Building Narnia in Miniature
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
This project required us to create a 360° animation which was projected as part of a stage production.
This blog post was originally created to keep the production office, and other members of the creative team, updated privately on progress here at the studio. Especially during the latter development stages and rehearsal process. It was a really useful tool for inviting feedback and allowing cross-collaboration with Stage and Costume Designer Tom Scutt. Now, however, we thought we’d leave some of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ images here for you to see.
The Witches Lair
Using the head of a mannequin as a base, the rocks were sculpted onto it with a hand reaching over the top. Once completed, a brush on silicon mould was taken of the model. A plaster master was cast, textured and painted. We then added extra details such as teeth and a glowing window in the eye socket. This featured as the hero castle.
We also made another version using pumice stone, glitter, dirties and water. The silicon mould was filled and frozen. This was then filmed with time-lapse photography throughout the day as the ice melted. That way, when we played it in reverse it showed the witches lair growing up out of the frozen wasteland.
The Castle
The castle was constructed from balsa wood. We weathered the model, sanded it back, painted it and then dripped ink into the cracks to create lowlights. It was then sanded back to create highlights. To give you an idea of scale the main pillars were over a metre tall.
The various parts of the castle were 3D scanned and reconstructed in CG to form a complete structure with walkways, bridges and a spiral stairway. This allowed the virtual camera to fly through, up and around it.
The Characters
The wooden tree man and the ghoul were originally created using Sculpey clay. We used pieces of tree bark to add extra detail to the tree man. We then took silicon moulds of the master models and created ball and socket armatures for both characters.
The silicon casts were painted and extra detail was added. For example, we used additional pieces of real bark on the tree man, whilst blackwrap lighting foil was used to create armour for the ghoul.
You can see some more images here: Building Narnia In Miniature – Part 2. Or you can see our reel from the show on our portfolio page: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.