Happy Feet follows the story of Mumble the penguin and required that Animal Logic create a vibrant, colorful look for the film, which takes place in an icy setting, by ensuring accurate, crisp detail in the whites and blacks of the penguins. Particularly challenging was the fact that Mumble is grey.
"For this reason, we delved into the original compositing mattes for the grade," explains Eric Whipp, Animal Logic's head colorist. "In the end, we used over 2,000 mattes in the grading process, right down to individual character mattes, eye iris mattes and eye white mattes. Being able to separate and isolate elements of a shot was crucial to the grading process of this film and we were able to produce and correct in the grade in a matter of minutes and not weeks."