With a locked edit, we had just 2 weeks to finish compositing around 130 shots! Many were prepped, but still, this was a challenge for any studio and we had a team of 4 working remotely, including me, and I was working full-time hours storyboarding on a TV series! But what a team! Chloe Wait, our Lead Harmony Compositor, Kat Owens my assistant animator (both recent graduates from University Arts Bournemouth) and Alexia Vargas Arevalo, our After Effects artist fresh out of University of the Arts, London.
Chloe Waite, composting final shots in ToonBoom Harmony.
Alexia prepped James’s hand painted watercolour backgrounds and character poses in PhotoShop. Kat handled final animation clean-up, tones and digital ink and paint. Chloe brought all of these elements together into the final shots, and I checked shots in the evenings. Chloe had thankfully already experienced the pressures of working in a fast-paced composting team at Brown Bag Films and was managed to keep all those pates spinning!
Still, by the last Friday, we had about 50 shots outstanding, that needed to be in the edit in 4 days. Chloe and I spent a long last weekend. I composited some of the simpler shots directly in Storyboard Pro while kat handled the complex shots in Harmony. And Kat finally got to animate a shot by herself - Want and Ignorance!
Here’s what Chloe has to say about her experience.
I was responsible for putting together the art and animation into final shots, and adding lighting and effects, such as the flickering shadows in Scrooge’s house to the snow falling on the Cratchit’s house. Working on this project has been an absolutely amazing experience, especially when I’ve been working alongside such incredible artists! My favourite scene from the project is the last shot that overlooks the whole of Huddersfield, and I can’t wait for everyone to see it in the finished film!
ABOVE: Chloe’s favourite shot, an epic multiplane shot over overlooking Huddersfield. This progression shows the art and skill of composting - assembling different layers of art and adding tonal adjustments and other effects to create a satisfying single image.