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For the past nine months Flex Animation has had the pleasure of working with prestigious previsualization company Proof Inc. Working across a variety of film and television projects, David Cowles-Brooks worked as an Assets and Rigging Lead to help support the talented team of shot artists.
Special thanks to Proof for such an enjoyable range of work in such a fast paced and creative area of film production.
‘The Amazing Maurice’ is based on the best selling Terry Pratchett novel and is due for release in 2022
For the past year Flex Animation has had the pleasure of working with the very talented team at Red Star 3D on their next animated feature film. Based on the best selling Terry Pratchett novel, ‘The Amazing Maurice’ is due to be released in 2022 on Sky Cinema and stars Hugh Laurie (House), Emelia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and David Thewlis (Wonder Woman).
For the project David at Flex Animation Senior Rigging Technical Director was tasked with providing a suite of facial rigging tools for a wide range of stylised characters, working closely with the Head of Rigging and Lead Animator. He then completed facial rigging for Maurice and the entire cast of characters in the film.
Sophie Vickers - Lead Character TD at Red Star 3D:
“I have had the pleasure of working with David for nearly a year. In that time he took what was a very rudimentary and bare-bones facial rigging system and built it up into a production standard tool, all the while deploying facial set-ups for a large array of very varied characters. He is a skilled rigger, very diligent, an excellent communicator and always comes to the table with a positive attitude. I sincerely hope we get to work together again and fully recommend him to anyone seeking a rigging TD.”
Should you have any questions about our facial rigging services, please do contact us.
In late 2019 Flex Animation was engaged to work on a very unique and inspiring project. Professor Peter Scott-Morgan, a distinguished robotics scientist who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2016, wanted to realise a fully expressive digital avatar of himself. His pioneering work was documented in the Channel 4 documentary Peter: the Human Cyborg and forms a complete transformation from organ interfaces to mechanical assistance in standing.
Flex Animation's work involved translating the FACS scan output provided by Optimize 3D and Adam Spring to a highend rig for manipulation and extraction by game developers and programmers. The end result was a derivative real time display of Peter's likeness delivering dialogue.
Flex Animation is very proud to have been a part of this incredible project and would like to extend a huge thank you to Channel 4 and the Scott-Morgan Foundation for working with us.
The full documentary can be viewed on Channel 4 here.
Earlier this year Flex Animation was excited to assist Axis Studios with a colossal new trailer for Magic: The Gathering’s latest Arena Expansion, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.
Flex was tasked with the facial rigging for the two heroes - the lead female Vivien and the enormous flying Wingcat. For Wingcat careful attention was paid to matching the facial expression of large cats to capture the subtleties of sneers, growls and blinks.
Special thanks to Axis for working with us on this very exciting and gigantic scope of a project.
More information about the expansion can be found here https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/Ikoria and the trailer for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths can be viewed below:
In September 2019 Flex Animation was excited to assist NineteenTwenty with a unique rigging task. The latest Nectar App commercial required an amorphous blob rig, which could be manipulated to make a range of pleasant shapes whilst maintaining volume preservation. Along with blendable appendages, custom correctives were sculpted and integrated seamlessly with the rig controls during the production to meet the animators’ needs.
Special thanks to NineteenTwenty Bristol for working with us on this short and sweet project.
The full commercial can be viewed below:
At the end of 2019 Flex Animation was excited to assist Axis Studios with an atmospheric new trailer for Magic: The Gathering’s latest Arena Expansion, Theros Beyond Death.
Flex was responsible for body rigging for the cast of characters including Ashiok, facial rigging for the hero female character Elspeth, as well as providing previzualisation and motion capture rig assets for the project.
Special thanks to Axis for working with us on this very exciting and equisitely rendered project. Thanks also to David Matthews for working with us on the body rigging required for this project.
More information about the expansion can be found here https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/TherosBeyondDeath and the trailer for Theros Beyond Death can be viewed below:
This summer Flex Animation was excited to assist Axis Studios with a monumental new trailer for Magic: The Gathering’s latest Arena Expansion, Throne of Eldraine. Focusing on two adorable Gingerbread characters, this trailer weaves spectacle and tragedy in to what seems like a romantic fairytale - at first.
Flex was responsible for body and facial rigging for the hero male and female Gingerbreads, the muscle-bound Garruk, body and armour rigging for all the Knights, as well as providing previzualisation and motion capture rig assets for the project.
Particular focus was given to the deformation of the Gingerbread couple through carefully honed correctives and the inclusion of controls to allow arcs in the limbs. The facial rigs were imbued with an illlustrative quality, while maintaining the gooey roundness of the icing through controls that allowed additional volume & shaping on top of expression shapes.
Special thanks to Axis for working with us on this very unique and beautifully rendered project. The new expansion can be played now on the Eldraine Courtside Brawl event on Magic: The Gathering Arena and the trailer for Throne of Eldraine can be viewed below:
Continuing our body of rigging work for Funko Animation throughout 2018 and in to 2019, we are pleased to share the latest short ‘Captain Marvel Goes Higher, Further, Faster!’. These simple large-headed characters are built using our in-house automated rigging pipeline, ensuring quick and reliable turnarounds with flexible animation controls.
Highlights below include ‘Welcome to Wetmore Forest’ which required Flex to add subtler rigging controls to help bring extra appeal to their characters, as well as an Ewok romp through Endor for the exclusive Box Trailer. Many thanks to Funko Animation for working with Flex Animation on these shorts.
In the second half of 2017 Flex Animation was delighted to assist Doodle Productions (sister company of Squint Opera) with characters for the second series of ‘Messi goes to Okido’. Flex made swift work of rigging key robots Bryn, Nancy and Stan Tall with our in-house rigging toolset for use in multiple episodes. We then moved on to assisting with rigging on the Mayor, Gloria and Geoffery and the populus of Okdio, the Okidinian.
Special thanks to Doodle Productions for working with Flex Animation on this fun project.
Messi goes to Okido Season 2 is currently being aired on CBeebies is also available on BBC IPlayer.
Stan Tall assists the Mayor in ‘Messi goes to Okido’ Season 2 episode ‘Vote OKIDO’
In 2017 Flex Animation was proud to assist Stargate Studios with the hero character in a new Spanish TV show ‘Sabuesos’ (Hound Dogs). Working closely with Stargate, Flex provided a full FACS rig for ‘Max’ for use in 900 live action shots over 10 episodes, enabling a dog to talk!
The facial setup had to respect the anatomy of the Jack Russell Terrier whilst allowing the actor’s performance to be mapped on to the rig. Layers of phonetic controls allowed the animators to work broadly, while finer muscle controls allowed fine tuning to match the nuances of the voice actor.
Image courtesy of this article breaking down Stargate Studios’ work on ‘Sabuesos’
Should you have any questions about our facial rigging pipeline and/or the performance transfer process, please do get in touch with us.
Special thanks to Stargate Studios for working with us on this exciting project.
In the second half of 2017, Flex Animation was pleased to be a part of the debut season of 'Happy!', the bleak comic book adaption from SyFy. Working closely with Axis VFX, Flex provided body and facial rigging for three fantasy characters: Pancake Head, Toad and Bo Peep.
Special thanks to Axis VFX for working with us on this very unique and darkly comedic project. 'Happy!' Season 1 is currently available on Netflix and airs on SyFy in the US.
Flex provided a range of fantasy character rigs. Toad's setup had fleshy 'pucker' shapes built in to the face rig and sculpt controls provided further soft deformation for the animators.
Bo Peep was designed to behave rigidly like she was made of porcelain, but had to deform and preserve volume gracefully.
Axis VFX provided the face rig for Pancake Head, Flex Animation rigged the body - creating the feeling of a floppy egg batter in the character.
In 2016 Flex Animation was proud to be involved in the early stages of this summer's highly anticipated dinosaur adventure; Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom. Working with previsualisation geniuses Proof Inc London, Flex provided animatable rigs for seven of the key Dinosaurs used for choreographing the action and framing for the film. This included the Velociraptor 'Blue' and the prominent Carnotaurus. Although a smaller part of the final VFX process, Flex is proud to be involved with the tectonic stages of such an eruption of a film.
Special thanks to Proof Inc for working with us on this exciting project. Thanks also to David Matthews for joining us to work on all of the Dinosaur rigs.
Early in 2018 Flex Animation provided four key facial rigs for Ubisoft's E3 'Skull & Bones' trailer. Working closely with Pinewood Studios 3D group, Flex made use of our high fidelity facial rigging toolset. Hi-resolution facial expression scans of the actors were provided by Pinewood, which were then honed and integrated in to the final facial rigs at Flex.
Special thanks to Pinewood Studios 3D group for working with us on this exciting project. The full trailer can be viewed below:
Flex provided four main character facial rigs
Continuing our highlights of rigging work for A Large Evil Corporation throughout 2017, Flex Animation was pleased to be involved with one of the most interesting new creature additions to the Star Wars universe - the Porgs! As well as The Last Jedi characters, Flex Animation has provided rigs for multiple Star Wars product trailers this year - including the Smuggler's Bounty Droids box and the Smuggler's Bounty 40th Anniversary box.
Based on the popular Funko collectible figure line, these simple large-headed characters are all built using our in-house automated stylised rigging pipeline, ensuring quick and reliable turnarounds with flexible animation controls. Many thanks to A Large Evil Corporation for working with Flex Animation on these fun projects.
All trailers can be found below:
Excelsior! Continuing our highlights of rigging work for A Large Evil Corporation throughout 2017, Flex Animation was elated to be a part of several Marvel film tie-ins animated shorts and trailers. These included Spiderman: Homecoming, a Guardians of the Galaxy animated short 'Cosmic Sleigh Ride' (also shared by Marvel Entertainment online) and Thor: Ragnarok.
Based on the popular Funko collectible figure line, these simple large-headed characters are all built using our in-house automated stylised rigging pipeline, ensuring quick and reliable turnarounds with flexible animation controls. Many thanks to A Large Evil Corporation for working with Flex Animation on these fun projects.
Trailers in full shown below:
Continuing our highlights of rigging work for A Large Evil Corporation throughout 2017, Flex Animation was excited to see the results of this heartwarming trailer for the Funko Disney Treasures line. Hats off to the team at A Large Evil Corporation for recreating the feeling of a beloved Disney classic.
Based on the popular Funko collectible figure line, these simple large-headed characters are all built using our in-house automated stylised rigging pipeline, ensuring quick and reliable turnarounds with flexible animation controls. Many thanks to A Large Evil Corporation for working with Flex Animation on this fun project.
Flex Animation was especially proud to be part of Freddy Funko's birthday celebration earlier in 2017. Flex has provided rigs consistently for Funko's original shorts by working with A Large Evil Corporation throughout the year.
Based on the popular Funko collectible figure line, these simple large-headed characters are all built using our in-house automated stylised rigging pipeline, ensuring quick and reliable turnarounds with flexible animation controls. Many thanks to A Large Evil Corporation for working with Flex Animation on this fun project.
BELOW - work in progress stills from 'The Blood Lotus', a Kung Fu animated pilot being developed by Paul B Frieling, Senior 3D artist at ILM. Flex provided the rigging for all characters and creatures featured in the upcoming short.
Last year we provided a veritable horde of characters, vehicles and creature rigs for A Large Evil Corporation's 'Pop!' stylised animated shorts and product teasers. In 2017 we have continued this run, providing such notable characters as; R2-D2, Luke Skywalker, Captain Jack Sparrow, Wonder Woman, Rocket, Baby Groot & many more.
Based on the popular Funko collectible figure line, these simple large-headed characters are all built using our in-house automated stylised rigging pipeline, ensuring quick and reliable turnarounds with flexible animation controls. We also provided any additional prop and accessory rigs needed, as well as scripts to help support seamless switching.
Thanks to A Large Evil Corporation for working with Flex Animation on these fun characters. Animated shorts and teasers featuring our rigs can be found below:-
Legion of Collectors: Wonder Woman Trailer:
Smuggler's Bounty: Star Wars Rebels Trailer:
Marvel Collector Corps: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Box Trailer:
Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty: 40th Anniversary Box Trailer:
Disney Treasures: Pirates Cove Full-Length Trailer:
In 2016 we supplied a vast array of characters, vehicles and creature rigs for A Large Evil Corporation's 'Pop!' stylised animated shorts and product teasers. Based on the popular Funko collectible figure line, these simple large-headed characters are built using our in-house automated rigging pipeline, ensuring quick and reliable turnarounds with flexible animation controls. The rigs included notable characters; Marvel's Deadpool, DC's Batman and Robin, and Star Wars' Han Solo with Tauntaun and many more.
Thanks to A Large Evil Corporation for working with Flex Animation on these fun characters. Animated shorts and teasers featuring our rigs can be found below:-
Smuggler's Bounty: The Empire Strikes Back Trailer:
Spellbound:
Chimichangas, featuring Deadpool:
Legion of Collectors: DC Legacy Teaser:
Marvel Collector Corps: Super Hero Showdowns Teaser:
Marvel Collector Corps: X-Men Teaser: