Paddington in Peru
While Framestore has brought Paddington to life in two previous films, Paddington in Peru marked my exciting debut with everyone’s favourite marmalade-loving bear. It was a truly special project, and I had the privilege of helping to bring Paddington himself into the stunning world of 4K.
The Art of the Up-Res: Paddington in 4K
Paddington was one of the very first assets I tackled on the film. We had an excellent foundation from the first two movies, but with this being a 4K production, he needed a significant “up-res” to ensure every hair and stitch stood up to the intense scrutiny of higher resolution. This wasn’t just a simple tweak; it involved quadrupling his hair count and refining his textures with much finer detail. We also undertook a full shader conversion to integrate with our latest in-house renderer. A considerable amount of time was dedicated to perfecting his eyes, truly bringing them to life and capturing that beloved Paddington spark. Furthermore, his iconic hat and duffel coat required practically a complete rebuild in modelling, groom, texture, and look development to achieve the necessary detail for 4K. The real challenge, however, was in meticulously updating Paddington’s look for 4K while faithfully preserving the charm and familiarity established in the previous films.
Populating Peru: A Village of Bears
Beyond Paddington himself, I was also tasked with building the look development setup for a selection of generic bears. These foundational assets were then passed on to other talented artists who, using my setups, created an entire village of bears, each with unique shapes, sizes, and appearances, adding rich detail to the Peruvian landscape.
A Global Team
My role also extended to leadership, as I was in charge of a dedicated team of lighting and look development artists right here in London, alongside a talented team of lighting artists in Mumbai. It was a fantastic experience collaborating across continents to bring the magic of Paddington in Peru to the big screen!
You can read more about the project here – https://www.framestore.com/work/paddington-peru