects Artists: Maura Alvarez, Bill Ball, Kiki Candela, Daniel Eaton, Dave Lawson, Scott McKee, Kerry Nordquist, Aaron Smith, Dave Smith, Jason Dowdeswell, David Allen, Didier Levy, Mike Travers, Robert Peitzman, Doug Yoshida, Jeff Wolverton, Layne Friedman, Rob Bredow, Rob House, Tim Llewellyn, Rob Engle
Digital Character Animators: Dave Mullins, Kelvin Lee, Anthony LaMolinara, Pepe Valencia, Dominick Cecere, Dave Vallone, Eric Armstrong, Delio Tramontozzi, Bill Diaz, Kevin Hudson
Software Engineers: Armin Bruderlin, Bruce Navsky
Editorial: J. W. Kompare