Wow icarus. Lots of interesting tidbits here. (To me anyways ) I particularly liked your breakdown of the dragon. Seems to support the theory that Eustace will be in dragon form for longer than in the book. I might have to dig out my BBC VDT and see how long they spent on Eustace dragon in that series.

I feel sorry for Cinesite being named the head FX house for VDT and they get stuck with water.

I also find it interesting something that's NOT mentioned here.... Reepicheep. MPC did Reep for PC, and yet they state that their biggest hero character is a dragon. So does that mean Eustace in dragon form is bigger than Reep? Does that mean Reep was given to a different company? Or perhaps his statement "amongst" includes Reep and I'm reading too much into it? At any rate, I find the lack of mention of Reep interesting.

I also find it interesting something that's NOT mentioned here.... Reepicheep. MPC did Reep for PC, and yet they state that their biggest hero character is a dragon.

Just found a small bit on Reepicheep - i inserted him in the list at #3, just after Aslan - seems he is still being done by MPC.

You are right though, it does seem odd that they should say the Dragon is one of their biggest "hero" characters if they already did Reepicheep. Can't imagine the Dragon could possibly be featured more prominently in the movie than Reepicheep.

Just wanted to make the random observation that I would almost want to say that VdT will have far more VFX shots than PC did simply because they're going to have to add in much of the ocean landscape to nearly every outdoors ship scene. Everything in the tank = VFX.

Maybe I'm confusing VFX with another term for what the digital addition of landscapes would be, but that's just my initial reaction.

#6 "Malevolent Mist" VFX (?) by Cinesite

Found a bit more information on some of Cinesite's contribution to the VFX work on the website of Christopher Antoniou who is apparently the "Lead Animator and rigger on the Narnia Prequel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at Cinesite" (yes, he does actually mean sequel there). Anyway, on his website resume of shot breakdowns he says:

( Cinesite Nov 2009 - Sep 2010 )
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the forth book in the the Narnian series. Working along side Jensen Toms (3D sup) and Matt Kasmir (VFX Sup) I was asked to look after all the animation and rigging for the characters the malevolent Mist was going to be emitted from.

Though to be honest, i pretty much have no idea what he's talking about.... malevolent Mist? (the Dark Island perhaps?) Emitted from Characters? No idea.

Though given that he refers to VDT as a "Narnia prequel" and then the "forth" book in the series, i'm not sure we should read too much into his every word...

http://www.christopherantoniou.com/brea ... wn/vdt.jpg

^yes that is odd. What is a malevolent mist and how can the characters emit it. Smoke from the first dragon or the sea serpent I have no idea.

VotDT fourth book in the series, eh? hmmm.....

all of this sounds pretty cool!
I just don't know what it means!

Hmm...if it is from the Dark Island maybe scare creatures will come out of the mist?

"VFX" = all images created, or changed, outside of a camera. So, Gymmie, digital addition of landscapes = VFX.

I don't think VDT will necessarily have more VFX shots than PC, but that doesn't mean that there's less VFX. I imagine almost every shot will need some tinkering, like with PC. However, in Prince Caspian I guess a lot of that was beasts and creatures in the background. As Gymfan said, almost every shot filmed on the Dawn Treader herself is going to need some CGI. So VDT could be more VFX-heavy.

"Malevolent mist" - I imagine this could just be a way of describing what it looks like. What I thought when I read this was that the characters it emits from are dream people, or dream visions, from the Dark Island.

Thank you so much, icarus! You've dug up some fantastic information.

Maybe it's the "forth" book because they are 'going forth' into the unknown?

Paul Martin from NarniaFans offered some interesting insights into some of this information, and was able to expand upon a few of the gaps

icarus mentioned that be believes “Eustace DD” to mean “Dragon,” but I have a feeling that he would have said “Dragon” were that the case. I also wonder where the second D came from. Usually for movies like this a character will need a Digital Double, and that’s what I think he was talking about. This would be a character that can be placed in distant shots that are virtually (no pun intended) indistinguishable from a real actor.

Now that he's said it, i'd definitely have to agree. Makes much more sense.

When it comes to the “Malevolent Mist,” I have some idea of what this might be, but I know it’s not what you think. That is all.

I'm very intrigued now. It's not what we think it is... but then what does he think we think it is? More to the point, what do we think he thinks we think? lol.

Much thanks to Paul: http://www.narniafans.com/archives/8422

So, he thinks he may know what it is, but it's not what we think it is? That adds an extra level of mystery to the already mysterious mist. I was going to start speculating, but now I'm trying to think of what I wouldn't think that it is if i were going to think about what I might think it could be... which just makes my head hurt.

Well, I had thought it seemed as if Dark Island may have possibly been cut. (That is NOT confirmed, but I thought that was the way the evidence was headed...) *will have to go back and look at the 7 islands consolidated thread*

It seems as if most of the guesses are that it must be from Dark Island, so I think that's what Paul Martin thinks we think.

I don't even think I know what I think, much less what he thinks or what he thinks I think. Ohh my head is spinning...

Another brief couple of updates. Does seem odd that so much is coming up for MPC, when i thought they and Framestore would be taking a back seat this time around to Cinesite and Mill Films. Anyway...

#7: Tavros the Minotaur VFX by MPC

Seems to be a word and/or some punctuation in here missing, but essentially it seems he is working on animating the face of Tavros the Minotaur. Whether or not the latter part of the quote relates to Tavros, or to the word that is seemingly missing after the "for the" part, i don't know.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

Hero Minotaur (Tavros) facial replacement High Resolution textures for the including Mudbox Displacement. Also textures and Displacement for the body and clothes

http://cesareiji.wordpress.com/work/

#8: Lighting VFX by Various

I guess all the VFX houses will be doing some form of lighting work on all their shots, but since i found an MPC-specific quote anyway, i felt like i might as well stick it in here:

I am currently working on lighting for Narnia 3: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with The Moving Picture Company.

http://chriselmer.com/

http://joecreswellart.blogspot.com/2010/05/starting-at-mpc.html

Richard A.M. Bell, Lighting Technical Director at Cinesite

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) (post-production) (lighting technical director: Cinesite)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3000745/

#9: Crowd Simulation VFX by MPC

I would imagine this would be for the Lone Isands - making the crowds of people seem bigger through digital augmentation.

March 2009 – Ongoing
The Moving Picture Company London, UK
Crowd TD – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Crowd creation and simulation using proprietary tools, crowd pipeline setup, python scripting

http://chrispbending.com/CV_ChrisBending.pdf

Plus also on IMDB they have the following credit for MPC on VDT:

Adam Davis - Head of Crowd Sim: MPC

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2991623/