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By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of Universal Studios.While Shrek launched the first franchise for DreamWorks Animation, How to Train Your Dragon has become such a worthy successor that the original director, Dean DeBlois, has returned to do a live-action adaptation of a teenage Viking crossing the social conflict divide between humans and flying beasts by befriending a Night Fury. Given that the fantasy world does not exist, there is no shortage of CG animation provided by Christian Manz and Framestore, in particular with scenes featuring Toothless and the Red Death. Framestore facilities in London, Montreal, Melbourne and Mumbai, as well an in-house team, provided concept art, visual development, previs, techvis, postvis and 1,700 shots to support the cast of Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler, Nick Frost, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James and Nick Cornwall.A full-size puppet of Toothless was constructed, minus the wings, that could be broken down into various sections to get the proper interaction with Hiccup.What I hoped is that people would watch it and see real human beings flying dragons. Youre emotionally more connected because youre seeing it for real. The animation is amazing and emotional, but we wanted to try to elevate that in terms of storytelling, emotion and wish fulfillment.Christian Manz, VFX SupervisorEven though the animated features were not treated as glorified previs by the production, the trilogy was the visual starting point for the live-action adaptation. Deans challenge from the beginning was, If you can come up with better shots or work, thats great. If you cant come up with better shots then it will be the one from the animated movie, states VFX Supervisor Manz. When it came to a few key things like flying and reestablishing what that would look like in the real world, we began to deviate. Elevating the complexity of the visual effects work was the sheer amount of interaction between digital creatures and live-action cast. What I hoped is that people would watch it and see real human beings flying dragons, Manz notes. Youre emotionally more connected because youre seeing it for real. The animation is amazing and emotional, but we wanted to try to elevate that in terms of storytelling, emotion and wish fulfillment.Despite having significant set builds, digital extensions were still required to achieve the desired scope for Berk.The nature of live-action filmmaking presented limitations that do not exist in animation. Glen McIntosh, our Animation Supervisor, said from the beginning that, Everything is going to move slower, Manz remarks. You watch Stoick pick up Hiccup at the end of the animated movie, and in about three frames hes grabbed and flung him over his shoulder. In our version, Gerard Butler has to kneel down, shuffle over to where Mason Thames is and lift him up. All of that takes more time. The sizes of the dragons also had to be more consistent. Manz comments, We all had a go at ribbing Dean about continuity because every dragon changed in size throughout the original film. It works and you believe it. However, here we had to obey the size and physics to feel real. An extensive amount of time was spent during pre-production to discover the performances of the dragons. Because we were literally inhabiting a real world, Dominic Watkins was building sets, so we had to find out how big they are, how fast they would move, and their fire. It was important we figured that out ahead of time.One of the hardest scenes to recreate and animate was Hiccup befriending Toothless.We all had a go at ribbing Dean [DeBlois, director] about continuity because every dragon changed in size throughout the original film. It works and you believe it. However, here we had to obey the size and physics to feel real. Because we were literally inhabiting a real world, Dominic Watkins was building sets, so we had to find out how big they are, how fast they would move, and their fire. It was important we figured that out ahead of time.Christian Manz, VFX SupervisorRetaining the cartoon stylization of Toothless was important while also taking advantage of the photorealism associated with live-action. Three months before we officially began working on the film, Peter Cramer, the President of Universal Pictures, wanted to know that Toothless would work, Manz explains. We did visual development but didnt concept him because we already had the animated one. From there we did sculpting in ZBrush, painting in Photoshop and rendering in Blender. We spent three months pushing him around. I went out to woods nearby with a camera, HDRI package, color chart and sliver ball to try to shoot some background photographs that we could then put him into, rather than sticking him in a gray room. I even used my son as a stand-in for Hiccup to see what Toothless looked like against a real human. We looked at lizards to horses to snakes to panthers to bats for the wings. The studio wanted him big, so he is a lot bigger than the animated version; his head compared to his body is a lot smaller, head-to-neck proportion is smaller, his eyes are smaller proportion compared to the animated one, and the wings are much bigger. We ended up with a turntable, ran some animation through Blender, and came up with a close-up of Toothless where hes attached to the rope, which proved to the studio it would work.Other recreations were the sequences that take place in the training arena.Hiccup befriending Toothless was the sequence that took the longest to develop and produce. During the gestation of that, we slowly pulled it back because when you watch animals in the real world, when they want something rather than moving around and doing lots of stuff, theyll just look at you and have simple poses, Manz notes. That simplicity, but with lots of subtlety, was difficult. To get the proper interaction, there was a puppet on set for Toothless. We had a simple puppet from nose to tail for him, apart from the wings, that could be broken up. For that scene, it would only be Tom Wilson [Creature Puppetry Supervisor] and the head at the right height. We did previs animation for the whole sequence. Framestore has an AR iPad tool called Farsight, which you could load up, put the right lens on, and both us, Dean and camera could look to make sure that Toothless was framed correctly. We could show Mason what he was looking at and use it to make sure that Tom was at the right height and angle. Im a firm believer that you need that interaction. Anything where an actor is just pretending never works.The live-action version was able to elevate the flying scenes.Red Death was so massive that separate sets were constructed to represent different parts of her body. We had simple forms, but based off our models, the art department built us a mouth set with some teeth. We had an eye set that provided something for Snotlout [Gabriel Howell] to hang off of and bash the eye, which had the brow attached to it. Then we had like a skate ramp, which was the head and horn, to run up, Manz reveals. When Asterid [Nico Parker] is chopping off teeth, she is not hitting air. We had teeth that could be slotted in and out based on the shots that were needed. The set could tip as well, so you could be teetered around. Scale was conveyed through composition. We made it a thing never to frame Red Death because she was so big and that was part of making her look big. One of the challenges of animating her is, when flying she looks like shes underwater because of having to move so slowly. Her wingtips are probably going 100 miles per hour, but theyre so huge and covering such a large area of space that having Toothless and rocks falling in the shot gave it scale.Fire was a principal cast member. I called up YouTube footage of a solid rocket booster being tested last year, strapped to the ground and lit, Manz states. The sheer power of the force of that fire, and it was done in a desert, kicked up lots of dust. We used that as the reference for her fire. Another unique thing in this world is that each dragon has a different fire. Her fire felt like it should be massive. Toothless has purple fire. Deadly Nadder has magnesium fire. We have lava slugs from Gronckle. For a number of those, we had Tez Palmer and his special effects team creating stuff on set that had those unique looks we could start with and add to. When we saw the first take of the Red Death blasting the boats, we were like, Thats going to look amazing! The jets of fire would always involve us because they had to be connected to the dragon. The practical fire added an extra layer of fun to try to work out.An aerial view of the training arena showcases a maze configuration.Another significant element was flying. I felt the more analogue we could be, the more real it could look, but it still had to be driven by the movement and shapes of our dragons, Manz remarks. We worked with Alistair Williams [Special Effects Supervisor] motion control team and used their six-axis rig, which can carry massive planes and helicopters, and placed an animatronic buck of the head, neck and shoulders of each dragon on top of that. We designed flight cycles for the dragons, and as actors were cast, we digitally worked out the scale and constraints of having a person on them. When the special effects came on, we passed over the models, and they returned files in Blender, overlaying our animation with their rig. The rigs were built and shipped out to Belfast one by one. There were no motion control cameras. I had simple techvis of what the camera would be doing and would say, This bit we need to get. That bit will always be CG. We would find the shot on the day. The six-axis rigs could be driven separately from animation. but also be driven by a Wahlberg remote control. You could blend between the animation and remote control or different flight cycles. The aim was that Mason was not just on a fairground ride but is controlling, or is being controlled, by this beast he is riding; that was a freeing process.A character that required a number of limb replacement shots was Gobber, who is missing an arm and a leg.Not entirely framing the Red Death in the shot was a way to emphasize the enormous size of the dragon.Glen McIntosh, our Animation Supervisor, said from the beginning that, Everything is going to move slower [in live-action than in animation], You watch Stoick pick up Hiccup at the end of the animated movie, and in about three frames hes grabbed and flung him over his shoulder. In our version, Gerard Butler has to kneel down, shuffle over to where Mason Thames is and lift him up. All of that takes more time.Christian Manz, VFX SupervisorA 360-degree set was physically constructed for the training arena, and was built to full height. We didnt have the roof and had a partial rock wall, but the whole thing was there. We were doing previs and designing alongside Dominic Watkins building the training arena. One of the big things was how fast is the Nadder going to run and how big does this arena have to be? We were also working with Roy Taylor [Stunt Coordinator], who did some stuntvis that was cut into the previs, and then started building our sequence. I ended up with a literal plan in which fences had to be real and what the actions were. It was shot sequentially so we could strike fences as we went; some fences would become CG. That was the first thing we shot, and it snowed! We had ice on the ground that froze the fences to the ground. They had a flamethrower out melting snow. We had short shooting days, so some of it had to be shot as the sun went down. Bill Pope would shoot closer and closer, which meant we could replace bits of environment and still make it look like it was day further away. There was a lot in there to do.Each dragon was given a distinct fire that was a combination of practical and digital elements.Live-action actors do not move as quickly as animated characters, adding to the screentime.Environments were important for the flying sequences. Flying was going to be us or plates, and I wanted to capture that material early, so we were recceing within two months of starting, back in the beginning of 2023, Manz states. We went to Faroe Islands, Iceland and Scotland, and Dean was blown away because he had never been on a recce like that before. All of the landscapes were astonishing. We picked the key places that Dean and Dominic liked and went back with Jeremy Braben of Helicopter Film Services and Dominic Ridley of Clear Angle Studios to film plates for three weeks. We caught 30 different locations, full-length canyons and whole chunks of coastline. My gut told me that what we wanted to do was follow Toothless and the other dragons, which meant that the backgrounds would be digital. Creating all of those different environments was one of the biggest challenges of the whole show, even before we shot the strung-out shots of Toothless flying alone around Berk that made everyone go, That could look cool. It was using all of that visual reference in terms of the plates we shot, the actual date and the stuff we learned. There were birds everywhere, the color of the water was aquamarine in Faroe, and you could get the light for real.Using the practical set as base, the entire environment for the training arena was digitally rebuilt.Wind assisted in conveying a sense of speed. No matter how much wind you blow at people for real, you can never get enough, Manz observes. They were using medically filtered compressed air so we could film without goggles. Terry Bambers [1st Assistant Director: Gimbal Unit] team rigged those to the gimbals and had additional ones blowing at bits of costume and boots. For a lot of the takes, we had to go again because we needed to move more; clothes dont move as much as you think theyre going to. Framestore built some incredible digital doubles that, through the sequence, are either used as whole or part. We utilized much of the live-action as the source, but theres whole lot going on to create that illusion and bond it to the dragon and background.Having smaller elements in the frame assisted in conveying the enormous size of the Red Death.Missing an arm and a leg is Gobber (Nick Frost). Dean and I were keen not to have the long and short arm thing. Our prop modeler built the arm so it could be the actual hammer or stone, and Nicks arm would be inside of that with a handle inside. He had a brace on his arm, then we had the middle bit we had to replace. Most of the time, that meant we could use the real thing, but the paint-out was a lot of work. Framestore built a partial CG version of him so we could replace part of his body where his arm crossed. Like with Nick, the main thing with Hiccup was to try to get almost a ski boot on Mason so he couldnt bend his ankle. The main thing was getting his body to move in the correct way. In the end, Nick came up to me one day and asked, Could I just limp? We got Dean to speak to him sometimes when he would forget to limp. You cant fix that stuff. Once all of that body language is in there, thats what makes it believable. The Gobber work is some of the best work. You dont notice it because it feels real, even though its a lot of shots.
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