Project · Art direction, Design, Layout, Set dressing, Compositing · 2D, 3D, Hybrid · Houdini, Maya, After Effects, Photoshop

Godmothered

An alternative animated opening for Godmothered, Disney+'s comedy about a fairy godmother in training.

Painted view down from a tower onto a courtyard fountain, a red-tiled roof and bare trees.
Early design idea of the school from above.

Studio AKA made an alternative animated opening for Disney+'s 2020 film Godmothered, a comedy about a fairy godmother in training who sets out to grant a wish from a letter written years earlier. The opening combines hand-drawn 2D animation with 3D backgrounds.

The Sequence

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I worked on the opening shot, one of the longest of the project. We used Houdini to populate the scene with foliage, Maya for layout, lighting and rendering, and After Effects for compositing. I made test composites in After Effects and supervised compositing to keep the shots visually consistent; the compositing team handled the final shots.

Women in teal gowns and tall hair sit by a magic fountain with a stag, a red fox and squirrels.
Initial comp testing the look and feel.

Making Of

The sequence was made during the pandemic. I began by helping Marc Craste with design, then worked on layout, set dressing and compositing supervision. The timeframe was tight, so the team built the backgrounds in 3D for reuse.

I built 3D models for the Fairy School in Houdini and Maya, with 2D texturing in Photoshop. A church inspired the design of the central tower and the library building, and Dermot Flynn designed other elements.

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Design

These drawings come from my early design work. Nikolas Ilic designed the final characters, and Dermot Flynn led the production design.

Five color studies of a smiling young woman with long blonde hair and a maroon dress.
Character design studies.
Painted view down from a tower onto a courtyard fountain, a red-tiled roof and bare trees.
Early design idea of the school from above.
Grayscale courtyard with a statue on a fountain plinth before a Gothic hall in shafts of light.
Early design idea of the school in grayscale.
Pink hand-drawn castle with purple flags and glowing sparkles against a pink sky.
Alternative Disney logo in the style of the intro.

Layout

Three gray 3D layout frames of a courtyard, a tower clock and a staircase with a small figure.
3D layouts for the 2D animators and the 3D team.

Studio AKA's 3D team worked out the shot layouts, blocking cameras and placing background elements. The 2D animators used the layouts to support their process, as hand-drawn animation had to sit against 3D backgrounds. The 3D team later used the layouts to light and render the scenes.

Grayscale courtyard with a statue on a fountain plinth before a Gothic hall in shafts of light.

Credits

Production Company
Studio AKA
Client
Disney+
Creative Supervisor & Animation Director
Marc Craste
Producer
Nikki Kefford-White
Shotgun Coordination
Beverly Yeang • Ren Pesci • Ellie Goffe
Art Director
Gergely Wootsch
Production Design
Dermot Flynn
Character Design
Nikolas Ilic
Storyboard
Zhihuang Dong • Yi Shen
Supervising Animator
Aya Suzuki
2D Animation
Uli Meyer • Michael Schlingmann • Andrea Simonti • Thierry Torres • Andy Powell • Andrew Brooks • Peter Dodd • Slaven Reese • Victor Ens • Jorge Duran • Allan Fernando
FX Animation
Duncan Gist
Production Coordinator
Justine Waldie
Assistant Coordinator
Jonathan Wren
Assistant Animation
Simon Swales • Alan Henry • Matthew Armitage • Denise Dean • Kay Sales • Ryan Fairbanks • Martin Dray • David Leick-Burns • Judit Boor • Dominika Brodowska • Alison Oxborrow • Katerina Kremasioti • Helena Bonastre • Marion Boisrond • Andrea Freidrich • Janina Putzker • Sasha Balan • Alejandra Guevara
3D Supervisor
James Gaillard
CGI/Compositing
Jerome Ferra • Clarisse Valeix • Will Eagar • Daniel Garnerone • Adam O'Sullivan Avery • Kristian Fjellerup Olesen • Joshua Crew • Vincent Husset
Editing
Nic Gill
Technical Support
Fabrice Altman