The Inventor, a stop motion and animation feature film that delves into the life story of Leonardo da Vinci, was edited and graded in Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Studio with other aspects of postproduction composited in Fusion Studio.
Co-written and directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jim Capobianco, The Inventor has a cast which includes Stephen Fry, Daisy Ridley, Marion Cotillard, and Matt Berry.
For the film Capobianco turned to Foliascope, an independent animation studio in France. Foliascope CEO Ilan Urroz and his team embarked on an extensive research mission to faithfully recreate da Vinci’s legacy. Detailed archives and da Vinci’s own drawings were used to build sets, machines and accessories. Puppets, central to the film’s unique blend of stop motion and cartoon animation, were meticulously crafted and designed.
“Films of this scale and complexity represent a massive investment in both time and money, with some projects lasting upwards of 24 months, during which multiple stages of production and post are undertaken simultaneously, mixing both offline and online formats. And all that requires us to distribute the work amongst multiple collaborators,” explained Urroz who added, “We mix all sorts of techniques to tell our stories, and in DaVinci Resolve Studio, we have found an ally to help us do just that.”
DaVinci Resolve Studio was the ideal software for managing all aspects of stop motion editing within a single tool, eliminating the need for roundtripping between multiple applications. This allowed Foliascope to carry out editing, VFX, color grading, sound and export tasks in parallel throughout the production.
Furthermore, Foliascope expanded its workflow to encompass audio mixing and mastering with DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fairlight tools. This included dialogue, foley, and the film’s original soundtrack, composed by Alex Mandel.
