From PAWs to Pixels - Adrien Montero, Modeling Supervisor

Now, let’s introduce Adrien Montero, Modeling Supervisor at Mikros Animation in Montreal, to share his experience on PAW Patrol: the Mighty Movie!

Tell us about your journey into Mikros Animation?

I started to work at Mikros Animation in 2018 as a character modeling supervisor for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run. That was my first supervising experience at the time, and I found it very rewarding and loved the challenges to solve.

Naturally when the first PAW Patrol: The Movie arrived at Mikros I was thrilled to continue as a character modeling supervisor. Once the characters were done, I also took the role of set modeling supervisor. But since then, I decided to focus on characters only.

What was your role on PAW Patrol: the Mighty Movie?

I was the character Modeling supervisor, which at Mikros Animation include modeling of characters and facial expressions.

You were already present on PAW Patrol: the Movie. Can you tell us what has changed in terms of production between these two films and what were the new artistic and technical challenges?

On this movie, we wanted to improve the quality of animation. For us it meant completely reworking our facial system. We worked very closely with animation and rigging, to produce a more efficient, good looking and flexible facial expression system.

The 2^nd challenge was on the new costumes of the PAW patrol team. They had to show how the whole paw patrol had improved. They needed to be cooler, more complex, but also practical! This last point was a big challenge; we didn’t want to design a nice costume that wouldn’t allow pups to move… you know, like for batman in the 90’s !

Callum Shoniker as “Rocky”, Christian Corrao as “Marshall”, Christian Convery as “Chase”, McKenna Grace as “Skye”, Luxton Handspiker as “Rubble”, Nylan Parthipan as “Zuma”, and Marsai Martin as “Liberty” in Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie from Spin Master Entertainment, Nickelodeon Movies, and Paramount Pictures.

Describe the movie in 3 words.

Cute,

Heros,

Mighty

What have you learned since working on PAW 2?

Those pups have a hidden superpower: they don’t age!

Paw patrol pups are 10 years old already, can you believe it!?

Joke aside, I’m only realizing now how rich the paw patrol adventures have been on the tv show. That’s impressive!

*McKenna Grace as “Skye” in Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie from Spin Master Entertainment, Nickelodeon Movies, and Paramount Pictures.*

Tell us a production memory!

My team has been rooting for Zuma and Rocky since we realized they get a bit less attention than the other pups. “Poor Zuma” became a common catch phrase every time we see him on the back of a shot where we can barely see him.

It Make sense that with so many pups in the paw patrol, it’s difficult to fit all of them on every shot. But the modchar team modeled them all, so we love them all equally!

Thanks Adrien! To discover more stories from our teams, visit this link!