The Making of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"

In the short video above (just 5 minutes long) I describe my experience working on the Disney live action feature film "Beverly Hills Chihuahua", animated at Cinesite in London back in 2007 and early 2008.  As part of the development process I did a large number of expression sheets, a few of which I have uploaded below.  

Animating Zebras for "Racing Stripes"

 

Way back in 2004 I got my first job as animation supervisor, on Frederic Du Chau's live action VFX movie "Racing Stripes", about a zebra that wants to be a racehorse.  It was filmed mainly in South Africa - where zebras are plentiful; while the VFX work was done at Digiscope in Santa Monica, with other studios such as Hybride in Montreal animating the two horseflies "Buzz and Scuzz". About 30 VFX shots were completed in London at the Peerless Camera Co.  Part of the animation process was to create expression sheets for the characters in the film, to inform the CG modelling process and to make sure the animation would be as realistic and expressive as possible. 

History of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

We're enjoying this "Deep Dive Documentary" into the History of the 1988 animated film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".  The documentary is based on a range of source material, including Ross Anderson's well-researched book Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat.   It's a thorough documentary that shows just how many twists and turns Who Framed Roger Rabbit took before finally making it (and even then only just) to the big screen. 

Meet The Jelly Cars!

Animation Apprentice student Lee Caller has recently completed his short film Jelly Cars, a short story about perseverance in the urban jungle.   

"Jelly Cars" is an inventive piece of film-making;  it's a charming story, entertaining and fun - and beautifully animated.

Lee took a simple exercise - animating a vehicle in motion, (in this case, animating a cartoon car, using the free yellow Beetle rig by Aaron Parker), and turned it into a short film, which has already been accepted into its first film festival - the annual KRAF film festival in Croatia.

Congratulations to Lee on his excellent work; we wish him every success in film festivals around the world.

Pete Docter Explains The Inspiration Behind Inside Out

In this excellent video from Pixar, Pete Docter Explains the inspiration behind Inside Out, Pixar's Oscar-winning feature film and arguably their most inventive movie to date.  Playing with some very grown-up themes of neurology and psychology, Pixar manages to entertain young audiences while giving adults plenty to chew on.  Pete Docter is one of the most talented living animation directors, a creative artist who manages to create entertainment with a serious undercurrent. Watch this short video to get an insight into how he came up with the ideas behind Inside Out.

Stuart Sumida Reveals the Secrets of How Animals Move

Stuart Sumida

Stuart Sumida is the go-to guy in Hollywood for animal locomotion. He has worked on many feature films, including “Spirit”- Stallion of the Cimarron”, “Lion King”, and DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon”.

Stuart says he is “a paleontologist who gets to work with animators” and, while his day job is to teach anatomy to medical students, he also consults on movies for Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks. I was personally lucky enough to work with him both on "Lion King" and also on "Spirit". On both pictures he helped the animators to push the levels of realism in our work.

At last week's VFX Festival in Dublin, Stuart showed what makes him such a unique resource for animators dealing with the complexities of animal locomotion.

Remembering The Iron Giant

In this excellent blog post, animator Stefan Franck reflects on  what it was like to work on The Iron Giant under the leadership of the supremely talented Brad Bird.

Iron Giant has just been re-released in theatres in the USA, a fitting tribute to a film which under-performed at the box office when it was first released in 1999.  For those of use who worked on the film, this was a huge shock. How could such a great film perform so poorly? Why did no-one want to see it?

Conspiracy theories grew. The studio wanted to kill it (because giant corporations love losing money!). The marketing department screwed up.  "They" wanted to close down Warner Bros Feature Animation. "They" wanted to teach Brad Bird a lesson.

Brad Bird and the Magic Circle

The Iron Giant

Many years ago I worked on The Iron Giant, a wonderful film and a priceless opportunity to work with one of the very best animation directors - the legendary Brad Bird.

I learned a great deal from him both as a director and an animator.  Brad's style of directing was always clear; he always knew what he wanted, and how to communicate it to the animators.

One of the cleanest and most useful concepts I learned from him was the importance of "The Magic Circle" - a simple rule of composition, and the animator's best friend in a tight spot. Here is how it works.

Animation Apprentice Founder Alex Williams Talks About His Design Work on Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear comes to the big screen in November

Animation Apprentice Founder Alex Williams was an early contributor of design work for Paddington, the new feature film about the much-loved bear created over 50 years ago by author Michael Bond. We asked Alex to talk about what he did on the film, which will be released in theatres on November 28, and how he managed to work on a major motion picture while teaching at Animation Apprentice.

Who Invests In Independent Feature Films?

Photo: Wikipedia

Who invests in independent feature films? And how does the aspiring film-maker find those investors? At the European film finance conference, Closing the Gap, Perrine Hamon of Media Deals, and Thierry Beaugard of Peaceful Fish explained what kind of investors are out there, and how to find them. Any animator who has a dream to make their own independent animated feature film needs to know just a little bit (and possibly more) about the nuts and bolts of movie finance.

Secrets of Independent Film Finance Revealed

How do you finance an independent animated feature film? And what is Gap Finance? If you are trying to raise funds for a movie, gap finance is something you need to understand. In brief, it's the point in the funding process where you bridge the gap between what you have been promised, and what you actually have in the bank to start making your picture. At the European Media Forum Closing the Gap, Ian Hutchinson of Silver Reel partners explained what Gap Finance is, and how it actually works.

How do you produce an independent animated film? Max Howard explains

Max Howard

In this interview last year at our sister blog FLiP, independent producer Max Howard reveals the secrets of financing independent animated films.

Animation producer Max Howard began his career in animation working on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", after which he joined Disney in Florida to set up their fledging Orlando studio. Since then he has worked for many of the biggest animation studios, and for the past decade has forged a career as an independent producer, as well as consulting for the animation industry and giving lectures and workshops all around the world. We asked him to talk about what it takes to produce an independent animated film.