STARNO provided essential Matte Painting services for the heartwarming feature film A Dog's Purpose, directed by Lasse Hallström. Working on this Amblin Entertainment production, our team was responsible for enhancing various outdoor environments to match the film’s multi-decade narrative and emotional tone.
Our primary technical contribution involved extensive sky replacements across numerous shots to ensure atmospheric consistency throughout the story's different eras. A significant portion of the work also included complex Day-for-Night transformations, where daytime plates were digitally altered into moonlit evening scenes through careful light manipulation and matte painting.
To further refine the compositions, we integrated digital vegetation and foliage into several sequences, adding lushness and depth to the rural landscapes. These subtle but crucial environmental enhancements were completed by Frédéric St-Arnaud, working as a Freelancer for the studio Mavericks VFX.
Based on the beloved best-selling novel by W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose shares the soulful and surprising story of one devoted dog (voiced by Josh Gad) who finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he teaches to laugh and love.
Reincarnated as multiple breeds over several decades, the dog develops unbreakable bonds, most notably with Ethan (played by Dennis Quaid as an adult). Through his various journeys, he discovers that every life has a purpose and that the connections we make can transcend a single lifetime. It is a cinematic celebration of the special bond between humans and their canine companions.
STARNO TEAM:Frédéric St-Arnaud
Mavericks VFX
Feature Film – 2017