With the power of an Andelite gift, and some magic from DAVE animators and artists, five teenagers have been granted the unique ability to morph into any living creature they touch by soaking up its DNA in Animorphs, a Scholastic fantasy-adventure series for Nickelodeon in the U.S. and Global and YTV in Canada, set to air this September.

Rather than a global morph, which would mean taking the entire kid and animal and melding them together in one shot, DAVE senior animator Phil Jones is taking a more classic ‘werewolf film’ approach – morphing one body part at a time, working with a series of different shots focusing first on the eyes and face, followed by the hands and then the body, which Jones admits is more difficult than transforming the whole body at once.

In the first episode, Jake, the leader of the pack of super-human teens and the only one morphed to date, transforms himself into a golden retriever. Since the dog was more difficult to control than the young actor, it was shot first in a variety of positions in front of a green screen.

Once the animal was captured on film, the boy took his place in front of the green screen and assumed positions similar to those of the dog. An on-set video switcher stood by keeping an eye on the monitor, mixing the two images of the boy and the dog, lining them up as accurately as possible by using their eyes as a guide.

Jones says the most successful morphs are those where the humans and animals are similar shapes. For example, when Jake’s hand transforms into a dog’s paw, he makes a tight fist, which is close to the shape of a paw, making the morph smoother and more natural.

Next, the footage was dumped into the Flame where it was fine-tuned before being morphed in Elastic Reality. It was then returned to the Flame to be composited over the proper background by Flame artists Paul Cormack and Mike Morey.

Jones predicts the more difficult morphs will involve transforming the kids into animals considerably smaller than themselves, such as a hawk, iguana, rat or fish. For those, DAVE’s Michael Lambermont says the team will be looking for a new creative approach, something more magical than simply making the object shrink and change shape.

In addition to the morphing sequences, DAVE animators are busy creating other elements for the series such as spaceships and alien creatures like the Hell Beast, who will only be seen as a shadow in the first episode; Andelites, a centaur-like creature with a long snaky tail; and Yeerks, slimy slugs that crawl into the ears of their prey, taking over their brains to create slaves.

Scholastic supplied DAVE with pictures of the monsters, which animator Steve Lim modeled in Alias Power Animator and animated in Softimage. Animators Derick Choo-Mang and Rob Caputi are also working on the show.

Aside from using computer animation to create the unearthly creatures, actors are suiting up in animatronic costumes which are being shot in front of a green screen and then composited into the picture. In some circumstances they are shot live on set with everything done in-camera, and when full body shots of the monsters are required, actual rod puppets are being used.

For the Andelite, for example, someone will wear the prosthetic suit for close-ups and wide shots, but when more mobility is required, computer models will take over.

Animporphs is based on Scholastic’s best-selling books by K.A. Applegate which first hit the stands in June 1996. The series follows the strange adventures of Jake, his cousin Rachel, Marco, the wisecracker of the bunch, Cassie the nature lover and Tobias the new guy.

The Animorphs gang themselves acquire their power when they stumble onto a construction site and discover an Andelite named Elfangor, a dying alien prince who warns them of an imminent invasion and grants them the power to become any living creature they touch, a power they must use to battle the evil Yeerks. But if they stay in their transformed state for more than two hours they can never morph back to human form.

Most of the June to September shoot takes place on a number of sets inside the Toronto studio, which includes a bright green futuristic-looking cafe called Cyberia where the animorphs hang out. Shooting is also taking place on location at a shopping mall pet store and at the Bowmanville Zoological Park, a wildlife preserve just outside Toronto.

Deborah Forte and Bill Siegler are co-executive producers. Executive story editors are Billy Brown and Dan Angel.

Cinematographer Barry Bergthorson lensed the first couple of shows and Ludek Bogner did the rest. The series is being shot with many long lenses, heavy saturated colors, darkness and a lot of shadows.

Seven different directors worked on the series. The special two-part season opener ‘My Name is Jake’ was directed by Timothy Bond, and Ron Oliver, who lost a shoe to a hungry tiger on set, shot three.

Aside from working so closely with wild animals, Oliver says some of the challenges involve keeping the non-effects portions of the show interesting, the drama and suspense high, and doing it all on budget and on time.