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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:Mutant Mayhem presented an exciting challenge for lead stereographer Jeremy Carroll and his team at SDFX Studios when it came time to build the stereoscopic version of the movie. “It's definitely different from what we've worked on in the past,” he says. Carroll worked closely with Jeff Rowe (director with Kyler Spears) on planning how to bring the stylistic animation into the third dimension.
Although the film exists in at three-dimensional world and was animated with tools used for 3D graphics work, it's still grounded in a very 2D sketchbook look. Its look is something between classical 2D animation and 3D CGI. “We had to find a way to keep that special feel that the filmmakers worked so hard to create while adding the stereoscopic component,” Carroll says. “In some cases, we would push the internal details and the volumes in characters, and in others, we would lean into the 2D feel of the show by applying less depth to the 3D in those portions.”
In fact, Carroll and Rowe realized that this varying approach to the Z-axis offered additional methods for enhancing specific story points. “There are several scenes where the turtles are down in the sewer, and we keep the 3D more conservative to help give the viewer the sense that they're confined. They're boxed in. But then, when we see them in the surface world, we enhance the depth of the space and the volume of the characters, bringing out a sense of being in the real world, out in open spaces.”
“Camera” movement also offered clues about where to go full-on with the depth. “There are definitely moments in the film that are very 3D in the way the cameras are moving around the scene and the way the characters are moving relative to the camera,” Carroll explains. “Those moments were perfect for us to lean into the third dimension to enhance that."
“We don't ever want the 3D to become the main character in the film,” he sums up. “We don't want our 3D to be the focus. It's always there to support the story and the filmmakers' vision. So, when we're dealing with a film with such a stylized, 2D look, there's a fine line where you can use the 3D as an enhancement and push it too far until it takes you out of the movie. That was something Jeff, my whole team, and I spent a lot of time working through. It's some of the most stylized 3D we've done to date, and I think it's a very successful example of how adding 3D can complement the intention of the 2D version of a movie without becoming a distraction.”
