When your kitty’s left the city, when your moose is on the loose, when your cow has said ciao, call Hitpig, the world’s greatest animal tracker!
The first part of this two-part case study explored the influences and look of HITPIG! In this second and final part, we explore the technical challenges faced by Cinesite’s team, in modelling, animating and populating Hitpig’s world.
Pulling the heartstrings
Hitpig’s most challenging, but ultimately rewarding, job is trying to capture an elephant named Pickles. Pickles, a sweet, naive idealist, believes anything is possible. Hitpig couldn’t be more different.
Much of the humour in HITPIG! is based around contrasts between the two lead characters. Not the least of which is their physical differences. Standing just over a meter tall, Hitpig moves economically and with restraint; his leather coat seems stiff and heavy, which matches his constrained personality. Pickles, on the other hand, is free and whimsical in her movements, and we can see the suppleness in the movements of her anatomy and the slight jolts of her fat and muscles. Pickles’s trunk effectively serves as her upper lip.
A scene that really built upon their dynamic takes place in a glass home that floods with water to the ceiling. Too heavy to swim, Pickles balances on furniture trying to reach for air beyond a skylight. As she starts to drown, Hitpig repeatedly dives from roof to water, breathing air for Pickles. Snout to trunk, they are a perfect fit. At its climax, the camera view is framed tightly on both characters showing their close connection in the moment. An exhausted Hitpig continues to breathe life into Pickles all night. Lighting was carefully considered throughout the film, but particularly in this sequence, where it reinforces tension with sharp, dense shadows reflecting from the glass. The yellow morning light brings with it a sense of hope as we await Hitpig and Pickles’ fates.
Throughout this sequence from the opening flood to Hitpig diving under the water, to the final whirlpool where the house empties like a bathtub, the look and interaction of the water with the characters and lighting was vital to give the sense of scale and peril.
Hitting on solutions
Hitpig’s most challenging, but ultimately rewarding, job is trying to capture an elephant named Pickles. Pickles, a sweet, naive idealist, believes anything is possible. Hitpig couldn’t be more different.
One challenge facing the team was working with Hitpig and Pickles’ distinctive snouts — both are large on their faces, often covering most of their mouths. Pickles’ trunk serves in effect as her upper lip. Certain mouth shapes like oohs and aahs are difficult to read when obscured and the mouths on snouted animals are set a long way back. Solutions were found to convey expression in other visible areas of the face, with the mouth corners needing particular attention. Hitpig’s snout was also rigged with flaring nostrils.
HITPIG! clip "We're a perfect fit!"
Pickles has visible brush-strokes on her face and across her whole body. In areas around the mouth which are moving the most, these needed to be toned down. Brush-strokes across Pickles’ body needed to be carefully managed to deform in a subtle way as she dances or runs, so as not to distract from her performance. A wrinkle deformer tool was also written to create the small folds and creases in Pickles’ skin as she bends and stretches, notably for the crease between the top of her trunk and face. This plugin was also used a lot for Polecat, who actually moves like a Slinky, constantly bending and stretching; the flattening and realistic creases in his skin were very important to his performance.
Hitting the numbers
Building the fantastic range of central animals was exciting for Cinesite: from eponymous Hitpig to dancing Pickles, from feisty Koala, to sassy Polecat, from a hungry crocodile to a witty Lobster.
Additionally, the central cast is supported by a much wider group of background characters, representing all the different countries visited, all with unique physical appearances and mannerisms and colorful ‘80s costumes.
In order to create this extensive cast of background characters, a new generics system was developed. Three original characters were created: a male, a female, and a child. From these, blend shapes were created so that multiple variations could be adjusted for each characteristic, including height, body type, limb length, skin tone, hairstyle, facial hair, hat, outfit, etc. The original male, female and child could be used to design wildly different variations, each given a name that allowed it to populate the backgrounds of shots, at the designers’ request. The surfacing team created a wide range of materials for the fantastic ‘80s costumes, including denim, cotton, plastic, leather, and velvet. Each could be cast to specific places with costume variations suitable for the scene, be it an Australian outback dive bar or a hot air balloon festival in the USA. The ability to create diverse crowds with individual characteristics and clothing gave Cinesite unparalleled flexibility to populate the world of HITPIG! with tens of thousands of possible variations.
Movement cycles were also created, including walking, running, clapping, and idle poses, with the ability to speed up or slow them down by incremental amounts. This additional degree of variation gives an organic feel to the behaviour and appearance of the background crowds and characters.
Hitting the spot
Retaining the essence of Berkeley Breathed’s original art and vision to render the funny, tender relationship between Hitpig and Pickles was the principal aim of the Cinesite team. Every editorial decision, animated performance, and visual element of HITPIG! was created with careful consideration of how best to serve the characters, story, and world.