{"id":258534,"date":"2025-05-26T20:35:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T20:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/animation\/octopus-by-mighty-oak-dragonframe\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T20:35:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T20:35:36","slug":"octopus-by-mighty-oak-dragonframe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=258534","title":{"rendered":"Octopus! by Mighty Oak &#8211; Dragonframe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When the team at Jigsaw set out to bring the underwater world of Amazon MGM\u2019s new docuseries: Octopus! to life, they turned to the talented animators at Mighty Oak to complement the live-action segments of the series, which focuses on the fascinating lives of octopuses and their devoted fandom. Narrated by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the series dives deep into the science and behaviors of this awesome creature and allows some of it\u2019s biggest fans (including celebrity Tracy Morgan) to sing its praises.<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of it all is Doris\u2014a strikingly detailed, handcrafted Giant Pacific Octopus brought to life by the team at Mighty Oak. Doris helps guide viewers through key moments in the octopus life cycle: including birth, growth, mating, reproduction, and death, gliding alongside her live action counterparts with grace and charm.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>We spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeandshadow.com\/\"> Shape and Shadow\u2019s<\/a> Hayley Morris, <i>Octopus!<\/i> Stop Motion Design &amp; Fabrication Lead, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mightyoakgrows.com\/\"> Mighty Oak\u2019s <\/a>Michaela Olsen, Octopus! Executive Creative Lead, about their process:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichaela and Mighty Oak approached me to design the visual world of Doris\u2014both the environments and the puppets, after seeing my music video, Bounce Bounce, for Hilary Hahn and Hauschka,\u201d Morris told us. \u201cHaving grown up partly in Maine, the ocean has always held a deep personal meaning for me, so I was thrilled to expand on the creative language I developed in Bounce Bounce and collaborate with the team to shape a visual identity for Octopus.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCreating the Doris puppet has been one of the most fulfilling projects of my career. I wanted her to resemble a real octopus while also possessing subtle human traits\u2014something in her form and presence that audiences could emotionally connect with as they followed her journey. I aimed for her surface to feel rich and tactile, realistic from a distance, yet on closer inspection reveal delicate details like lace and yarn that emphasized her handmade origins.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is pulled off rather impressively, as there are live octopuses featured in the film itself. To have your work go up against the real thing and hold its own is a hurdle many animators would shy away from, but not this one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy creative process is material-driven,\u201d she went on. \u201cThe character often emerges through the act of making. During the design phase, I sourced wool, yarns, lace, chiffon, and other textiles to prototype Doris\u2019 head and tentacles. Through experimentation, I discovered a blend of materials that captured the texture of octopus skin and the graceful, undulating movement of an underwater creature.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat layered, ethereal quality carried through into the final build, which I constructed over an intricate ball-and-socket armature crafted by Maxwell Sorenson. We experimented with various materials for the suckers\u2014fabric, buttons, beads\u2014but ultimately landed on a combination of crepe paper wrapped around beads with touches of yarn. It struck the perfect balance of whimsy, texture, and believability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the sets, I collaborated with Minkyung Chung to create rock formations and underwater flora using familiar, tactile elements that\u2014when combined\u2014felt both imaginative and grounded in reality. We used beads, fabrics, lace, crochet, papers as the main materials to construct the sets. I also gathered materials from the Vermont woods where I live. My three-year-old daughter and I scavenged for mushrooms, seed pods, and mosses, which we blended into the sets to add naturalistic detail.\u201d No wonder the finished product retains a sense of magic.<\/p>\n<p>When we asked about the inevitable bumps in the road, Olsen named their biggest challenge as trying to figure out how to tell the entire story of Doris\u2019s life, from birth to death, and then\u2014surprise! She meets Mike and has babies, so suddenly there are even more octopuses.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had about 10 minutes of stop motion to do all of that,\u201d she told us. \u201cWith limited time and budget, while still making it feel epic and expansive. One of the tricks we leaned on was shooting about 75% of the stop motion scenes using frontlight\/backlight setups so we could isolate elements.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also shot the scenery separately from Doris so we could reuse as much as possible. Doris was flipped, shrunk, and color corrected in many different ways. We reused a lot of the same shots and loops more than once. There were some limitations with the lighting, since we wanted her in different sea depths, but thanks to our DP, Anthony Galante, we figured out some clever ways to repurpose the elements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe composited Doris into whatever scene we needed, and we did the same with the environments\u2014shooting, reusing, and rearranging little pieces of rock and seaweed made by fabrication artist Minkyung Chung. If you spot the same patch of seaweed 20 times\u2026 that\u2019s no accident. Huge credit to our amazing post team, led by Sabrina Cheney, for pulling it all together so beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So how did it all come off so well? \u201cA lot of the polish came at the end,\u201d Olsen said, \u201cbut we had incredible stop motion animation to build from. I\u2019m still in awe of how the tentacle animation turned out\u2014animating eight legs is not easy, and it definitely took some time.\u201d She credits Sorenson\u2019s custom ball-and-socket armature with Doris\u2019s ability to be animated for many months by stop motion animators: Anthony Galante, Matt Christensen, Mikail Ekiz, and Victoria Arslani.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also had some very cool panning scenes,\u201d Olsen continued, \u201cthat we shot using Matt\u2019s handmade motion tracking rig. Those take all day, so we saved them for special moments\u2014like the introduction of Baby Doris, which is the first time we see the underwater world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole process was pretty experimental\u2014we actually started with a stuffed animal octopus, background projections, and bathtub tests, and ended up in a really amazing place. I\u2019m super proud of what we pulled off!\u201d As you should be.<\/p>\n<p>Doris premiered May 8, 2025 exclusively on Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the team at Jigsaw set out to bring the underwater world of Amazon MGM\u2019s new docuseries: Octopus! to life, they turned to the talented animators at Mighty Oak to complement the live-action segments of the series, which focuses on the fascinating lives of octopuses and their devoted fandom. Narrated by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the series [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12035],"tags":[93227,7180,2362,58504],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-258534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation","tag-dragonframe","tag-mighty","tag-oak","tag-octopus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Octopus! by Mighty Oak - Dragonframe - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=258534\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Octopus! by Mighty Oak - Dragonframe - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the team at Jigsaw set out to bring the underwater world of Amazon MGM\u2019s new docuseries: Octopus! to life, they turned to the talented animators at Mighty Oak to complement the live-action segments of the series, which focuses on the fascinating lives of octopuses and their devoted fandom. 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