The Secret of Kells was nominated for the Oscars and its little stop over at Digital Graphics certainly contributed to this prestigious selection. Today this company from Liège is among the European service providers which are most in demand, both for animation and for special effects. A little round-up of the latest news about this familial enterprise which is today launching itself into stereoscopic 3D with inventive and innovate solutions.

“The Flying Machine by Martin Clapp is a film made out of animated images and live footage,” Marc Umé starts. A nice starter indeed since Digital Graphics will take care of the 3D special effects. And when we ask them what type of effects they will work on, they answer very modestly: “the usual stuff.” Matte painting, modelising and ... clouds, all in 3D!

Over the course of productions, Marc and Serge Umé developed their own tools, creating “custom-made” solutions for every film. Since the first animated short film, Square Couine, released in 2001, the SoftAnim software has been adapted, thus offering always more advanced and more efficient options to meet the wishes and needs of directors. “Arnaud Demuynck (Digit Anima, La Boîte,...) came to see us for a series of short films, each had very precise and varied artistic demands,” Serge Umé continues. “We have always tried to put the tool in service of the expectations rather than ask for artistic compromises to reduce the costs or for other logistic problems.”

For Fragonard (produced by Tarantula), Digital Graphics has by the way developed a 3D scanner to capture the “Ecorchés” by Honoré Fragonard, a doctor-anatomist from the Age of Enlightenment, adding a new tool which could prove to be very useful for future productions. “For Où est la main de l'homme sans tête, we took a series of photos of Cécile de France's face to recompose it in 3D and superimpose it in the diving scene. With this scanner we will now be able to work much faster to replace one face with another.”

The company does not run from challenges and exploring new paths. For Little Big Panda, an animated feature film, Serge Umé suggested to the production that they add the third dimension to the film while it is animated in 2D. “We will go from 2D to stereoscopic 3D, without requiring 3D CGI,” a smiling Marc Umé explains. “Since we will also do the compositing, we could offer the add of 3D at a reasonable cost. But today the 3D argument has become a sizeable selling factor. By using stereoscopy, the producer will be able to distribute his film more easily on an international level,” Serge Umé concludes.

Another challenge – and not the easiest – the colourisation of Ernest et Célestine. This film, inspired by Gabriel Vincent's album series, must comply with the graphic universe of the series which is illustrated with watercolours. “We adapted SoftAnim once more so the software would be able to render “watercolours”. Benjamin Renner, co-director (with Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar) is thrilled with the first results.” Serge Umé adds that emotion in animation will not only find its way in realism (or hyper realism) but also in stylized universes with their own identity. “For the film Le Jour des Corneilles by Jean-Christophe Dessaint, the décor is extremely polished. We would like to make it possible for the director to have characters who are more than a simple colourisation and who better fit in their graphic environment.” Also in the project queue is The Song of the Sea, the next feature by Tomm Moore with whom we have regular contacts.

Finally the company from Liège is also working on a Finnish film, Tiger Heart, the story of a little boy with an overactive imagination, and Digital Graphics will create the special effects for this piece of fiction.

Now obviously this company has more than enough grey matter between the two of them, but the Umé brothers do not hesitate to open their doors when the opportunities present themselves. “We worked with a Belgian developer for the New Zealand company Refractive SoftWare. They created a rendering software using GPU graphic cards, cards which are much faster than the usual ones (which are among other things used for video games, more information.) This software, Octane Render, makes a hyper realist rendering possible often in just a few seconds of calculating. We are beta-testers and consultants on the projects.” This GPU technology is currently being integrated into their SoftAnim software. “The end goal is to have a complete suite with all modules, for animation as well as for special effects.”

Today, more and more projects arrive on their desk and the Umé brothers now have the luxury to be able to choose their projects. Now the team composed of 10 permanent employees (+5-6 full time freelancers) should grow with around fifteen new collaborators given the productions slated to arrive in the next few weeks.

Another project for the brothers: The Big Farm. “It's a production company also joined by Isabelle Truc (Iota) and Stéphane Roelandts (Studio 352/mélusine production). The underlying idea is to produce projects we are drawn to. So it is not a matter of competing against other production companies. The Big Farm will above all be a tool to carry out projects they want to fight for.

Virginie Breuls