Kubo's Dragon

I Saw a Dragon

What boy wouldn't want a dragon as a best friend? It's not easy to find magic in pairs. It's clear that friends can be different. Someone you can always be with, argue, and agree with.

Magic in Pairs

The perfect reference for this piece, besides Kubo and the Two Strings, of course, is Pete's Dragon. Not only about a boy and his dragon but the film also takes place in the Pacific Northwest, home of Laika Studios.

There's Room for Everyone

To make room for the dragon, creating the world around him was key for proper environmental affects of light and shadow.

Modeling basic shapes and placing them in the set with correct distances (approximated in this case), hence, forging a 3D space, the dragon was able to be placed 'within' the 2D backplate.

Every Little Piece

Using a scene from Laika's film as the back plate and a reference from Disney's, Pete's Dragon (2016), I integrated, you guessed it, a dragon into the scene. To add more depth and further push my limits, I also added some godrays peeking through the pathway of trees. This leads the eye to the starring pair.

It's Not Easy

Every scene I try to do something new. When a recruiter asked if I would integrate a CG object seamlessly into a live action backplate, I said 'Sure!' I hung up and realized I had no idea how I would get a 3D object into a two-dimensional image!

Thankfully, with the guidance of two amazing people, I learned the techniques to create this shot. I learned how to project images in Maya and many new scripts (and a whole lot about alphas!) in Nuke to make Kubo and the dragon feel like they are in the same world.