Producer Christopher Miller has published a thread on his personal Twitter account about the art direction and visuals of The Mitchells vs. The Machines, the upcoming animated movie about a dysfunctional family fighting against a robot uprising. Following yesterday’s new trailer release, The Mitchells vs. The Machines looks to be something unique, and with the details revealed by Miller, we get a better understanding of why the movie looks so good.
Miller starts his thread by telling us director Mike Rianda wanted The Mitchells vs. The Machines to have a “hand-painted watercolor style”. This is a big challenge for a 3D movie since watercolor is usually a 2D technique. They decided to get the help of Michael Lasker, CG Supervisor for the amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This makes sense, since Spider-Verse also faced similar challenges to The Mitchells vs. The Machines, as they both try to mimic the feel of more two-dimensional art.
With Lasker as the VFX Supervisor for The Mitchells vs. The Machines, the team had to get creative. For example, instead of creating an ultra-realistic movement for fur, the team decided to apply a texture of “hand-painted squiggles” over the materials, in order to evoke the intended watercolor technique. The same goes for background elements, such as trees and bushes, which look like watercolor paintings, even if they are actually 3D models.
Fully 2D elements were also included to demonstrate the perception of the character Katie (Abbi Jacobson), a filmmaker who’s used to fill her videos with her own special effects. These special effects overflow to the real world and 2D art becomes an essential part of the chaotic and beautiful visual structure of the Mitchells family.
Opposed to Katie’s worldview - filled with cartoonish and happy elements - the villain AI PAL (Olivia Colman) uses a much cleaner palette, a style that Miller defines as similar to a “Journey album cover”. Even then, the watercolor outline persists, giving the entire movie visual coherence and helping The Mitchells vs. The Machines to have a distinctive feel from other animated movies.
With Miller’s insights about the art direction, we have a lot of new details to look for when we get to see the full movie. The Mitchells vs. The Machines will be released on Netflix on April 30. You can check Miller’s original thread right below.