Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Animation/VFX Workflow on "The Annoying Orange"

By StudentFilmmakers.com
posted Sep 13, 2012, 22:49

Kappa Studios has expanded its Animation and VFX Division to meet the increased demand for effects, animation, and compositing of images. Since its founding twenty-five years ago Kappa has always been involved in special effects and image manipulation. The Animation and VFX Division complements Kappa's other services: RED camera rentals, complete picture and sound packages for television and digital cinema, Dolby-certified mixing stage, digital file management, and duplication are part of a wide array of services. Kappa founded RED User Group LA, RED Boot Camp and pioneered RED workflows.

Currently Kappa is posting the smash hit "The Annoying Orange" airing on the Cartoon Network and slated for world-wide release. All the voice talent for the animated series including cameos of well-known stars of film and television are being shot in 4K using a RED camera. The mouths are composited onto the characters in the show who are fruit and vegetables. Every shot in the show is a composite and many shots feature large numbers of characters and elaborate animation.

Heading up the division is one of the leading special effects supervisors in the industry, Patrick Murphy. His credits include Prometheus, Avatar, Harry Potter, Spider Man I and II, the Last Samurai, Battlestar Galactica, Clash of the Titans and numerous other effects intensive projects.

At the heart of the work station network are two redundant servers running a variety of software including Adobe After Effects. Patrick Murphy said, "What Adobe has done is totally amazing. The ease with which we can pass elements through our pipeline from Premiere, Photoshop, and After Effects is a huge time saver. We told Adobe what we were up to and we immediately had tech support and the latest software. We were the first to use version six in a real life situation and now we're using the beta of 6.1."

Kappa uses its expanded talent and hardware on a range of projects including vfx for feature films and animated programs for television. "We have a work flow that is so efficient that it competes with sending this type of work off shore. It's exciting to take advantage of the latest technology from Adobe and easily integrate it with our Avid finishing systems." said Kappa president Paul Long. The speed and efficiency of Kappa's work flow really unleashes the full creativity of the animation and vfx team.

Resources:

http://www.kappastudios.com/