COMIC RELIEF

ELEMENTAL BRINGS COMIC BOOKS TO LIFE IN DOCUMENTARY

For thousands of years, Canada's Aboriginal people have used art to express themselves and provide imagery for their stories and legends. Today, many young Aboriginal people are keeping this tradition alive in the form of comic books.

Director Jeff Newman wanted to capture the methodology and inspiration of these cutting-edge artists in his documentary "Comic Book Creators," for the series "The Sharing Circle."

While the subject matter was fascinating and the artwork extraordinary, he found the camera didn't quite capture the vibrancy of the artists' work.

"I needed the documentary to reflect the style and edginess of the comic books, and I knew that footage alone wouldn't be enough to bring it to life," Newman said.

Armed with digital versions of the comic books, Newman turned to Elemental to enhance colours and add movement to the artwork, mimicking a camera's movement, but capturing much more detail and fluidity.

"Jeff also had the idea to transition between interview footage and artwork seamlessly, so the interview subject essentially becomes part of their own comic book," said Elemental's Lori Dyck.

Comic book artist Mark Gomez was hired to create sketches based on a still frame of video footage for each of the artists interviewed in the documentary.

"We had the sketches scanned at a high resolution and then animated them to blend in seamlessly with the video footage," Dyck added.

Newman was more than pleased with the final result.

"Elemental's work really enhanced the documentary, which really is what good motion graphics are all about," Newman said.

"Bringing these comic books to life this way created a beautiful package for my story and tied it all together thematically. I couldn't be happier."