Animation studio Yowza Digital in Toronto is handling 3D animation and visual effects production on DinoSapien, a live-action television series that features CG character animation. Produced by BBC Worldwide and CCI Ent., in association with Discovery Kids, CBBC and Alberta Filmworks, the show debuted on BBC Kids Canada and made its way to Discovery Kids in the U.S. on July 7.
DinoSapien chronicles the adventures of 15 year-old Lauren (Brittney Wilson from Nickelodeon’s Romeo!), whose father mysteriously disappeared on a fossil expedition in the badlands. While Lauren struggles to come to terms with the loss, she spends her days working with a trio of friends at a Dinosaur Camp run by her mother. There, she comes across a living, intelligent dinosaur she names Eno. In addition to keeping Eno a secret, she must protect him form the Diggers, a band of dinosaurs that are trying to kill him. Over two seasons, DinoSapien will unravel the mystery of the evolved dinosaurs and reveal the truth of what really happened to Lauren’s father in the badlands.
Under animation director Marc Lougee, Yowza Digital has produced an average of six minutes of integrated CG and animation for each of the 15 half-hour episodes. The company’s exec producer, Pete Denomme, had previously worked with series exec producer Rick Siggelkow on Ace Lightning, which also blended live action and digital animation.
Lougee lead a team of 20 artists that worked closely with paleontologist Hall Train to determine DinoSapien behavior and movement, as well as coloration and texture, while giving the CG characters a scientific base in reality. The animators took inspiration from dog and bird expressions rather than imbuing the creatures with anthropomorphic qualities and gestures. They also took cues from the BBC’s Discovery’s award-winning Walking With Dinosaurs series, but sought to bring a new approach to portraying how evolved creatures might interact with humans in our world.
Eno and the Diggers were modeled and UV-mapped in Maya, and texture maps with bump and displacement were generated separately in Zbrush. These maps were then imported back into Maya and tested with Mental Ray to perfect the look. Once the look was achieved, Turtle was used for the final render solution. For critical motion blur, a 2D plug-in called Reel Smart was used in the compositing of running and fighting sequences.
While Yowza Digital continues production on DinoSapien, its visual effects division, Switch VFX, is in production on the feature films Saw IV and Snow Buddies, as well the CBC movie of the week The Secret Of The Nutcracker.
