Smurfs Animation Test #1

Better known as "The Cupcake Test" circa 2009. Our first hybrid test.

You'll notice that this Smurf is closer to the original Peyo designs and the 2017 film compared to the hybrid films in 2011 and 2013. As confusing as it sounds, this test came first and green-lit the live action films even though the look for those films is different.

We typically start with original material if any exists. That's the case for the Smurfs as it was for Popeye ( can't show the Popeye development though ). A faithful representation is a great comparison tool because we can refer back to it rather than imagine how it might look in 3d.

This doesn't exactly nail the Peyo look, but time and budget sometimes win over asthetics. We picked up from this point and refined it further for the 2017 film, just as we would have if the decision was to go this design route for the first two films.

By the way, the dog was a PRO. The handlers would put a drink coaster on the ground and run through the performance once or twice, then pull the coaster for the take. If we needed another take, they told him to go to his mark, which he did almost to the exact spot. For position adjustments, they would say "move right/left/back/etc" and he would take one tiny paw step to his right/left/back/etc. They used a treat on a stick to get him to appear as if he was eating the cupcake, which we later replaced.

The whole test was done in about 20 weeks, including the live action shoot. Six SPA 3d artists and four SPI animators worked on the test. Omar Smith modeled Smurfy, James Battersby helped with the live action shoot, textured and lit, Ernie Rinard textured and lit, Sungwook Su textured and did fx. Chad Stewart, Spencer Cook and Kenn MacDonald animated, unfortunately I don't recall the names of the other two. I supervised the live action and cg, modeled, rigged, animated, textured and lit.