Take a closer look at how the ILM Vancouver team built a new world of stylized action for Japanese icon Ken Sato, also known as Ultraman, and how they pushed the visual envelope with a bold aesthetic as ILM steps back into animated features with Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising.
By Adam Berry
Netflix Ultraman: Rising marks the first fully animated feature production for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) since 2011’s Rango. The story chronicles the adventures of Ken Sato, and his superpowered alter ego known to the world as Ultraman. The film is a love letter to the 1966 Japanese superhero television show Ultraman, with the heart of the story exploring the importance of family in all of its forms as Sato takes on the responsibility of raising a baby kaiju named Emi.
The monster-sized task of taking Japan’s beloved superhero, transforming the character to be fully animated and introducing him to a global audience was a dream come true for the film’s directors Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima, who had always been fans of the Japanese franchise.
With production on Ultraman: Rising beginning in the spring of 2021, the film required 1,578 visual effects shots and over 1,300 assets to be built. All 165,169 frames of the entire 108 minute feature were created by over 650 ILM artists across three of their global studios in London, Vancouver, and the former location in Singapore.
With London acting as the hub for the show, led by visual effects supervisor Hayden Jones, and Singapore providing support, it was actually ILM Vancouver that contributed the majority of work done on the film with over 300 artists assigned to the project. Every asset seen in the film, from the monstrous kaijus to Ultraman himself, with an additional 600-plus shots from the film’s total count were all built in Vancouver.
The Vancouver studio first opened its doors back in 2012 in the heart of Hollywood North’s historic neighborhood known as Gastown. ILM has led the visual effects industry in Vancouver over the past decade having worked on many large scale productions locally such as the epic Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023).
Leading the Vancouver team was associate visual effects supervisor, Tania Richard who tells ILM.com, “the work consisted of a global initiative to repurpose ILM visual effects toolsets into a robust feature animation pipeline that would provide flexibility and a stylistic consistency throughout the production. ILM Vancouver was responsible for building the character and environment assets on the show, working closely with the London and Singapore teams to refine and streamline elements that could be shared across multiple sites, along with producing a large scope of shot-work.”
Having already worked closely with one of the film’s directors, Shannon Tindle on Netflix feature Lost Ollie (2022), the Vancouver team attributes the key to their success on Ultraman: Rising to their close collaboration with Netflix. This project provided them with the opportunity to build upon their relationship with Tindle, and to engage with him creatively. This close collaboration both inspired and empowered the team to share their ideas on a level that not all artists are given the chance to experience.
“The Ultraman clients were one of the best I’ve ever worked with,” shares final layout lead, Hayley Kim.“There were many opportunities to exchange creative ideas with the directors. The clients even visited the Vancouver studio in person to talk one-on-one with the artists.”
Directors Tindle and Aoshima came into the project with a clear vision, but entrusted ILM to bring fresh ideas and creative solutions that would enhance the work. “They valued the team’s input; empowered us with the belief that collective creativity would elevate the overall quality of the film. They achieved this without delaying decision making, or production time,” says CG supervisor Jeeyun Sung, who expressed her gratitude for having the directors readily available, which provided a valuable learning experience for the team and helped to speed up the production process.
The creative collaboration between both the Netflix and ILM teams inspired the use of new techniques that are not usually embraced in visual effects. With a hero this big, and a new global audience to be introduced to, the film needed a fresh new approach to the animation not yet seen in a feature film. Having other hit animated superhero feature films already on the audience’s radars, such as Sony’s Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (2018), meant finding a new look for Ultraman.
Ultimately, a painterly approach to shape the film’s aesthetic was decided upon, and as you can see when watching the film, every frame looks like it came straight off of a canvas. “Finding a painterly approach to our assets needed a certain amount of testing and collaboration between departments at the start of the project,” explains Tania Richard. “Implying detail and form when and where mattered; this meant leaning into more traditional artistic approaches and embracing individual instincts. Once a look was agreed upon, it was important to lock down methodology early enough to execute what was an ambitious schedule and volume of work.”
The Netflix art department team, led by art director Sunmin Inn and production designer Marcos Mateu-Mestre, brought their creative vision and thrilling concepts early on in the production process, generously offering the ILM team stylistic guidance as they developed the look and feel for the direction that the animation would ultimately go.
Sung shares, “The one thing that will always stick with me is a quote from the art director, Sunmin at Netflix, ‘just use illegal colors’. As production neared completion, those illegal colors were the norm and we could hardly believe all of our eyes had adjusted to the vision.” The beautiful color scripts and art direction allowed the team space to explore bold and vibrant color palettes to tell Ultraman’s story.
With all 1,300-plus assets being built in Vancouver, one of the biggest challenges on the show was creating a robust animation pipeline that would maintain stylistic uniformity, be shared across multiple sites, have various artists working on shots simultaneously and have the work be executed with consistency. There needed to be enough flexibility for addressing creative notes and refinement. It needed to be built in so that the workflow remained efficient, with stylized techniques such as cross-hatching and linework being developed in toolsets to be shared with the London and Singapore sites.
“Embracing a more creative, painterly approach to building assets was key, such as understanding the balance between suggestive and refined detail, as well as developing stylistic tools that referenced the visual graphic language often seen in anime and manga,” details Richard.
Additional research and development time was required for each team across every part of the workflow; the team’s objective being to find the right balance between 2-dimensional (2D) graphic elements, such as outlines, texture details, cross hatching and the more realistic 3-dimensional (3D) rendering, a process with many possible directions.
“Once we achieved the imagery that became the look of our film, we adhered to the ground rules and shared the know-how between sites and sequence teams to avoid reinventing the wheel; revisiting the questions we had already answered,” says Sung.
Ultimately, a significant part of the ILM Vancouver team’s task was to explore the concepts that would define the film’s style, establish a look that would not only stand out among other animated features, while also being robust enough for the crew to carry through 1,600-plus shots. In the end, the challenge of building the beautiful world of Ultraman: Rising was worth the long days as every magnificent pixel of the film are generated assets created internally and exclusively by ILM.
The stylized animation needed to showcase every magnificent detail of the ultra-sized action sequences and spectacle that a hero like Ultraman brings to the big screen as he battles the larger than life kaijus through the streets of Tokyo. For the ILM Vancouver team, one of the highlights was working on the film’s opening sequences where Ultraman faces off against a kaiju called Neronga, which was ironically one of the last beats of the film to be executed.
“The dynamic battle sequences definitely stand out in my memory, particularly the fight scene between Ultraman and Neronga,” shares Kim, who was inspired to study classic Japanese monster films to pull ideas from scenes, like this one and Ultraman’s fight with Gigantron.
The battle with Neronga sequence, known internally as MUL (Meet Ultraman), consisted of nearly 60 action-packed shots with dynamic moving cameras, set against the colorful and complex streets of Akihabara, a bustling section of Tokyo adorned with vibrant lights, billboards, and crowds. All of these elements had to embrace a certain amount of interaction between our hero and his monstrous adversary, who are entangled in a clumsily destructive confrontation. Richard says, “It was important in the development of our environment assets for each neighborhood to reflect reality, from the elevation of buildings to details such as street signs and road markings, and our Akihabara set was no exception.”
ILM Vanouver’s model supervisor, Mark Keetch, led the environment build, paying close attention to references provided by the Netflix Art Department, along with detailed research by the ILM team. The lighting and compositing teams, led by our CG supervisor Jeeyun Sung and comp supervisor Aaron Brown, also implemented various techniques developed throughout the production to create the exciting and highly stylized feast of imagery which were key components to the success of this sequence.
Sung shares, “The result exceeded our expectations. Every artist brought so much creativity to each of their shots, and by then we had built a Swiss army knife’s worth of knowledge of how to handle the style. Everyone was truly having fun! The energy was palpable, and I believe it contributed to creating stunning visuals!”
The action only grew larger and more epic from one battle sequence to the next; enhanced by the imaginative work and creative solutions that the ILM team worked tirelessly to innovate. Much like Ken Sato’s relationships with Emi and his father throughout, the Vancouver team were united in their efforts and passion to bring this epic story to audiences across the world, and truly capture the spirit of the character that directors Tindle and Aoshima care so deeply for. ILM’s team spirit can be felt with every frame as their own experience working on the film was just as meaningful.
“Working on the Ultraman team was filled with nothing but positive memories from start to finish,” shares Hayley Kim, who was given her first leadership opportunity at ILM on Ultraman: Rising.“It was incredibly fulfilling to see the final result at the screening, knowing that ILM was involved from beginning to end. I hope there will be more opportunities in the future to work on such creative projects.”
“Ultraman was a relatively rare feature animation project for ILM after a long time had passed since Rango,” explains Jeeyun Sung, who resides in New York, USA, but worked intimately with the ILM Vancouver team over the course of the project. This created an exciting energy for all crew members, from the bottom to the top. We faced new pipeline issues to solve, had new roles and language that needed reshaping. But the prospect of carving a new path for future animation projects at ILM kept us all abuzz. We felt incredibly happy and fortunate to have this opportunity.”
“Our Vancouver team was a delight to work with, and the collaboration between ILM globally was a unique experience,” concludes Tania Richard, who led the Vancouver team through a memorable creative journey which produced one of the most beautiful animated features to ever be seen on screen. “Everyone embraced the creative challenges on the show in a way that continually inspired the team to go above and beyond what was expected, and the resulting body of work is beautiful.”
There are over 7,500 kilometers between Ken Sato’s home in Tokyo and the team in Vancouver that built the vibrant new world seen in Ultraman: Rising. It took two years, and countless hours, but the final product is a breathtaking addition to the Ultraman franchise, and a bold new direction for ILM as they begin to expand their catalog of animated projects, including the recently released Transformers One (2024). Two worlds came together across great distances to bring this story to life by ILM’s passionate artists who knew the magic it would take to to effectively showcase the heart of Ultraman: Rising.
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Adam Berry is the Studio Operations Manager for the ILM Vancouver studio. His passion for film led Adam to ILM in 2022, coming from an extensive career across different sectors of the hospitality industry including cruise ships, luxury hotels and resorts. If he’s not at the movies or traveling to new destinations, you can find Adam staying active and exploring Vancouver.
