The Fading Borders

... between live-action and animation.

Turning Frances McDormand Into Elephant Is New Territory For VFX Studio

... On HBO’s four-part limited series Olive Kitteridge, Shade VFX designed various animals for the project, including snakes and birds — “expanding character creation abilities really quickly,” CEO Bryan Godwin says — one of the most discussed moments in the series was the elephant scene, when one of the main characters experiences a hallucination and sees McDormand’s title character as an elephant. ...

“We settled on an Asian elephant because it had a little bit of a softer look, a little bit of a smaller head and could be a little bit more feminine than other varieties,” ....

Shades of Dumbo. (Note the video at the link.)

But the movie differences between CG animation and the real world continue to shrink. When an HBO series builds animated creatures into the presentation, using the same hardware, software and skill sets that go into making Frozen or Inside Out, the elding of two formats is complete.