A team that’s hardly green

WHO would’ve guessed that the world’s most famous ogre, the green swamp creature who, like Axl Rose, just wanted to be left alone, would help ignite the careers of a passel of pretty princesses?

Making their debut in this summer’s “Shrek the Third,” these budding queen bees are not your daughter’s pink and sparkly ladies awaiting a Prince Charming of their very own. They are an elite fighting team of solid dames, who burn a few bras and stomp on bad-guy heads to the thundering key of Ann and Nancy Wilson’s “Barracuda.”

And, as played by late-night TV comedians Maya Rudolph (Rapunzel), Amy Poehler (Snow White), Amy Sedaris (Cinderella), and Cheri Oteri (Sleeping Beauty), they may just be perfect spinoff material, said Aron Warner, longtime producer for the billion-dollar “Shrek” franchise.

“The actresses were so funny to work with, you could definitely see them expanding those roles,” Warner said. A feature starring Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) is also under consideration, but Warner noted that both ideas are “really just being played with” as DreamWorks Animation plans future releases for 2010 through 2012.

Meanwhile, here in Silicon Valley -- among the 350 engineers and computer artists who have mated math and story to help Shrek deal with self-acceptance and, then, in the sequel, guide him through a minefield of enchantment -- a 30-minute sneak peek at the latest installment, set for a Memorial Day release, is emceed by co-director Chris Miller. (The fourth iteration, still under wraps, is in early story development before heading to the storyboarding stage.)

A few new developments stand out. The third film is jam-packed with supporting roles -- 23 fairy-tale characters and 1,373 extras in one crowd shot; there are many more richly detailed environments -- 67 of the 82 sets are new; Miller and fellow director Raman Hui experiment with characters’ altered states of consciousness -- think flashbacks and nightmares; lastly, while still rich with pop cultural references, the new film delves into situational comedy more than the throw-away jokes that are “Shrek’s” hallmark.

Instead, the focus is on character-based comedy, meaning many new technical burdens fell on the shoulders of Lucia Modesto, the film’s character technical director supervisor. She and her team built a 4,378-strong fleet of generic male and female characters made visibly different through variations in body types, hair and costumes.

Far, Far Away’s main man also got an extreme CG makeover. (“We originally built Shrek in 1998,” Modesto said. “That’s an old piece of software.”) Eagle eyes will notice Shrek version 2.0’s skin now slides over his bones, his skin squashes and stretches when pressure is applied, there’s a slight wrinkle in his nose, his chest moves as he breathes (which in one scene disturbingly suggests floppy green man breasts), and, natch, he wears a more supple leather vest.

The new settings were conceived by production designer Guillaume Aretos who riffs on topics including the splendor of the courts of Louis XV and XVI and the gross-out factor of a medieval high school, complete with student driver carriages and cheerleaders in chain mail.

In these new stamping grounds, the layout department, overseen by Nick Walker, created a CG camera that, in the opening reel, orbits a bedroom four times (further detailing Aretos’ sets). In a shipboard scene, the crew devised a “shipcam” inspired by “Master and Commander” that implies a woozy offset Steadicam lensing. In another first for the franchise, one mournful scene is set on an overcast day allowing the lighting crew to explore subtle shapes and light values.

Even with all the new advances, the technology is not even close to being tapped out.

“CG is still at the beginning,” Aretos said. “It’s only 10 years old. My daughter is 12! Trust me, there is so much more to go.”

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‘Shrek the Third’: by the numbers

350 crew members

20,000 man weeks

1,320 computer-animated shots

130,000 individual frames

23 fairy-tale characters

9 Puss in Boots-wooed bachelorettes

1,373 characters in largest crowd shot

191,545 leaves, on average, per tree

2,500 unique costumes

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-- S.C.