The Little Mermaid

Jul 17

1 min read

Updated: Sep 4

PRODUCTION

A live-action adaptation of Disney's 1989 animated classic, directed by Rob Marshall. The film

follows Ariel, a mermaid princess fascinated by the human world, who makes a pact with the sea

witch to reach dry land. Framestore delivered a large part of the film's visual effects, notably

bringing to life the underwater kingdom and its inhabitants.

I worked as a rigger on several creatures from "Under the Sea," the film's first major musical

sequence, which brings together Sebastian and a whole ensemble of sea animals. For the many fish

and creatures in the scene, I built deliberately simple rigs that still offered a wide range of

movement, so animators could place and deform them with ease. I took charge of the dolphin rig,

for which I set up a muscle system to achieve better skin deformation; this work required studying

real dolphin anatomy to make the result as believable as possible. I also worked on underwater

creatures whose fins needed physics built in, for more natural deformation at render time. Finally, I

created the rig for a pufferfish, which had to inflate and shrink across a very wide range. Built in

Maya. This creature rigging work continues my environment work for film and television, notably on Moon Knight, where the same demand for credibility applied to the sets.