Framestore who helped to create the Tale of the Three Brother’s sequence for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have a page on their website dedicated to the scene where they have a short clip from the scene as well as some technical information about it (some of which may be read below).
Led for Framestore by Dale Newton, the animation is created in sepia tones and its mysterious characters are conveyed through silhouettes and shadows, inspired by traditional eastern puppet theatre. The clip is so beautifully detailed and intricate that it required over six months of work by a team that peaked at 32 Framestore VFX artists. Framestore’s creative energy was put to good use in pre-production by designing all the characters and lighting concepts that would establish the all-important look and feel for the piece. One of the distinctive elements to come out of the design phase was a papery, grainy background which bound the images together well and added to the overall ethereal feel.
“The sequence was a compositors dream job,” says Russell Dodgson, “technical, challenging and with an ever-evolving creative process that required a lot of ‘out of the box’ thinking.” Nuke’s faster workflow and tight integration with 3D applications aided artists and clients by being able to respond to director feedback and get more creative iterations before the deadline.
Due to the relatively long shot durations, cloth simulation on death’s cloak and the bride’s dress proved challenging. The brief in the case of Death was to create an ethereal otherworldly movement that felt natural in this stylised world. The team decided that the wizard characters’ cloth would have a stiff puppet look to further distinguish them from Death.
Dale Newton, said: “The film itself gave Framestore a great opportunity to create more cutting edge visual effects. But this storybook sequence posed a different set of challenges: namely how do you create a delicate, papery animated sequence in CGI? How to create compelling poetic characters in a dramatic narrative when only using shadows and silhouettes? So rather than being the visual effects task that we’ve all become so accustomed to, this was more a creative voyage of discovery.”
