Synopsis
Camargue, France – Nejma trains hard to win the local bullfighting competition. When she is mauled after a celebration, she starts to notice disturbing changes. News of a rogue bull on the loose terrifies the community, killing young men.
Awards
Under the supervision of Lise Fischer, our team rose to remarkable technical challenges to bring this visual adventure to life. From design to 3D modeling and the creation of shaders for fur effects, every detail was meticulously crafted to shape the terrifying yet captivating half-bull, half-werewolf creature.
With 74 visual effects shots completed between February and May 2024, around twenty talented artists contributed all their expertise to enhance the unique world of Animale. Thanks to the integration of camera metadata and on-set SFX extensions, the final result promises total immersion.
The film was presented as the closing film of La Semaine de la Critique at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
It was difficult to plan the editing of the film’s final scene without the VFX, which could only be done once the picture was fully locked. It turned into a real race against time, and we were fortunate to be exceptionally well supported by our VFX supervisor, Lise Fischer.”
Julie Billy, Producer
The MPC Paris teams, led by VFX supervisor Lise Fischer, worked on Emma Benestan’s film Animale with a key challenge: bringing a prosthetic, motionless eye to life while supporting the character’s transformation.
The actress wore an SFX prosthetic completely covering her right eye, so a fully digital 3D eye had to be created and made believable, accurately reproducing the natural movements of her real eye in order to restore a living and expressive gaze. Prior to and during the shoot, full photogrammetry of the actress’s face with the prosthetic was carried out, allowing the exact facial geometry to be reconstructed in 3D and the movements to be tracked precisely. This made it possible to remodel, animate and texture the digital eye and integrate it seamlessly into the shots. In parallel, extensive anatomical work was done on the Camargue bull featured in the film, including precise muscle modeling, creation and grooming of the fur with the right density and behavior, as well as look development to define how the textures respond to light, moisture and dirt. The animal was then rigged and animated using numerous references, supported by a dedicated animation team.
Lise Fischer highlights the collective nature of the effort and expresses pride in the work delivered by the MPC Paris teams.
