HAPPY GILMORE 2

OUR WORK

We sat down with Simon Devault, VFX supervisor, and Cécile Morel, VFX Producer, to learn about their hands-on experience working on Happy Gilmore 2. They talk about the challenge of creating realistic golf balls, the signature “hyperswing” move, and how Simon’s own skills as a golfer helped bring authenticity and precision to the visual effects. 

WHEN DID YOU JOIN THE PROJECT?
Cécile: We got involved very early on.  The team called us to talk about VFX challenges on set. I remember Marcus Taormina, the VFX Supervisor, mentioning the clients wanted to approach a shot in 2D and were wondering which elements could be filmed to make that possible. It was our role to test things out, helping Marcus showing the client that a 3D approach was necessary for the hyperswing.

TELL US MORE ABOUT THE HYPERSWING.
Simon: That was a big one. In the story, some golfers have surgery that allows them to perform a hyperswing: basically, they can twist more than twice as far as a normal human. To show that, we had to create full CG characters capable of those exaggerated movements.
Cécile: That swing was a huge part of Adam Sandler’s vision. It’s at the heart of the story, so we had to make sure it really worked on screen.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE ON THIS PROJECT?
Simon: We delivered major elements like full CGI characters in the movie, but the golf balls’ animations, as weird as it sounds, were quite a challenge. There were barely any real golf balls on set, so we had to create most of them in CG. That ended up being more complicated than we thought. The client was very sensitive about the direction, the bounce, the spin… all the little details that make a golf shot feel real, within the constraint of the plate where the camera operators were filming a plate with no ball. What seemed simple at first turned into a very technical challenge.

SIMON, DID THE FACT THAT YOU’RE A GOLFER HELP?
Simon: Yes, I really think so. There were so many little details to get right: how the ball takes off, how it bounces, how the body moves during a swing… We did quite a few mocap, and we were able to fine-tune the movements to keep them believable.
Cécile: From the very first conversations, Marcus realized Simon was a golfer, and that changed everything. He started asking a lot of questions about ball trajectories, swing dynamics… It really built trust, and that’s how we ended up getting even more golf-related shots.

WHAT OTHER TYPES OF EFFECTS DID YOU CREATE?
Simon: We did a lot of 3D crowd work since there weren’t that many extras on set. We improved golf courses conditions to make them look more like high-end PGA courses. The grandmother’s house wasn’t quite the same as in the original movie, so we modified the top floor in CG to make it match better.  We made the lobsters in the tank attacking Frank Manatee.  In the final scene, we also turned a field into an airport with a plane flying overhead.
Cécile: And we had to change the look of the trees and grass, because it was filmed in the fall, but it needed to look like summer.

HOW WAS THE COLLABORATION WITH THE TEAM AND THE CLIENT?
Cécile: We had a lot of enthusiasm from the team, especially many artists in Saguenay who loved the original Happy Gilmore and were excited to be part of the sequel. We also got great support from our Mumbai team, which helped us handle the volume of shots. On the client side, the collaboration was very smooth. Marcus and the client trusted us a lot, which really made a difference given the creative challenges and the high standards of the project.

OUR DEDICATED TEAM

The visual effects in 'Happy Gilmore 2' were made possible by the talent and dedication of our team at FOLKS, led by:

VFX Supervisor | Simon Devault
VFX Producer | Cécile Morel

TRAILER

Twenty-nine years after winning his first Tour Championship, retired golfer Happy Gilmore returns to the sport to pay for his daughter Vienna's ballet school.