Paddington in Peru's use of previz turned a London studio into a jungle

Paddington in Peru's visual effects are beautifully real, often vert subtle, and occasionally bamboozling – you'll rewatch Paddington's perilous adventure to find Aunt Lucy and wonder, 'how was that done?'. Well, I caught up with Sylvain Degrotte, VFX Supervisor at Framestore London to uncover how some of the best shots were made, but importantly how previz and techviz made recreating jungles in London.

Sylvain has also shed light on how how the team animated Paddington in a previous feature, and VFX colleague Mark Curtis, a VFX Supervisor from Framestore Montreal, shared how the ruined Citadel was created for the film's finale. Here Sylvain lets us in on how previz and techviz connected London's studio team to that in the beaches and jungles of Columbia.

If you're inspired, read Framestore's career advice, and our guide to the best 3D modelling software, but read on to discover how Framestore created the visuals for Paddington in Peru.

Using previz and techviz in Paddington in Peru

Sylvain begins by telling me the Framestore team had limited input into the creative choices when it came to previz and techviz, because a lot of the work was done at the storyboard stage by Pablo, Alexis (Wajsbrot, Production VFX Supervisor), but says "our involvement was limited to the cherries on top", meaning Framestore got to work on the key shots and sequences.

Key to making things work for Paddington in Peru was the dynamic between location filming, work on-set in London and compositing elements. Sylvain explains that, “On this movie previz was essential: we were shooting plates in Colombia and plates in London. So the previz and the techviz, in particular, were very important for planning the shoot and for planning work in both locations".

Highlighting the set-build on the beach sequence Sylvain says the team first visited Colombia to get lidar scans. This information was given to techviz, which then goes to the prop builder who analyse it and creates the physical build. Then the beach can be inserted digitally into the Colombian plate.

"Previz also helps when you have limited time in a hard-to-access location," says Sylvain who explains: "We did previz for the river rapid sequence that was shot in Columbia, because it helps you lock down your sequence, identify the necessary cameras, the speed of the boat and so on."

Mixing drone footage and previz

Using previz for the project, Sylvain tells me the previz informed how the team would be shooting elements in Colombia and London in a cohesive way.

"To start with, our previz team built their 3D environment based on real-world data," begins Sylvain, who then adds: "FPS then converted their previz into techviz that gave useful information for the on-set supervision team regarding the focal length, position and speed of the boat, cameras and actors. All of this contributed to the planning and efficiency of the shoot, which benefited the VFX team immensely."

He adds: "Additionally, FPS helped in a novel way to replicate drone motion for the last shot of the Browns on the beach going in the forest. It was shot with a drone in Colombia, and we needed to shoot the same camera movement in London with the actors.

"We worked closely with our on-set supervisor Rob Duncan and the drone company (Helicopter Girls) to send them some useful data so that they could position and reproduce the same camera motion that was done weeks before in a completely different part of the world. The two pieces of footage that we received tracked really well with each other so we were able to assemble a first version of the shot quite quickly.”

Have you seen Paddington in Peru? What did you think of the film's visual effects?