Production Studio Explores Different Animation Styles with Help of V-Ray Renderer; New Anthology Now on Netflix
There have always been blips of mature content on the animation spectrum, but never anything like Love, Death & Robots. Released last weekend, this new anthology kicks open the doors for adult-oriented content in the medium, giving a generation of fans raised on Liquid Television a way to explore the many sides of human nature in the most visceral way possible.
The brainchild of Tim Miller and David Fincher, Love, Death & Robots weaves the provocative world of ‘70s comic books into 18 short stories that run the gamut from sci-fi to horror. In this world, viewers go from “sentient dairy products” to “werewolf soldiers” pretty quick, which inspired Miller’s Blur Studio to call on friends and rivals to bring in a little stylistic diversity.
“When we put out the call to the other studios, people went wild,” said Jerome ‘Jed’ Denjean, Head of CG at Blur and VFX Supervisor for Love, Death & Robots. “We’ve been competing against some of these companies for years and admire them greatly. It was thrilling to bring everyone together and let them apply their unique visions to these shorts. It was here where all the creative freedom really paid off.”
Blur not only led the project, they contributed three shorts of their own. Seeing this as a chance to flex their creative muscles, Blur built on the hyper-realistic game cinematic style they are known for, and expanded into a more hand-painted, 2D-esque version of 3D. Behind every experiment was V-Ray, the Academy Award-winning renderer that’s been guiding Blur’s pipeline since 2009.
“V-Ray is so versatile and dependable that we couldn’t imagine not using it on these shorts, which is pretty amazing when you see how different they all look,” said Denjean. “We’ve always thought that animation audiences deserved more mature storylines, and now we’re finally at a place where we have the freedom and technology to give them what they want.”