NETWORK ANIMATION SOLUTION

Specializinginanimation,puppets,andhybridtechniques,Mercury isoneofCanada’spremier familyentertainmentcompanies with facilities in Vancouver, British Columbiaand Ottawa, Ontario. Constant quality, utmost reliabilityand proven efficiency make Mercury the partner of choice whetherprovidingproduction servicesor co-producingaproject. Mercury’s track record testifies to its reputation. Since1998Mercury’sclientlisthasgrowntoincludesomeof the finest companies in the world, recognized in the in-dustryfortheircommitmenttoqualitytelevisionandfea-tureentertainment.Amongmanyothers,Mercuryisproudtobeassociatedwith:BBC,BreakthroughFilms&Televi-sion, Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Studios, CBC,ClassicMedia,CookieJarEntertainment,CorusKids/Nel-vana/YTV,DiscoveryNetworks,DisneyTelevision&Fea-tureAnimation,DreamWorksAnimation,MTVNetworks/Nickelodeon, National Geographic, Paramount Pictures,UniversalStudios,WarnerBros.Pictures,WarnerBros.Tele-vision&FeatureAnimation.

MercuryhasbeenusingToonBoom’sproducts since theUSAnimationdaysandhaskeptupwiththetechnologytothisday.

Considered as a Toon Boom Harmony exemplary set-up, Mercury has mastered this powerful solution to fully maximise its benefits and reach new heights efficiency-wise and quality-wise.

Tooting High in the Sky with Harmony

Theirlastrecentprojectsareworthhighlightingduetotheiruniqueness and importance. The first one is Gerald McBo-ing Boing, one of Cookie Jar Entertainment’s highprofile properties.ThispropertyhasaverylonghistoryandCook-ieJar trustedMercury toanimate it remaining true to itsoriginalstylizeddesign.Theteamrecentlycompletedthedeliveryofthis52half-hourseries.AsecondprojectistitledWeird Years.JasonHopleyandJamieShannonknownastheGrogs,createdthispropertyandalongwithJackLenz,theywerelookingforastudiothatcoulddojusticetotheirvision.AsWeird Yearshasadistinctlook,thegoalwastopreservetheroughfeelofthelinesandcreateadesignthathasneverbeendoneindigitalanimationbefore.Mercuryco-produced this serieswith LenzEntertainment andhasagainmet,ifnotsurpassed,expectations.

Their next project will certainly draw a lot of attention.Basedon thestunningandwhimsical seriesof illustratedbooksbycelebratedauthorandartistHollyHobbie,Toot & Puddlewillnowbecomea26half-houranimatedtelevisionseries.Mercuryacquiredthetelevisionrightstothebooksfrom National Geographic Kids in order to develop andproduce the series.Toot & Puddlewill air onTreehouse,Canada’s only dedicated preschool network, as well asNickelodeonUS’sNogginNetwork,NickelodeonUK,Nick-elodeon Germany, Nickelodeon Australia, TV2 Norway,ABC Australia and there are hopes to soon announce apresale in France. The series will be produced in High Defi-nitionandavailableinallstandardworldformats.Eachepi-sodewillairinCanadaasa22minuteepisodecomprisedastwo11minutestories.Internationally,theepisodeswill

Having delivered hundreds of hours of animation and family entertainment to televi-sion and theatres worldwide, Mercury Filmworks offers full script to post services from concept and creative development to design and production.

To meet deadlines, Mercury takes advan-tage of Harmony’s integrated workflow, powerful scene planning, sophisticated effects, compositing tools and seamless 2D and 3D integration. Here’s an outline of how Mercury has achieved Harmony in its studio:

Pre-productionThis stage provides definition to the animator’s vision.

• The script determines the final design and number of characters,backgroundsandprops.

•Thestoryboardisanessentialreferenceforproduction.It contains a graphic representation of what will beanimated.Severaldrawingscanbeusedtoillustratewhatisgoingoninashot.

•Correspondingdialogueandadditional informationarewrittenunderthesedrawingsasaguide.

•Thedialogueofeachcharacterisrecordedandmixedtoobtainthevoicerecording.

•Musicthatneedstobeinsyncwiththeanimationshouldberecordedatthesametime.

•Usingthestoryboardandthevoicerecording,ananimaticon which final animation will be based can be created. Theanimatic,essentiallyadraftversionoftheanimation,providesasenseofthesceneplanningandtimingoftheanimation.

beavailableinboththe22minuteand11minuteformatsNationalGeographicTVInternationalinLondonisthedes-ignatedsalesagencyandwillsurelygarneralotofinterestfrombroadcastersworldwide.

Targeted for a pre-school audience, Toot & Puddle willcharmeventheolderkidsandparents.Theshowfollowstheadventuresoftwofun-loving,inquisitive,butverydiffer-entbestfriends.Tootisayoungpigon-the-go—aglobe-travelingadventurer.Helovestoexploreandisconstantlyon the lookout for a new challenge. Puddle is the back-yardexplorerofthepair.Althoughheenjoystraveling,heis more interested in finding fun closer to home and paying meticulousattentiontoalloflife’slittledetails.Firstandforemost,Toot & Puddleisaboutfriendshipandallofthehappinessandknowledgealastingbondcanbring.Thefunandadventurousshowisdesignedtoencourageexplorationandadventurebothathomeandafarbypiqu-ingkids’naturalcuriosityabouttheworldaroundthem.

The team assigned to this high-quality project includesClintEland,ExecutiveProducer,MarianneCulbert,Super-visingProducer,JerryPopowich,CreativeProducer,BryanPopowich, Associate Producer, Stu Krieger, Story Editor,TaraSorensen,VP,DevelopmentforNationalGeographicKids,DonnaFriedmanMeir,PresidentNationalGeographicKidsEntertainment,DeliaLeandres,TreehouseProductionExecutiveandBonitaSiegel,Treehouse,DirectorofOrigi-nalProduction,tonameafew.

ProductionArtwork•Rough character and prop designs are traced off and

cleanedupasvector linesonaWacomCintiqtablet inHarmonybytheKeyAnimator.

•Theclean-upprocessalsoincludesbreakingthecharacterdown into separate parts or elements i.e. head, eyes,pupils,torso,arms,hands,etc.

•TheKeyAnimatorsanalyzethestoryboardstocreateallvariationsofpartsneededtofullyanimatethecharacterorpropsi.e.speakingmouths,varioushands,eyepositions,partstoaccommodatedifferentangles.

•Onceallthepartsaredrawn,theartistsuseanapprovedcolour reference guide to add final colour to all the character’sseparateparts.

• The key animator is also responsible for the final character construction.

•Construction includes assembling all the raw vectorartworkontomotiontracking“pegs”andputtingtheminto cohesive limbs that all rotate and distort (stretchandsquash)properly.Thecharacteristhenreadytobeplacedinananimatablescene.

Setup•A project folder for each episode is created in the

Harmony database. Each project contains a numberof scene folders which match the scene count in thestoryboardandleicareel.

•An approved leica reel is broken down into separateQuicktime movies for each scene, and imported inHarmony.

•TheQuicktimegetsseparatedontotwotracks:audioandimage.

•Theimportedleicaandstoryboardareusedasreferencetosetthestageforeachscene.

•All appropriate background elements and props areimported to the scene and arranged to match theestablishedboardpanels.

•Characters are then imported from a network basedlibrary, placed and scaled to fit into the scene.

Animation•Ananimator isassignedasceneandopens it fromthe

databaseusingHarmony.•He/sheusesthe leica’sbroken-downaudioand images

as reference. The animator manipulates the charactersmuchlikeavirtualstop-motionpuppettocreateallthekeyposesneededforthescene.

•Thekeyposesareapprovedorsentbackforrevisionbyasenioranimator.Oncethekeyposesareapproved,therestoftheanimationiscompleted.

•Allcameramovesandpansareabletobecreatedatthisstage.

•AnyadditionalFXneededforascene iscreatedbyaneffectsanimator.TheapprovedsceneisopenedandtheFXareanimatedinatraditionalstyleusingaWacomCintiqtablettodrawdirectlyintothedigitalenvironment.

•Thecompletedsceneissubmittedforapprovalfromtheanimation director and supervisors. Any final revisions are addressedbytheanimatorordirectlybythesupervisorsandthesceneissenttocompositing.

•Rampuptimefortheanimatorstohitquota(35-50sec/wk)is4to6weeks.

Compositing• Integrate animation, backgrounds and traditional

effects.•Addingdigitaleffectsto2Delements(lighting,shading,

blurs,etc.).• Adding digital lens effects (depth of field).•Adding3Delements(toon-shadedprops/characters,CG

sets,particleeffects).• Doing all final camera work (pans, trucks, multi-plane,

etc.).•Last pass check for continuity (animation and

backgrounds).•Overallshowqualitycontrol.•Renderscenesforedit.

Images courtesy of Mercury Filmworks. © Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.Montréal, Canada: +1 (514) 278-8666 • Paris, France: +33 (0)1 40 18 77 90 • Herts, England: +44 (0)20 7193 9114info@toonboom.com | toonboom.com | ICAS610HAR10EN

Offline Editing

•Loadingrenderedsequences.•Conformingrenderedoutputtoleica.•Finalizepacingofshow.•Addingdigitaltransitions(crossdissolves,wipes).

MercuryhasalwaysadoptedthelatestToonBoomtechnol-ogiestorelyonthemostadvancedanimationtechniquesandtools.

“With Harmony, we have furthered our level of efficiency within our pipeline and simultaneously, increased our standards of producing quality animation,”

openlysharedBryanPopowich.Mercurymightbeknownasthesmallestplanetinthesolarsystembutinouranima-tionuniverse,itcertainlyshineshighintheskyasastrongindustryleaderthatwecanlookupto.