NIMONA
Netflix
“When a knight in a futuristic medieval world is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona -- a mischievous teen who happens to be a shapeshifting creature he's sworn to destroy.”
How it started
I joined this project very early on, as the first full time compositor. In these early months I worked with the lighting, lookdev and VFX supes to help develop many aspects of the final film. One of my first tasks was constructing the base template for the characters, and environments, which proved to be quite a challenge. Blue Sky had done a fantastic job laying the ground work for us, and some of their tools made it over to DNEG, but largely things had to be started over again, within the new pipeline. There was a large focus on taking the 3D renders and simplifying them to be more akin to traditional 2D animation. This is always difficult to do from a technical perspective, but possibly more so from an artistic perspective. To aid in this, I developed a suite of nuke tools that could simplify renders, relight graphicly, and allow compositors to draw new light/shadow shapes that could track animation
How it’s going
Once the project was fully staffed, and the initial look development was done, I moved into a more traditional comp lead role, with a sprinkling of TD support for anyone who needed it
My main sequences were with young Nimona and Gloreth, The Shadow Creature tearing up the city, the fight scene outside of the institute, and the breaking of the city walls. Each provided their own challenges, and I am grateful for all the help I received from my teams in Montreal, London and Mumbai!
How it ended
This was certainly one of the highlights of my career, it’s not often you come across a story that is breaking new ground in so many areas, and that you as an artist can really sink your shark teeth into!
On a personal level though, I found myself immediately connected with Nimona and Ballister… their stories struck a cord with me in a big way. Now that Nimona is free to wreak havoc in the world, I’m glad to see so many others finding the same!
A very special thanks to Blue Sky Studios for all the work they did before us
