Damsel
Watch VFX Breakdown ReelA dutiful damsel agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. Thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, she must rely on her wits and will to survive.
We completed some of the most complex work OOU has ever done including:
- Creature work of a dragon with full skeleton and muscle system, animated across 166 shots.
- Huge scale cave environments and DMP set extensions.
- A lot of dragon fire, napalm, a neck brewing fire effect, dust and destruction, melting and cracking ice, and of course a few splatterings of blood.
- Assets included a dragon, digi-doubles, burnt swallows, armour, swords, crystals and many more props and objects.
Fun Facts:
- It’s the first show at OOU to need 3 units running in parallel.
- A total of 84,877 ShotGrid versions were generated.
Media
Damsel: Emmanuel Pichereau – Creative Director – One of Us
“One of the biggest challenges was animating the dragon in flight, manoeuvring such a massive creature effortlessly through a labyrinth of pillars whilst ensuring she moved effortlessly. We looked at how she could use the environment to gain extra speed, altitude and even change direction rapidly. Another challenge was balancing the dragon’s speed, weight and her agility. This was a tricky combination at times where she needed to execute a particular action quite quickly, however it was a fine line of being either too fast and/or not looking heavy enough for her size.”
Delivering the Fiery Cave Dragon for Damsel
“Our dragon is much closer to a panther, which is why when we brought her into the environments and caves, she is just as comfortable running around the caves as she is flying around them. Whereas your stereotypical dragon is lumbering on the ground and graceful in the air.”
