Dutch director Matthijs Van Heijningen hit superstar status in 2011 via his brilliant Canal+ “The Bear” spot with Mikros Image supplying the beat-perfect VFX. In early 2015, Van Heijningen and the Mikros crew re-teamed for another smart, funny, animal-centric Canal+ effort called “Unicorns.”

From issue 110 of the Stash Permanent Collection:

Mikros Image head of production Fabrice Damolini in Levallois-Perret, France: “For the wide shot of the ark, we shot in a river without anything in place, only some props around and we built the ark in full CG.

“The animals seen in the background in the ark: giraffes, zebras, hippopotamus, raccoons, elephants, and birds are all full CG.

We also added a lot of CG atmospherics for the storm (rain, meteors, lightning, threatening clouds and patches of sunshine) giving a sense of total chaos.

“For the rain we tried, when it was possible (not for drone or long traveling shots), to have a layer of real rain in front of camera for the interaction with the actor, and we extended all the middle and background with CG rain.”

Post schedule: three months.

For Soixante Quinze
Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen
Producer: Yuki Suga
Head of post-production: Anne Segrettin

For Mikros Image
Creative director: Julien Meesters
Head of production: Fabrice Damolini
Executive producer: Malica Benj?mia
Head of VFX studio: Benoit Holl
Creative director: Julien Meesters
Lead supervisor: Laurent Creusot
CG supervisor: Guillaume HO
Modelization: Aurelie Fuentes
Modeling: Bruno Jacquelin
Senior modeling: Mehdi Rami
Ark modelization: Guillaume Kerfrieden
FX: David Roubah, William Utereiner
Setup, animation: Alexandre Sauthier
Tracking senior: Eliott Tesseraud, Stephane Richez
Textures: M?lina Milcent
Compositing: Lucie Bories, Fabienne Mouillac, Bruno Habbah
Lighting, compositing: Julien Haillot, Guillaume Dadaglio
Look, dev, shading: Mathias Barday
Roto 2D, restore: Jeremy Bouvier, Emmanuelle Ngan Sing, Brice Wahl
After Effects: Dany Lacarelle
Flame: Laurent Creusot
Flame/Smoke: Flore Mounier
Colorist: Sebastien Mimgam
Datalab: Jonathan Brabant, Lea Latassa, Jean-Martin Mossu, Elodie Mourier, Pauline Royo, Nathalie Tramier

Toolkit
Maya, Houdini, Arnold, Nuke, Flame