CGSociety

To achieve this unique look, Pixomondo's Grossmann oversaw contributions from Pixomondo studios around the world; parceling sequences to teams in various geographies based on the strengths of their artists and how they matched to shot demands of the film. Pixomondo's London facility completed a heavily-CG opening fly-through sequence and shots involving the inside of the train station; Stuttgart handled most of George Melies' apartment, graveyard sequences and Paris exteriors; Berlin managed complicated fire and debris VFX simulation scattered throughout the film along with portions of the train crash sequence; Shanghai completed shots focused around the clock tower staircase and green screen composites; Beijing worked on a magic show sequence, crowd duplication, match-moving and wire removal; Burbank created a magical animation sequence of flying papers, character animation and CG face replacement; Toronto and Frankfurt worked on train station coverage, with Frankfurt executing Hugo's nightmare transformation into the Automaton. Pixomondo's Los Angeles team completed specialized shots throughout the film, and Hugo's nightmare in the train station, while also acting as the hub for all VFX work and editorial for all vendor shots.



Pixomondo's standardized VFX workflow was ideally suited to this project as the company could address change requests quickly and efficiently. With shots that demanded quick turnaround, Grossmann could provide VFX direction from LA, handing off creation of CG elements to Shanghai to pass along to the VFX team in the UK for compositing, and have it back for review and approval in L.A. by the next morning. In addition to leveraging their global workforce, Pixomondo devised a process to embed highly-detailed metadata in every shot everything from the stereo values, focus, convergence distance, interocular separation, time of day, source reel and conform reel, timecodes, etc, automating what typically requires at least three rounds of manual labor and vastly extending flexibility in editorial, post production and VFX pipelines.

"Marty has encyclopedic knowledge of cinema history and working with him on a project that used the dawn of filmmaking as a foundation was incredibly inspiring. In this movie every shot was composed with stereo as a primary consideration, laying the groundwork for very demanding visual effects. I'm incredibly proud of what the Pixomondo team achieved," said Grossmann. "This film hops through cinematic styles all portrayed through a child's vision. It was easy to get caught up in the art and flow of that sentiment. Working with over 400 artists around the world all embracing that same sentiment has been the most rewarding experience of my career."