PIECE BY PIECE - jak wyglądała nasza praca nad kinową biografią Pharrella Williamsa

Piece by Piece is an interesting example of how the failure of one project can sometimes lead to another, more intriguing experience.

In November 2021, we won a TONGAL tender to create a project for LEGO titledChoose Your Own Adventure(CYOA). It was meant to be a collection of short stop-motion animated films, interactively connected into one cohesive piece. Viewers would be able to, as the title suggests, create their own story. Unfortunately, the project was canceled in early 2022, but in return, TONGAL gave us the opportunity to work on the production of a feature-length film for Universal.

The film was set to depict the biography of the famous musician Pharrell Williams, but in an unconventional format—an animated version set in the LEGO universe. What exactly was our role in working on Piece by Piece?

Designing 3D models

Our work began with designing 3D models to be featured in the film. We created models of city sections, larger buildings, houses, interiors, and smaller elements such as trees, hot dog stands, and more.

We received drawings, references, and guidelines from the studio, which outlined how specific locations in the film should look. Based on these instructions, we created models in Bricklink Studio and prepared preliminary renders. These renders and descriptions were included in the documentation we prepared and sent to our superiors at TONGAL. This documentation was beneficial in case of any design revisions to the models.

3D Model Optimization

After the model design was approved, we moved on to optimizing it in Autodesk Maya according to the client's guidelines, ensuring that it would work seamlessly in Unreal Engine.

UV Mapping and Texturing

After optimization, the models went through the UV mapping process. We were responsible for applying textures to the characters featured in the film.

Many of the models we designed featured sticker elements. Most of them were from LEGO sets, while a smaller portion was designed by us specifically for the film. Part of our work involved redrawing the stickers in high resolution and creating detailed documentation for the labels. This documentation had to specify the original name of the sticker and its origin, as well as refer to the LEGO catalog. This is crucial in terms of copyright.