It would not be exaggerating to label Seth MacFarlane as a genius comedian. He has created Family Guy— an iconic hit still dominating pop culture— and several other credits to his name. But beyond Family Guy, the allrounder (actor, animator, writer, producer, director, comedian, and singer) has made Ted in Mark Wahlberg’s two comedy movies more interesting.
As Peacock brought MacFarlane’s iconic character back to the screen with a seven-episode Ted prequel, astounding behind-the-scenes details have shocked many. MacFarlane, who also directed the show returned to voice the foul-mouthed bear. Visual effects supervisor Blair Clark explained behind-the-scene details of the show which reflected the actor/director’s dedication and prowess.
Getting Seth MacFarlane Ready For Peacock’s Ted
It was no easy task at hand for the entire production team to revive the titular bear on screen again after nearly a decade since the last appearance of the character in Mark Wahlberg’s Ted 2. However, the technology used in the original movies to create Ted was not adequate anymore. So, the team had to rebuild every last detail of the character keeping the original essence of it. “He’s an established character, and those features needed to stay the same,” Visual effects supervisor Blair Clark told Variety.
Of course, Clark created the original character with Tippett and Framestore VFX houses but that was over a decade ago, and with recent technological advancements in filmmaking the old assets were deemed outdated. Fortunately, Seth MacFarlane’s production company, Fuzzy Door possessed an augmented reality tool. The tool called ViewScreen was a game changer and a stepping stone that proved to be easier for the team to capture MacFarlane while everyone could see him as the titular bear in the viewfinder.
Also read: Seth MacFarlane Shifts The Blame To Mark Wahlberg On Why Ted Show Won’t Feature Him
Seth MacFarlane’s Insane Dedication for Ted
MacFarlane’s dedication to the creation of the character was downright insane. “Seth does motion capture for pretty much all of the scenes,” Clark explained to Variety. His performance “is something we use as a base and something we don’t deviate from.”
“We have reference cameras on him so the animators can reference the timings and beats for when his eyebrows go up on a word, but they don’t go up until the second syllable of the word.”
Interestingly, the VFX team used more than 3,000 shots of the actor while he performed the motion capture for two hours per week for 22 weeks between December to May. “He’s just a great character … if you can accept there’s a talking teddy bear,” Clark said of Ted in the show. “We did hone it a little bit so that it became Ted, rather than just Seth,” the VFX supervisor continued adding, “It was Seth Plus, and that was the hardest thing to try and make sure we didn’t deviate from.” In its essence, it is fair to assume that MacFarlane’s attention to detail is astonishing and certainly he has outdone his performance in the original Ted movies.
Ted— the television series can be streamed on Peacock.
