Christmas comedy film Home Sweet Home Alone is the sixth film in the hugely popular Home Alone franchise produced by 20th Century Studios for Disney +.

Max Mercer, a mischievous young boy, is… guess what… accidentally left behind when his family goes on holiday to Japan. When a married couple attempting to receive a priceless heirloom set their sights on Max’s home, it is up to him to protect it… and he will do whatever it takes! 

Director Dan Mazer created a montage of scenes of the resourceful Max setting an array of tricks and traps in preparation for the raid on his home. The Union team, led by DFX Supervisor Dillan Nicholls, was tasked with bringing additional dynamism, fun and excitement to the sequence through a series of playful transitions.

These were achieved using a variety of 2D, FX and CG techniques including carefully timed layered wiping dissolves, an FX hose pipe water spray transition, a 2.5D camera move between the banisters of the stairs and a CG takeover of the top of a lego castle flying through the air.

DFX Supervisor Dillan Nicholls commented: ‘Home Sweet Home Alone was a fun project to work on and presented interesting creative challenges. The transitions needed stylistic consistency and were meant to be flamboyant, and fun and draw attention to themselves, but without feeling forced or unnatural. Because none of the transitions had been planned on set we had a great deal of creative freedom to experiment and see what worked with the photography provided. We loved working with Dan and the team at 20th Century Studios, and were all really pleased with the results.’