Including the fascinating ways that the puppets were tracked for mouth replacement, and how the pearls were animated.
Today on the befores & afters podcast, we’re chatting to the Montreal-based filmmakers behind The Girl Who Cried Pearls. This is a stop-motion animated short by directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, made in conjunction with the National Film Board of Canada. I speak to Chris and Maciek, and to Éric Pouliot, who is a technical director at the NFB.
The film is a beautiful story set in the present and the past, and featuring two distinct styles of puppets. We discuss the origins of the film, its painterly nature, who puppets and sets were built, and the specific approach to its somewhat hand-held cinematography. We also dive into the VFX side of the work, including mouth replacement – a really interesting UV light approach to tracking was done here. There’s also an interesting story about animating pearls in the film.
This episode of the befores & afters podcast is sponsored by SideFX. Looking for great customer case studies, presentations and demos? Head to the SideFX YouTube channel. There you’ll find tons of Houdini, Solaris and Karma content. This includes recordings of recent Houdini HIVE sessions from around the world.
Listen in, above. Below, check out a trailer for the film and a featurette, plus a gallery of images going behind the scenes of how The Girl Who Cried Pearls was made.
