Shelley Smith (Producer), Freddy Chaleur (VFX Supervisor) and Jay Boose (Animation Director) from DNEG Animation were excited to host their own INSPIRE session on The Garfield Movie!

They began by introducing director Mark Dindall’s guiding principle for the film’s style: “Honoring the world of Jim Davis.” As their presentation continued From comic to cartoon: The Garfield movieour team revealed more about how they did it and delved deeper into the creative process behind converting the beloved characters from 2D to 3D animation!

Bringing the comics to life in the CG world presented DNEG Animation with several challenges. From character design – including animating the “mono eyes” and the lines on Garfield’s fur – to finding a way to convey the graphic, cartoonish nature of the character’s movements, the team worked together to develop a design language that balanced respect for the comic with working on a modern, animated feature film.

At the end of the presentation, they even shared information about some of the Easter eggs hidden in the film with our teams around the world! Garfield fans, it’s time to watch the movie again.

Thank you for your inspiration, Shelley, Freddy and Jay!