17 December 2024
Animation
By TREVOR HOGG
By TREVOR HOGG
Images courtesy of Aardman Animations and Netflix.
What began as a National Film and Television School graduation project called A Grand Day Out, where an inventor named Wallace and his faithful canine companion Gromit travel to the Moon to sample some cheese, has become a cultural institution. “It’s incredible,” reflects director Nick Park.“I’ve got to constantly pinch myself. For years it was slow growth. It didn’t happen overnight. Recently, we went to the States and to see security guards demanding to open the box to see the puppets, then profess they only wanted to meet Wallace and Gromit. Just think how many people are watching now with Netflix reaching all over the world. It was a student film when it was started. I was always ambitious in my own way. If it was on the BBC at Christmas, that would be lovely.”
Director Nick Park wanted to create a fast stop-motion sequence, which led to the classic toy-train chase in the Oscar-winning short The Wrong Trousers.
“[W]e’ve pushed Wallace’s and Gromit’s relationship more than ever before. It used to be a joke that Wallace never learns anything. Actually, in this film he does look at himself a little bit. We have pushed him emotionally in a very British way. What that does is open up a bigger feeling within the film, and hopefully by the end, it fills your heart with warmth.”
—Merlin Crossingham, Director
One of the favorite villains of the franchise returns in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl after being thwarted by the title characters in The Wrong Trousers. Feathers McGraw is a tech-savvy, jewel-thief penguin determined to reclaim the blue diamond and frame the duo responsible for his arrest. As before, an invention created by Wallace gets hacked by McGraw. This time around, the mechanical pants are replaced by a computer-programmed, personal-assistant gnome christened Norbot. Story ideas are not limited by what is feasible to do practically. “When we were working with Mark Burton, the scriptwriter, we said, ‘Let’s just talk about the ideas. If we want to go big, let’s go big. If we don’t, then let’s not,’” director Merlin Crossingham states. “It is important for a director to feel that you have the freedom to go wherever you want to go to tell the story.”
Concept art for the Cellar Cauldron was inspired by the Orc-making factory featured The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Capturing as much in-camera as possible was the goal. “We would begin with the stop-motion process at the heart of any sequence,” Crossingham explains. “If we couldn’t use stop motion, what’s the solution? Or, if we couldn’t get the shot in one pass, is it a composite of multiple layers or different scales, or the use of digital set extensions, DMPs or full-on visual effects? We didn’t say we would draw the line. We only wanted to use whatever was the best to tell our story. We ended up using some of the latest cutting-edge fluid simulations and marrying them with classic stop motion. It’s a lovely harmony between the two.” Even with the opportunity to do anything digitally, that was not a desirable option. “At the heart of it, Wallace and Gromit is clay,” Park states. “It’s always got to be clay; the actual character work. It’s part of its beating heart and is the ethos of everything being handmade. There are some things you can’t do to expand the world. Even when we do that, it’s got to fit the stop-motion feel. It’s got to be in style. If it feels like you’re putting live-action water into a stop-motion environment, it doesn’t work. The visual effects guys were great and versatile with all of that.”
“The lighting is a character because at every point, it not only tells the story but embodies the characters. It seems like an obvious thing, but it doesn’t always happen in the films that we’ve made. They hit a sweet spot for us on this one.”
—Nick Park, Director
Park has described Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl as Cape Fear with penguins. “It’s got a comic conceit behind the idea,” Park reflects. “It’s not like I would think of a lovely story and then add the gags. It’s like a wish list of things we would love to stay and will do what we can to twist and turn to get those things in as long as they don’t feel too contrived. Everybody has a limit!” A homage to The Matrix occurs when the green streaming computer code from the computer screen is reflected on Norbot, the personal assistant invented by Wallace that gets hacked by the vengeful Feather McGraw to aid in his escape from his zoo incarceration. “That was one Dave Alex Riddett, our Director of Photography, was determined to try to do practically, and he found this projector that not only could focus close and small but be able to stay on for weeks on end and not fluctuate picture position or color,” Crossingham remarks. “It was fantastic.”
A character painting of Norbot by director Nick Park.
An ongoing Wallace and Gromit theme is technology being invented with good intentions but being subverted for nefarious purposes. “In a way, it was part of the premise of this film that our angle of attack on the story was that things have reached a point in Gromit’s life where it’s getting too much,” Park remarks. “Wallace believes that tech can solve all problems, even emotional ones and relationships. It’s seriously not working. It’s not so much evil because obviously Wallace is well-meaning, but it’s that kind of a deluded state. The invention of Norbot goes from insult to injury for Gromit. There’s always an outside evil force in the Wallace and Gromit films where it’s not just going wrong, because it’s got to have more motivation and incentive than that.” Wallace has made a technological breakthrough with Norbot. “This is the first time that Wallace is actually efficient because normally his inventions are not,” Crossingham observes. “As Wallace says, ‘It’s his best invention ever.’ Be careful what you wish for.”
Two pivotal antagonists are Feathers McGraw and Norbot, with the former being an established character and the latter being a new addition to the franchise. “With Feathers McGraw, it was about continuing where he had gotten to at the end of The Wrong Trousers so it felt like we all recognized him as the same evil penguin,” Crossingham explains. “It was about his stillness, and the way he moves is a glide rather than a wooden, wobbly penguin comedy walk. Feathers is very serious. Feathers only moves a little bit, and when he does, because he’s so graphically simple, you really see it. It was about finding where those sweet spots are and what is the absolute minimum to get maximum effect. That is challenging for an animator because an animator loves to make things move. It was similar for Norbot as well. For the first prototype of Norbot that the modeling department made, we had the eyebrows move, and as we tested the animation, he looked too human. We started paring it back and solidifying his eyebrows, not moving his eyes, and making his jaw like a ventriloquist dummy; the more we did that the more he felt robotic. It also meant we could play that balance between an ever-so-slightly sinister feeling. yet smiley, charming and happy at the same time.”
Conceptualizing the train and aqueduct chase sequence that takes place in a valley.
“We only wanted to use whatever was the best to tell our story. We ended up using some of the latest cutting-edge fluid simulations and marrying them with classic stop motion. It’s a lovely harmony between the two.”
—Merlin Crosingham, Director
Lighting was viewed as a character in its own right. “Feathers moves so subtly and little relative to the other characters that we have to use all of the filmmaking techniques we have available to us,” Crossingham observes. “You can keep Feathers still but push the camera in on him slowly, make sure that the lighting has the atmosphere, and the sound. For the lighting, we specifically looked at film noir and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, particularly the character of Mrs. Danvers and the way that she would emerge or retreat into the shadows. The lighting is a character because at every point, it not only tells the story but embodies the characters. It seems like an obvious thing, but it doesn’t always happen in the films that we’ve made. They hit a sweet spot for us on this one.”
Concept art for the scene where the submarine emerges in the zoo enclosure with Feathers McGraw channeling his inner Ernst Blofeld.
Blinks and hand motions are utilized as exclamation marks. “It slightly differs among the various characters,” Park states. “With Feathers McGraw, it was minimal. Just a blink now and then says a lot. It’s all about using a little to great effect with the music and camera moves; the audience believes that Feathers is thinking and the cogs are turning in his head. The Norbots are an extension of Feathers McGraw. Sometimes, it’s too much to blink even once. Sometimes, it’s far more sinister to look. Sometimes, we put blinks in and took them out again because it’s too much. It’s all acting. The animators are actors. Actually, we act a lot of it ourselves on video as a way of conveying to the animators what we are after for a particular shot, what the drama is about, what the comedy is, where the laughs are, and the comedic timing. It helps. They don’t follow it exactly, but it’s a way of explaining where we want the shot to land for timing and gestures. It’s all about the hand movements and head tilts.”
Resembling the Orc-making factory constructed by Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the set known as the Cellar Cauldron where mass-produced Norbots are manufacturing something mysterious for Feathers McGraw. “Our electricians got inventive and used traditional techniques of getting gobos moving against each other with random patterns of light going through them, so it looked like there was rippling fire and light on the walls,” Crossingham explains. “We used the projector that had projected the numbers onto Norbot with some animation on it to look like explosions of fire. Then it was augmented with CG sparks and other digital effects on top of it afterwards. Principally, it’s good lighting in Wallace’s and Gromit’s basement. We wanted it to feel rather Orc-like.”
Part of the aqueduct was physically built with the rest extended digitally.
One of the established sets is the house of Wallace and Gromit. “Technically, the house changes enormously according to the necessity of the stories in each film,” Park states. “It’s an anamorphous house really! Sometimes, it had a big front garden and other times a short one. We tried to be consistent with the sense of comfort and nostalgia about the house and where everything comes from. We had to slightly update things because of the subject of AI and computers, because we never say where Wallace’s and Gromit’s world exists between the 1950s and present day. We have never gotten as far as smartphones. They’re usually objects that still have a lot of old-fashioned-character. It still had to be an antique, even if it’s a computer.”
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl provided an opportunity to implement some productions, as the last significant Wallace & Gromit outing was the short A Matter of Loaf and Death released in 2009. “From the inside out, it was an opportunity regardless whether you could see it on the outside make things better for the animators in terms of the armatures, for the rigging department in how they could connect the armatures and for us to take advantage of things, like silicone being better than it has been and to use it appropriately on the puppets where we might use foam latex in the past or even clay in some places,” Crossingham remarks. “Wallace’s and Gromit’s hands and faces are always modeling clay because it’s not only essential that’s how they look, but it’s the best way of getting a good performance. There is a lot of new material technology in the characters, but hopefully it doesn’t show too much. It was essential that they still kept the handmade clay thumb-iness.”
Greenscreen was utilized to get the necessary scope for scenes.
Creating the various facial expressions for Wallace.
“At the heart of it, Wallace & Gromit is clay. It’s always got to be clay; the actual character work. It’s part of its beating heart and is the ethos of everything being handmade. There are some things you can’t do to expand the world. Even when we do that, it’s got to fit the stop-motion feel. It’s got to be in style.”
—Nick Park, Director
Gromit remains a difficult character to animate given that he expresses himself through pantomime, not dialogue. “All of the animators require a refresher course where they get three weeks of constantly animating Gromit and testing different expressions,” Park explains. “How high or low his brow should move, and how big his reactions should be, because it’s all got to be believable, even though the characters are four or five inches high.” Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl expands upon the relationship between the title characters. “The thing that stands out to me the most is we’ve pushed Wallace’s and Gromit’s relationship more than ever before,” Crossingham remarks. “It used to be a joke that Wallace never learns anything. Actually, in this film he does look at himself a little bit. We have pushed him emotionally in a very British way. What that does is open up a bigger feeling within the film, and hopefully by the end, it fills your heart with warmth.”
Since the last Wallace and Gromit outing in A Matter of Loaf and Death, further advances have been made in the armatures for the puppets.
An actual projector found by Dave Alex Riddett was utilized to project the computer code onto Norbot.
The simple graphic design for Feathers McGraw was maintained from The Wrong Trousers.
Editing the scene when Wallace goes through the enclosed slide located on the side of his house.
Director Merlin Crossingham has been given the responsibility of being the guardian of a beloved stop-motion franchise that began as college short by Nick Park, with both of them serving as directors on Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
The lighting schemes for Feathers McGraw was inspired by how the head housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, was treated in Rebecca by Alfred Hitchcock.
Initially, Norbot had organic moments which made him too human, so a minimal approach was adopted to make his presence more robotic.
Before the toy-train set mayhem finale in Ant-Man, there was Gromit trying to catch Feathers McGraw in The Wrong Trousers. “It was a small crew,” Park reveals. “We didn’t know what we were doing. I wanted it to be the fastest thing I’ve ever seen in stop motion and be a totally madcap Tom & Jerry cowboy-style, train-top chase but all within the living room.” The cinematic achievement would not be done practically today. “Weirdly, some of the technological advancements we have in the studio would mean that sequence would not happen today,” Crossingham notes. “I wasn’t on the film, but I know how Nick and Dave Alex Riddett achieved it. It was inventing a technique with a basic motion control equipment they had and actually moving it by hand. I don’t think today’s digital cameras would handle the blurring; Go motion, and the rough and ready nature that gave it that visceral energy. It’s a product of its time.” Nowadays, it would be executed digitally. “They would try to smooth it all out and calculate everything,” Park remarks. “It’s that handmade nature that made it erratic and imperfect.”
Lighting tricks made it look like there was fire present on the Cellar Cauldron set.
Whereas The Wrong Trousers featured a fast chase, Nick Park decided to head in the opposite direction with the canal scene where the action moves at four miles per hour.
Gromit remains a hard character to animate, with animators going through a three-week refresher course focused entirely on him.
The canal chase trades speed for slowness. “Gromit hotwires the barrage, and we do a Mission: Impossible, Fast & Furious buildup to do a four-mile-per-hour chase!” Park says. “Pulling off that gag I find satisfying.” The climax is a highlight. “It merges with Gromit going in and out of light,” Crossingham states. “It goes from this small world into a scale that is audacious for a stop-motion film, and I love that fact that we managed to pull it off. One of the gags that makes me giggle, which after you made a film for four or five years not many make you do, it’s where Wallace says, ‘I wouldn’t bother with that teapot. It doesn’t work!’ Digital effects helped to expand the universe. “That’s great,” Park notes. “But as artists you always have to work with parameters because that’s when you get inventive with how you shoot it, how you make the gag or drama work more effectively. Having the whole universe at your fingertips isn’t necessarily a good thing for the artist. There are always time and budgetary restrictions as to what they can do in CG. The last scene Merlin talked about when we suddenly go spectacular over the valley and see the aqueduct, we were limited by how high. But digital effects allowed us to get the camera right up and to extend the legs of the bridge as high as we wanted. The valley itself was real. It was a whole mixture of different techniques.”
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