Other visual effects are more complex. Collaborating with the production designers and the art department, the VFX artists and animators design a new world, a world that exists solely inside the computer’s digital realm of mathematical equations.

Starting with storyboards drawn in pencil, these drawings allow the director and VFX designers and animators to flesh out their visual interpretation of the script. After receiving approval from the director on the proposed creative direction of a specific character, such as Stuart Little, the VFX team then creates a three-dimensional model of the character. Using the latest technology available, a three-dimensional digital scan of the model is created and stored in the computer’s hard drive.

From there, artists create a digital wire-frame models of the characters. Digital Character Animators initially work with these rudimentary, low-resolution wire-frame images to create the character’s movements.

When live-action background plates are filmed during principal photography, computer animators and the VFX team are on the set throughout this process, taking detailed measurements and lighting references from all angles. The data gathered is then downloaded into the computers so that the digital characters can be properly lit to match their live-action environment.