LazyTown - TV Production

TV Production

LazyTown is part live action, part puppetry, and part CGI animation. The show was filmed and produced entirely at 380 Studios, a purpose-built studio near Reykjavík equipped with high-end HDTV production facilities and one of the biggest green screens in the world. The production floor area is 1,800 square meters (almost 20,000 square feet). The budget for each episode was approximately ISK 70,000,000 (1 million US dollars), or about five times the average cost for a children's television programme at the time, making it "the most expensive children’s show in the world", according to Scheving.

LazyTown's virtual sets were generated with an Unreal Engine 3-based framework, created by Raymond P. Le Gué, known as XRGen4. According to Le Gué, “We start with the live actors and puppets on a physical set with a green screen behind them as a backdrop. The green screen is replaced in real time with the sets created in XRGen4 using UE3. As we move the camera and actors around the physical set, the backdrop scene also moves in real time in complete synchronization with the movements of the real camera. All of this is recorded, and the director can watch the resulting composition in real time."

Stephanie, Sportacus, and Robbie Rotten were the only human characters on the show until episode 32 ("Dancing Duel"), which was the first to include a fourth live actor to play the role of Rottenella. She was played by Mauriello's stunt double, Kristjana Ólafsdóttir. Later episodes, including "Little Sportacus" and "The Lazy Genie", also extended the live cast. The rest of the characters are depicted as puppets. The show's puppets were made by the Neal Scanlan Studio and Wit Puppets.