One of the great attributes of the 'Shrek' film series is its unique and personable characters. The filmmakers were particularly excited about their new tools, because it meant they would be able to capture the depth and emotion of Shrek and his friends better than ever before. “When we started ‘Shrek the Third,’ we gave a lot of thought to what we were going to do with what we call the ‘legacy characters,’” explains Lucia Modesto, one of the film’s character TD supervisors. “Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Dragon are eightyears- old. We can’t handle an eight-year-old character like we do a brand new one, because the technology has changed so drastically. Now, we are able to achieve more. We have more control of the face; we have higher resolution; we’re able to add many details that the original characters didn't have. Since we feel that these characters deserve the best, we decided to redo everything.”

“Our characters have a lot of life to them,” says Tim Cheung, head of character animation. “We’ve added a lot of details to them this time around that are truly astonishing. For instance, when Shrek winces, you can actually see the wrinkles in his nose. We weren’t able to do things like that in the first two films. It really helps to add a sense of realism to the character.”

Princess Fiona (CAMERON DIAZ, center) is joined by (left to right) obsessive-compulsive Cinderella (AMY SEDARIS), prissy-but-sarcastic Snow White (AMY POEHLER), opinionated Rapunzel (MAYA RUDOLPH), and narcoleptic Sleeping Beauty (CHERI OTERI)

NEXT
Enhanced Reality
These details give “Shrek the Third” what Lamorlette calls a new “stylized reality”– a more natural look that adds up to an extraordinary visual experience. “You can really feel the material of the fabric in Fiona’s dress,” explains Hui. “It’s a little bit shinier when it's facing the light. I swear you can feel the texture of it; you can feel the softness.”