Comic-Con, part 4--"Renaissance"

I got a chance to talk with Marc Miance from Attitude Studio, producers of the striking new animated film, Renaissance.

Miance developed the high-contrast look of the film. "Our first idea was to mix a very simple graphic design, very pure, with a very realistic animation. How to achieve? All the scenes exist in CGI and the lighting in the virtual camera provides high contrast, a sort of 'painting with light.'" The style, a sort of "futuristic film noir," was developed, and then they searched for a story that would fit. "We used Paris, not because we are French, but because we have seen other cities -- New York, London -- in movies as futuristic, but not Paris. It is futuristic but not too far away. You can imaine it." I asked him what the toughest technological challenge was in making the film and he said, "the eyes." They developed a patented new technology using special glasses to track the eye movements of the actors (including new James Bond star Daniel Craig, Catherine McCormack, and Jonathan Pryce) as they recorded the voices of the characters and used them in the film.