Animation Magazine - August #312 Special Siggraph Issue

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LeBron and Looney Tunes Team Up In Space Jam: A New Legacy

Sony’s Vivo: A Heartfelt Valentine to Cuba

Plus Cryptozoo, Jellystone!, Centaurworld, Middlemost Post, Monsters at Work and More!

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Vivo, Sony’s Colorful Cuban Journey

Plus Cryptozoo, Jellystone!, Centaurworld, Middlemost Post, Monsters at Work and More!

LeBron & Looney Tunes Team Up in Space Jam: A New Legacy

$7.95 U.S.

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August 2021

Volume 35, Issue 7, Number 312 Frame-By-Frame

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Starfish Sidekick Takes Over

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Stuff We Love

Veteran producers Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller tell us everything we wanted to know about The Patrick Star Show.

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August Animation Planner

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The Mouse Is Back!

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Spinning New Tales

Features 8

LeBron Gets a New Dream Team

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Cuban Rhapsody

Space Jam: A New Legacy offers a delirious mix of live-action basketball stars and Looney Tunes faves.

By Michael Mallory

Mickey and his pals move into a silly talking funhouse in their new Disney Junior show.

Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends casts an entertaining web for younger fans.

How the artists at Sony created Vivo, a joyous musical valentine to the island nation and its people and culture.

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Interactive Immersion

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Puppy Treat

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SIGGRAPH Spotlight

PAW Patrol: The Movie gives us quality time with Chase, Skye and the rest of the beloved canine troupe.

By Karen Idelson

A look at the Computer Animation Festival’s three prize-winning projects.

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A Magical, Mythical Tour

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By Felicity Flesher

Which 3D Animation Jobs Are Right for You?

46

The Changing Face of the VFX Industry

Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski share the secrets of making Cryptozoo, their imaginative new feature about a fantastic beast sanctuary.

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A Fantastic Finale

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She Means Business!

A suspenseful feature offers a satisfying ending to Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters saga.

DreamWorks Animation’s Boss Baby sequel introduces us to a new charming executive infant!

Short 24

Senior Moments

The directors of the prize-winning short Peel discuss their process and inspirations.

Television/Streaming 26

Thoroughly Modern Hanna-Barbera Toons

Carl Greenblatt and his team had a lot of fun bringing classic Saturday Morning cartoons back to life in Warner Bros. Animation’s Jellystone!

By Ramin Zahed

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A New Crew Clocks In

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Delivering Smiles

Bobs Gannaway shares a few secrets about his new Disney+ show, Monsters at Work.

John Trabbic III and Dave Johnson take us on the creative journey of making Nickelodeon’s new show Middlemost Post.

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Musical Fantasy Misfits

How Megan Nicole Dong created the weird and wacky world of Centaurworld.

By Jennifer Wolfe

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Drawn to the Marvel Universe

The new animated series What If…? offers alternative storylines featuring Peggy Carter, Tony Stark, The Hulk, Nick Fury and many of the other fan favorites.

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Event Spotlight This month’s virtual SIGGRAPH offers a wide showcase for the latest CG and technology achievements.

Remote and hybrid models have taken hold, and flexibility will be key for studios going forward.

By Ben Stallard

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VR 48

Reliving Moments of Truth

Several new animated VR projects are inspired by personal and socially relevant matters.

VFX 52

The Way of the Samurai

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Tech Reviews

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Capturing Natasha Romanoff in Action

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A Noble Quest

VFX supervisor Olaf Wendt takes us behind the scenes of Snake Eyes.

By Trevor Hogg Maya 2022, 3ds Max 2022, Nvidia RTX A6000 and Boris FX’s Silhouette 2021.

By Todd Sheridan Perry

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VFX supervisor Geoffrey Baumann offers insights into crafting the eye-popping visuals for Black Widow.

By Tom McLean

How David Lowery’s The Green Knight was shaped by the digital wizardry of Weta Digital, Outpost and Maere Studios.

Opportunities 60

Autonomous Animator

To 3D or not 3D!

By Martin Grebing

Day in the Life

Cover A: Warner Bros. Space Jam: A New Legacy mixes 2D and 3D animation to win the theatrical game.

Cover B: Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo is the studio’s first animated musical.

Licensing Cover: Cyber Group Studios’ Gigantosaurus enjoys a successful global licensing blitz

61 Famestore Montreal animator Loïc Mireault gives us a tour of his WFH work-life balance.

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The Shape of Things to Come Like many of you, dear readers, we have been keeping a close eye on the in-person animation and VFX events that have cautiously been opening their doors to attendees in the past couple of months. It was great to see that the Annecy and Cannes festivals were able to continue with their non-virtual components, despite the rise of new COVID variants and restrictions around the world.

It was especially promising to see last month’s Cannes festival be such a great launching pad for several hot new animated movies. If the glowing reviews for Mamoru Hosoda’s latest effort Belle, Ari Folman’s powerful Where Is Anne Frank, Patrick Imbert’s The Summit of the Gods and Pascal-Alex Vincent’s documentary Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist are any indication, we have some great treats in store for the rest of the year!

We already know that GKIDS, that great champion of indie and international animated films, has picked up Belle for a fourth-quarter 2021 release, and we have a feeling distributors are going to take care of the other three titles as well.

Things are also hopping on the U.S. studio side. We just got word that Sony’s The Mitchells vs the. Machines was Netflix’s most-watched animated movie to date. The studio’s new movie, Vivo, is another explosion of cool sights and sounds, with a terrific soundtrack courtesy of award-winning songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda and composer Alex Lacamoire. You can read all about the making of the studio’s first musical in this month’s cover story. We also have a terrific interview with the creative team behind Warner Bros.’ blockbuster movie Space Jam: A New Legacy, penned by regular Animag contributor Michael Mallory. The critics may not have been happy with the movie, but audiences were definitely hungry for the return of the Looney Tunes to the big screen.

This month’s virtual SIGGRAPH event also provided us with the opportunity to explore some of the confab’s famous Electronic Theater’s highlights, chat with the winning film creators and also spotlight a few of 2021’s hottest VR projects. We hope you enjoy this sneak peek of what the big computer graphics and new technology event has in store for us — though we’ll miss the buzz of the live event, and hope to experience it again in 2022.

We are also moving forward with plans for this year’s World Animation & VFX Summit. We have the great pleasure of featuring a beautiful artwork created by the hugely talented industry veteran Alan Bodner (see image).

Alan has had a rich career in the industry, best known for being the art director on beloved movies such as The Iron Giant, Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas and a long list of TV shows such as Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, The Looney Tunes Show and Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. The Emmy and Annie Award-winning artist is currently the art director on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Funhouse. I hope you love our 2021 Summit poster as much as we do. And stay tuned (via our website and daily newsletter — you are all signed up, right?) as we announce this year’s honorees, panels and other details in the weeks ahead.

I hope you enjoy this issue and the rest of this unpredictable summer!

Quote of the Month

Ramin Zahed Editor in Chief ramin@animationmagazine.net

“It’s weird that my mom was able to bribe all these people into watching the movie and claiming to enjoy it!? But seriously — we’re legitimately blown away by the audience response to the movie. It was a labor of love and represents the great work of hundreds of talented storytellers and artists. I’m so glad that through Netflix so many people were able to watch it together. I couldn’t be prouder of the team who made it and I’m so glad people love watching it as much as we loved making it.”

— Mike Rianda, director/writer, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, which became the most-watched animated movie on Netflix last month.

ANIMATION MAGAZINE August 2021

Vol. 35, Issue 7, No. 312 Info@animationmagazine.net

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Stuff We Love

Batman: The Long Halloween

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run

A brutal murder on Halloween prompts the Batman (Jensen Ackles) to team up with Gotham’s only honest lawmen, Cpt. Gordon (Billy Burke) and Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) to take down the Falcone Crime Family — only for more seasonal slayings to stain the city’s streets. So begins WB Animation’s take on the ‘90s DC Comics story, directed by Chris Palmer (Man of Tomorrow). Part One also features the voices of Titus Welliver (Carmine Falcone), David Dasmalchain (Calendar Man), Troy Baker (Joker) and the late Naya Rivera (Catwoman). In the R-rated Part Two (on Blu-ray Aug. 10), the Holiday Killer remains at large, Batman falls under Poison Ivy’s (Katee Sackhoff) spell and Dent is torn in two by professional and personal battles. The sets include DC Showcase shorts The Losers (Pt. 1) and Blue Beetle (Pt. 2), as well as treasures from the vault, sneak peeks and more. [WBHE, $30 Pt. 1 / $35 Pt. 2]

Yes, the long journey of the third bigscreen Bikini Bottom movie has reached its disc destination this month! Fans can follow SpongeBob and Patrick on their heroic, hilarious quest to rescue Gary the snail from King Poseidon in the Lost City of Atlantic City — bumping into old friends and new faces voiced by Awkwafina, Matt Berry and Reggie Watts along the way. Written and directed by series vet Tim Hill, the Paramount Animation/Nickelodeon Movies feature (animated by Mikros Image) comes home with snazzy souvenirs, like all-new mini-movie I’m Urchin You to Leave, music videos from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Tyga, et al; deleted storyboards and s’more from the BFFs’ carefree youth at Camp Coral. Also available in the SpongeBob 3-Movie Collection.

[Paramount, $23 BD / $18 DVD]

Memories | Three unforgettable tales from Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo.

[Discotek Media, $30 BD]

The Art of Luca While Enrico Casarosa’s beautiful ode to mid-century Italy, childhood friendships and coastal lore skipped theaters this summer, you can still score a front-row look at the beautiful Pixar artistry behind the film’s stunning CG visuals. Featuring a foreword by Casarosa and introduction by production designer Daniela Strijleva, the 176-page hardcover takes you below the waves to discover a rich world of concept and character development art, swimming with fascinating facts and insider details from the movie’s creative team. [Chronicle, $40]

The Herculoids: The Complete Original Series | Humanoid heroes and their creature companions defend a utopian planet from sinister invaders across this 18-episode Hanna-Barbera toon. [Warner Archive, $25 BD / $17 DVD]

The Art of Rick and Morty, Vol. 2 Deluxe Edition The full hardcover peek behind the curtain of the Adult Swim global hit showcases the interstellar art of the third and fourth seasons.

The deluxe release is given a glow-up with gilded edges and a ribbon marker to please the fanciest of fans, plus a glow-in-the-dark lithograph print and replicas of Rick’s iconic bumper stickers, wrapped up in an acetate sleeve emblazoned with Rick and Morty’s silhouettes. [Dark Horse Books, $80]

The Animator’s Survival Kit - Minis!

The must-have megatome for aspiring animators penned by the late Richard Williams gets a 20th anniversary re-issue as four key topic manuals of 40-80 pages, each with a never-before-seen intro in Williams’ own hand.

Walks, Runs, Jumps and Skips; Flexibility and Weight; and Dialogue, Directing, Acting and Animal Action available in the U.K. August 5. [Faber, £10 each]

Exploding Minions | The first licensed spin on the hit Exploding Kittens card game features new illustrations of Illumination’s popular henchmen, as reimagined by The Oatmeal. [explodingkittens.com, $20]

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EM MY AWA RD N O M I N A T I O N S ®

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED PROGRAM OUTSTANDING CHARACTER VOICE-OVER PERFORMANCE MAYA RUDOLPH

NEW YORK MAGAZINE

FYC.NETFLIX.COM

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August Animation Planner

Follow the kinkajou capers of Sony Pictures Animation’s debut musical Vivo on Netflix today!

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Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild joins Netflix’s lineup of videogame-inspired anime today.

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SIGGRAPH 2021 delivers five days of virtual programming, with can’t-miss sessions, livestream events and screenings. [siggraph2021. eventive.org] Migrants

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Fathom Events and Eleven Arts bring Shirobako: The Movie to U.S. theaters today — an anime about making anime, kakkoii desu ne? The presenter is also bringing Coraline and Lupin III: The First back to cinemas this month.

Trekkies will want to tune in to Paramount+ for the S2 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

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Amazon Prime Video becomes the exclusive streaming home of Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion:3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time (and the three previous films) in 240+ territories today.

RSVP to Auradon’s biggest social event of the season: The animated Descendants: The Royal Wedding special, on Disney Channel.

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Face Recognition

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Fresh animation is on tap at the four-day Animist Tallinn, including the home country premiere of Face Recognition by Estonia’s Martinus Klemet. [animistfestival. eu]

Return to Andrzej Sapkowski’s dark fantasy world in the new Netflix Anime Film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

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Get in on the ground floor of the next big toon franchise or discover new opportunities for your IP at Licensing Expo, taking place online for three days. [licensingexpo.com]

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The Marvel Universe goes wild in What If…?, the super new animated series on Disney+.

Hungary’s Kecskemét Animation Film Festival celebrates its 15th edition with five days of fantastic features and shorts from around the world. [2021.kaff.hu] Marona’s Fantastic Tale

Grab your pup-corn and get ready for PAW Patrol: The Movie, bringing Chase and the pack to cinemas and Paramount+.

In the mood for a more arthouse experience? Dash Shaw’s Cryptozoo delivers on the big screen with Magnolia Pictures.

If you’d rather stay at home, Nickelodeon’s The Loud House Movie embarks on an awesome summer adventure on Netflix today.

Photo: Paavo Pykäläinen Photography

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After the intro of its Pro Festival this summer, Finland’s charming Turku Animated Film Festival returns to in-person form for five days in the nation’s oldest city. [taff.fi]

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It’s mom-and-pop spy espionage vs. soulless big box intelligence in Archer Season 12, debuting on FXX and Hulu today and featuring the late, great Jessica Walter. ◆ To get your company’s events and products listed in this monthly calendar, please e-mail edit@animationmagazine.net. www.animationmagazine.net 6 august 21

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EMM Y AWA RD N O M I N A T I O N S ®

INCLUDING

O U T STA NDIN G SH O R T FO RM A NIM AT ED P RO G R A M

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N

“EXAMINES WHAT IT TRULY MEANS TO BE ALIVE AND TO LIVE.” BLOODY DISGUSTING

“A BUFFET OF ANIMATED WONDERS.” IGN

“INCREDIBLE ANIMATION.” CULTR

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Features

LeBron Gets a New Dream Team Space Jam: A New Legacy offers a delirious mix of live-action basketball stars and Looney Tunes faves.

By Michael Mallory

T

here’s a lot more going on in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Space Jam: A New Legacy than simply the reteaming of a lionized hoopster and wascally wabbit. Sure, it’s built around a high-stakes basketball game between the Warner Bros. Looney “Tune Squad,” led by LeBron James, and a team of virtual avatar hoopsters called the “Goon Squad.” But it is also an epic match-up of 2D and 3D animation and visual effects, created by an army of artists comprising both toon legends and relative newbies.

The film’s most notable newcomer to animation and visual effects is its director, Malcolm D. Lee, who is known for such live-action comedies as Girls Trip. “I didn’t know that I needed to make this movie,” says Lee. “Growing up I was a big fan of the Looney Tunes and I’m also a huge fan of LeBron and basketball, and this was an opportunity to play in a sandbox I hadn’t played in before.” Lee adds that the notable teams from Warner Animation Group and ILM guided him through the process, allowing him to “be more nimble about

the storytelling.”

Space Jam: A New Legacy is of course the long-awaited follow-up to the 1996 hit Space Jam that paired Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. What hooked the director into the project

was the set-up story involving King James and his fictional son Dom (played by Cedric Joe), a videogame geek who’s ambivalent about basketball and who gets trapped inside the Warner Bros. digital server-verse. “That father/son

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Features I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Tweety Bird (voiced by Bob Bergen) is one of many Warner Bros. animated characters showing up for the big game with LeBron James.

Malcom D. Lee

relationship was something I wanted to dive into and take hold of,” Lee says, adding, “When I came on there was a little bit of a disconnect about what story was being told and how it was being told, so it gave me an opportunity to put my stamp on it and give the film a direction when it was a bit rudderless.”

One on One with the Greenscreen LeBron’s odd odyssey to rescue his son finds him thrust into a host of different worlds, from the high-tech domain of … wait for it … Al-G Rhythm (Don Cheadle), the A.I. ruler of the server-verse who sets up the climactic basketball game, to “Tune World,” which looks like it came straight from the desk of Maurice Noble.

With an estimated 80 percent of the live action staged against a greenscreen, a lot of visualizing was required from production designer Devin Crane (Smallfoot), who also oversaw the film’s CG animation direction and art direction.

“While each world changes style and look, we had to keep it consistent with the live-action production design,” Crane says. “I thought of it almost like Disneyland, like these sets were actually real and you could walk around in them.”

The 2D, painted look of Tune World’s backgrounds were digital, but a program was developed in Photoshop to mimic paint textures. “Everything was designed to make the stuff feel as hand-drawn as possible,” says Crane.

The Looney Tunes also change form de-

‘They called it “post-vis” because a lot of stuff was done after the live action had for the most part been shot … As they were shooting I was getting screen grabs through the camera lens in real time. That allowed me to do quick draw-overs by means of Procreate.’

— 2D animation director Spike Brandt

pending on the world. Bugs, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam (all voiced by Jeff Bergman), Daffy, Porky, Foghorn Leghorn (Eric Bauza), Tweety (Bob Bergen), Granny (Candi Milo), Wile E. Coyote (silent) and Lola Bunny from the original Space Jam (Zendaya) — are first seen as their normal selves in hand-drawn animation, but then transform into heavily textured digital versions. “The trick is finding a way to make them look different from every angle,” Crane says. “We spent a good six months doing tons of drawings and sculpting, then tweak and move points around. Eventually it all started to click.” ILM’s Kevin Martel served as the digital animation supervisor, while Grady Cofer supervised the visual effects.

Wearing more hats than a stylish hydra, Crane was also instrumental in designing Cartoon LeBron (who was key animated by Sandro Cleuzo) and the Goon Squad, based on and voiced by actual basketball stars: The Brow (voiced by Anthony Davis), the serpentine White Mamba (Diana Taurasi), Arachnneka (Nneka Ogwumike), elemental Wet-Fire (Klay Thompson) and Chronos, a clock creature (Da-

mian Lillard). Characters from the Hanna-Barbera catalog, the Animaniacs, even the Iron Giant also make appearances (only Pepé Le Pew is missing, having been deemed problematic during the development stage).

Welcome to the Post-Vis Universe One of the unique challenges of Space Jam: A New Legacy is that its production did not follow a linear pre-production/production/ post-production blueprint. “They called it ‘post-vis’ because a lot of stuff was done after the live action had for the most part been shot,” says Spike Brandt, the film’s 2D animation director and Warner Bros.’ go-to guy for keeping its classic cartoon heroes in character and authentic. Even though there was a sizable storyboard department on the film, which included such veteran artists as Ed Gombert and Paul & Gaëtan Brizzi, a lot of the visualization was done on set during the live shoot.

“I spent quite a bit of time on the set,” Brandt says. “I had a mobile station with an iPad that was hooked into the cameras by means of a wifi connection, so as they were shooting I

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Features That’s Not All, Folks! Audiences have embraced the movie worldwide giving it the most successful weekend opening for a family movie since the pandemic.

was getting screen grabs through the camera lens in real time. That allowed me to do quick draw-overs by means of Procreate.”

The animation team under Brandt’s direction included such vets as Eric Goldberg, John Pomeroy, Tony Bancroft, Raul Garcia, Dan Haskett, Chuck Gammage and Shawn Keller, with Tony Cervone (another classic Looney Tunes specialist) also contributing some work. The artists’ methods of working covered as many worlds as the film’s story. “Ultimately, everything was put into Harmony,” says Brandt, “but some people started animating on paper, some people started in other programs they were more familiar with, and some people were doing it directly in Harmony. It was exciting to be able to work with these guys again as well as some for the first time, and see their enthusiasm for doing 2D animation on the big screen again. A number of times people said, ‘I can’t believe we’re doing this again!’” Brandt adds that veteran visual effects wizard Scott Johnston was instrumental in creating special processes to “keep everything from tipping out of control.”

As if marshaling a literal army of artists and technicians on a unique production with a flexible pipeline wasn’t challenging enough, there was another fallen tree over the road: COVID-19. Principal photography was completed by September 2019, just before the pandemic hit in earnest, but the actual animation work didn’t begin until a year later, sending the artists home to work. Then there were retakes and changes, including the late decision to give the Goon Squad voices. “It was like the writing never stopped,” Brandt says. “A

‘While each world changes style and look, we had to keep it consistent with the live-action production design. I thought of it almost like Disneyland, like these sets were actually real and you could walk around in them.’

— Production designer Devin Crane

lot of stuff got pushed later and later into the schedule. One shot was some 600 frames long, so it was like, how do we get these long shots through the system?”

Not only did the team manage to get it all done on time, but all are thrilled with the results. Especially thrilled, by all accounts, is the film’s live-action star. Says Brandt, “When we wrapped principal photography, LeBron said,

‘[Space Jam] really meant something to me as a kid, and the idea that I’m here and we’ve gone through this process together…’ It was pretty amazing for him.” ◆ Warner Bros.’ Space Jam: A New Legacy was released in theaters and on HBO Max in July. The film had a $31 million opening weekend in the U.S. ($22.1 million overseas).

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Features

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Features

Cuban Rhapsody How the artists at Sony created Vivo, a joyous musical valentine to the island nation and its people and culture.

I

t’s summertime, and few can resist a whirlwind tour of Havana, the Florida Everglades and Miami! The fact that this trip is provided

by Sony Pictures Animation’s new musical Vivo, which features music by the award-winning team of Lin-Manuel Miranda and composer Alex Lacamoire (Hamilton, In the Heights) makes the experience even easier to love.

The much-anticipated feature, which premieres on Netflix this month, is directed by Oscar-nominated animation veteran Kirk DeMicco (The Croods), co-directed by Brandon Jeffords and produced by Lisa Stewart, Michelle Wong and Oscar winner Rich Moore. The script was penned by DeMicco and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and lyricist Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful), with special input from the production’s experts on Cuban culture and the Cuban-American experience. Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins was the film’s visual consultant.

Vivo follows the adventures of a charming kinkajou (a rainforest “honey bear,” voiced by Miranda), who entertains crowds in a lively Havana square with his beloved owner Andrés (Buena Vista Social Club’s Juan de Marcos).

When tragedy strikes, Vivo has to deliver a message to Andrés’ long-lost love Marta (Gloria Estefan) with the aid of an unusual and irrepressible young girl named Gabi (Ynairaly Simo).

DeMicco says he was immediately drawn to the project when he discovered that Miranda was involved. “Lin-Manuel’s optimistic, bright heart is at the center of our movie. We wanted to show an optimistic way of life. What Vivo goes through is painful, but he learns that friends, music and collaboration can help you move forward. I think the big message of the movie is that, with love in your heart, you can learn to move on and find new meaning in your life.”

Miranda first came up with the idea for the movie after watching street performers in a New York subway years ago. He recalls, “Vivo came into my life a long time ago, just after I had finished writing In the Heights. So I started writing the

songs way back in 2009, and then obviously it got pushed. When we revisited the project with Sony Animation, and with Quiara attached as the screenwriter, we totally rediscovered this journey.

The movie has taken so many turns, but at the heart of this story is this incredible friendship between Andrés and Vivo, and how it launches Vivo on an incredible journey from Cuba to Florida, where he does a lot of growing up.”

A Trip to Remember For DeMicco, the movie offered a chance to work on Sony’s first animated musical and to create a vibrant valentine to some unforgettable locations. “I love the fact that our movie takes us

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Features A Postcard from Havana: The filmmakers’ visit to Cuba influenced their depictions of the beautiful architecture and the “elegant decay” of Havana.

from Cuba to Key West to the Florida Everglades to modern-day Miami. We’ve never had a big CG-animated movie that really explores Caribbean color palettes, from the color of the buildings to the sun and the sky. We were able to capture the elegance of Cuba and follow Vivo and Gabi to the kitschy, fun-loving world of Key West, to the sleek, sophisticated Miami.”

In search of authentic artistry, the director and some key members of his team actually flew down to Havana and some of the film’s settings to get first-hand inspirations for the movie. As production designer Carlos Zaragoza explains, “Our trip to Havana included meeting with local musicians and dancers, architecture experts and people who opened their houses to us. Some aesthetic choices in the movie are based on those specific realities: the why of the colorful patchwork facades of the Old Havana, or how an old palace was subdivided into multiple small apartments. The trip brought a lot of interesting ideas that we incorporated into our project in some way. The goal was to find the essence of Havana — not to copy it, but to create something extraordinary.”

“It was such an eye-opening experience,” recalls co-director Jeffords (head of story on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2). “To be able to see this amazing country, the warm people, the music and the actual locations we see in the movie was a wonderful experience. You walk up to Plaza Vieja, which is the actual location where we have Andrés and Vivo perform in the movie — it’s not something you get to do with an animation project every day!”

He adds, “One of the great things about Vivo is that it’s a musical that is about music and musicians. Usually musicals are about some-

‘People were working from home and getting up in the middle of the night and animating shots. Just like Andrés, we were all longing for connection, and little Vivo was the one who could make it happen!’

— Director Kirk DeMicco

thing else besides music. But one of our central themes is music. The other major theme is that even though you may lose someone that you have loved more than ever in your life, it’s possible to move on and love again. It’s a line we use in the movie, which is: if you get lost, you go and find your own rhythm again.”

Perfect Patchwork According to Zaragoza, the production used two

different approaches for each of the musical sequences. “Some of them are anchored in the real world,” he explains. “Those are the emotional highlights of the story when the character goes beyond what’s real and expresses how he or she feels. The second approach is more fantasy-based and they focus on the inner visions of the characters, numbers like ‘Mambo Cabana’ and ‘Gabi’s Song.’ Of course, we’re using specific styles for each musical sequence because it demands it. We are mixing 2D

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Features Retro Vision: The artists used an eye-pleasing mix of 2D and CG images for the film’s more abstract and stylized musical numbers

Wendell Dalit

Carlos Zaragoza

elements in 3D space, and some elements that are made to look like 2D.” The artistic team also studied a great deal of mid-century travel posters to find the right mix of whimsy and realism. “Those posters offered a really fun, very graphic depiction of Caribbean destinations,” says Zaragoza. “The effects team at Imageworks are also helping us come up with these graphic representations of perspective. We are simplifying shapes and taking out information to make it look more abstract. For example, a cloud that is more organic and complex in the foreground becomes a simple triangular shape in the background.”

Art director Wendell Dalit, who also worked on visual development for Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is pleased about the film’s patchwork approach to the props and textures. “It all began with the look of Havana, and the fact that many of the buildings are in a state of decay,” explains Dalit. “They are using different layers of paint to repaint their walls, so we tried to incorporate that look in the rest of the world. For example, a plank of wood will have different blocks of color as well, to accentuate that patchwork look. The trees in the Everglades also have slight color variation in the foliage and the branches as well.”

To help distort the backgrounds with a brush stroke technique, a special tool was created at the studio. “This helped give our sets the feeling that they are a hand-painted backdrop like you would see in musical theater,” explains Dalit. “This really helped give our characters a stage to perform on.

You may notice that the details fall off very quickly and things become much more graphic in the distance.”

The artists were also able to incorporate eye-pleasing combinations of 2D and CG anima-

tion in musical numbers such as “Mambo Cabana” and “My Own Drum.” As Dalit points out, “For the song sequence where we get to meet Gabi and her world, we were inspired by videogames, music videos, and motion graphics, things that we thought she might be into. You’ll notice our use of 2D graphics. We explored similar approaches in our last two movies Spider-Verse and The Mitchells vs the Machines, so we wanted to continue exploring that idea with Vivo to help create a fun and unique look.”

Art director Andy Harkness (Open Season, Moana) likens the experience of working on the musical numbers to working on several different shorts at once. “It’s really fun for the artists because each one has their own color and design rules,” he says. “Because there is an emphasis on a very graphic approach, they are more about feeling and color, and less about perfection. We are revisiting the musicals of the 1950s and 1960s, titles like Westside Story, to get the approach to lighting and color right. It’s amazing what they were able to do in terms of light-

ing and color in order to evoke a certain emotion, and we’re following in the same tracks.”

Ready to Take a Bow DeMicco says he can’t wait until audiences all over the world get to meet Vivo and his unique world. “Summertime is the perfect time to enjoy this world,” he notes. “But beyond the great sounds and sights, Vivo is a movie that has depth. It’s a story of grief and moving on, and has the heart that Lin-Manuel brought to it from the beginning.”

He adds, “I remember how last year, we were all in lockdown and the movie felt like a life raft for many of us. I think it informed everyone’s work.

People were working from home, getting up in the middle of the night and animating shots. Everyone was pouring their hearts into it. Just like Andrés, we were all longing for connection, and we were all like Vivo — adrift for a while. But then, little Vivo was the one who could make it happen!” ◆ Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo premieres on Netflix on August 6.

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Jennifer Dodge

Puppy Treat PAW Patrol: The Movie gives us quality time with Chase, Skye and the rest of the beloved canine troupe.

By Karen Idelson

W

hen a team of filmmakers set out to make PAW Patrol: The Movie, based on the hugely popular series originally created by renowned British children’s TV icon Keith Chapman (Bob the Builder), they knew they had a challenge on their hands and a very picky preschool audience to please.

The original PAW Patrol series (produced by Spin Master, Nickelodeon and Guru Studio) has been a powerhouse show since it first appeared on TV screens in 2013. The show introduced six dynamic rescue pups and their leader, a boy named Ryder, quickly became a favorite with preschoolers by focusing on straightforward, positive storytelling and adorable characters and inspired a wave of toy and wardrobe purchases.

“For us, it was important to be able to tell a deeper character story than what we’ve been able to do with this series,” says producer Jennifer Dodge. “And to tell it in a way that a child really can understand and relate to, and maybe even their parents get a deeper meaning from it. You can have a hard day at school or daycare and you can rise above those difficulties and you can come through on the other

side. It doesn’t mean you’re never scared, it doesn’t mean you don’t doubt yourself. But, if at the end of the day, you really believe in yourself and you have people around you who believe in you, you can overcome it.”

Director Cal Brunker, who also wrote the film along with his childhood friend Bob Barlen and Billy Frolick, came to the film with a solid understanding of the characters thanks to his own kids.

Paw-sitive Portrayals “When the chance came to pitch my take on

the movie, I was able to bring all of their experience and what my kids loved about the show to the pitch, and I think that really helped,” says Brunker, who also directed The Nut Job 2 and Escape from Planet Earth. “Our take was, we really wanted to build this around the emotional journey of one character, so it felt like more of a theatrical experience. You go on a journey with one of these characters overcoming their struggles, and the whole team is involved, but we felt that that was the best way to bring an audience deeper into the story.”

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Familiar Voices: With animation produced by Mikros, PAW Patrol: The Movie features the voices of Iain Armitage, Marsai Martin, Ron Pardo, Yara Shahidi, Kim Kardashian, Randall Park, Dax Shepard, Tyler Perry and Jimmy Kimmel.

‘Our take was we really wanted to build this around the emotional journey of one character, so it felt like more of a theatrical experience.’

— Director Cal Brunker

In the series, Chase – the German shepherd pup (voiced by Iain Armitage) – often emerges as the leader who rallies the other dogs to go on an adventure or save the day. It was natural for the focus of the film to be on him.

“Chase is kind of like the quarterback,” says screenwriter Bob Barlen. “Chase sort of seems like the main character, and so being able to expand and kind of have a character who fails and who has to overcome an obstacle is important. We were able to do more than the TV show time allows. Starting in Adventure Bay, you see him as that same perfect pup from the show where he’s executing things flawlessly.

That’s really where we were able to expand on his backstory and create something that would be worthy of the feature film. So, you’re seeing him for the first time really ever make mistakes and mess up and come to terms with not being perfect, and then pushing through and overcoming that fear. That was really something that we were excited about in terms of telling a story.”

Adds Brunker, “At its core, the movie is about what it means to be scared, and how to overcome your fears. It felt really important to be doing something that we could share with people at this time as the movie comes out. I think people are coming out of this time of fear and uncertainty, and I think the movie has a lot to say about that. And we really feel proud that hopefully this is going to be one of the first movies that people get to see in theaters again.”

Spotlight on Skye While they wanted to focus on the backstory of one character, it was also important to them to add a new female pup to the crew, since the character Skye is usually the only female on the team. New pups often appear in the series for a specific adventure to round out the team but then aren’t necessarily in every episode going forward.

“My daughter is a huge Skye fan,” says Brunker. “She was four when we started making this movie. So, we wanted to give Skye

some really big, exciting moments. We also felt, just in terms of bringing something fresh and new to the team, a new girl pup would be wonderful. Because she’s new for the movie, we wanted to make her stand out. We thought that because she was from the city we could make her a little tougher, a little more rough around the edges than the other pups are, and that would bring something fresh to that world as well.”

Dodge and Brunker both thought the style of the animation needed to remain true to the series but with some significant adjustments to give it a more theatrical feeling.

“We wanted to redesign some things you notice in the movie,” says Brunker. “The back legs of the dogs actually look and function like real dog legs and in the TV show they’re kind of more cartoony; just kind of stick legs.

We felt it would allow them to move more like real dogs, and if we could push the realism of the movement, then it would make the fact that they’re doing these great big rescues and all this heroic stuff even more exciting.”

According to animation supervisor Guillermo Dupinet, all the animation was done by Mikros Animation in Montreal. There was a crew of 250 on the film with a team of about 60 devoted to the animation. Most of the work was done remotely, since they were in the previz stage when the lockdown started. Their biggest challenge was creating high-quality theatrical animation that didn’t lose the sense of the series. They were also especially interested in creating action scenes that had more of a realistic quality.

The film also represented the fulfillment of a lifetime dream for Barlen and Brunker, who’ve been making films together for decades. “Bob and I have been best friends since high school and we’ve been making movies together since high school,” says Brunker.

“Back before we ever got a chance to make a movie, Bob and I went to Hollywood for the first time and we actually paid to go on the Paramount lot tour. You know, you get to see behind the gates. We said to each other, wouldn’t it be amazing if one day we were making a movie for Paramount? Well, we’re six or seven weeks away from our first movie for Paramount coming out. And to be entrusted with such a beloved brand for so many people and to be able to share that with the world, this is a dream come true for us. It’s been something we’ve been working towards for a long time and, and it’s a real gift.” ◆ Paramount will release PAW Patrol: The Movie in theaters and on Paramount+ on August 20.

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A Magical, Mythical Tour Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski share the secrets of making Cryptozoo, their imaginative new feature about a fantastic beast sanctuary.

I

f you like your animated features bold, hallucinogenic and packed with beautiful cryptids, then you are going to love Cryptozoo, the second feature by Dash Shaw and his wife Jane Samborski, who also gave us the highly original 2016 pic My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea. The new indie flick, which was made by the duo in their house in Richmond, Virginia with the aid of eight interns from a nearby college, is a beautiful, wildly imagined tale about a protected sanctuary for mythical creatures such as griffins, unicorns, manticores, chimeras and bakus (Japanese dream-eaters).

Shaw and Samborski began thinking about the idea for this movie about six years ago, just as they were wrapping their last. “The storyline was the result of a few things coming together,” recalls Shaw during a recent Zoom interview. “I was thinking about how drawing is our first and only way to see imaginary beings, since they can’t be photographed,” he explains. [Animation pioneer] Winsor McCay had started an unfinished film called The Centaurs in 1921. Here is this great master of animation who had this idea of drawing as a way to see mythological creatures. His other work Gertie the Dinosaur and Little Nemo in Slumberland could also only be told through this medium.”

Another inspiration was Samborski’s all-female Dungeons & Dragons group! “I wanted to

focus on something that Jane would enjoy since she ended up painting most of the cryptids in the movie, and that probably inspired the mostly female cast of the movie, and also the globetrotting nature of the project,” Shaw notes.

A Sixties Sensibility The filmmaker was also influenced by New York Public Library’s archives of newspapers from around the world chronicling the counterculture

movement from the 1980s. “I had a fellowship at the library, and one of the fellows was researching the movement, so I looked at the weekly papers from places like Brazil and Chicago, and noticed that they all featured this optimism and had this art nouveau, quasi-fantasy-type drawing style. That style was somehow attached to the global counter-culture movement in the days before the internet.”

Shaw was also influenced by a New York Muse-

‘We wanted the movie to be a thrilling, experiential ride which feels like your imagination is running wild, almost in a dangerous way.’

— Writer-director Dash Shaw

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Features um of Modern Art exhibit of 1960s and early ’70s art. “I was looking at this time period when Walt Disney died, and there were plans to make Epcot Center an actual city, but it became an amusement park instead,” he says. “I saw that period as a time where freedom of imagination was hemmed in and contained. I just felt like the right backdrop and period for the movie.”

Shaw and Samborski wrote the movie in 2015 and 2016, and the film was boarded in 2016. “Our daughter was born at the end of 2016, and we started doing pre-production and planning in 2017!” note the couple.

The director invited artists that he knew from the comic world to help draw the movie. “I tried to cast each scene knowing what each painter’s art looks like, just like you would cast an artist,” says Shaw. “This is an idea I got from Ralph Bakshi. He would also designate different artists to each scene and allow them to be themselves. He wouldn’t give them a house guide and make them draw like him.”

Inspired by Regional Folktales The challenging task of designing all the cryptid characters fell upon Samborski’s shoulders; she also created most of the watercolors that go behind the characters. Meanwhile, Shaw focused on the line drawings for all the human characters. Everything in the movie began as a practical image, drawn on paper using watercolor, gouache, airbrush and colored pencils. Then, the team used Photoshop to create the collage images.

The actual animation was done using After Effects and the free rigging tool Duik. “It’s this amazing freeware tool that everyone should be using,” says Samborski. “We really couldn’t have made the movie without Duik. We also had some hybrid puppetry and replacement animation.”

Samborski mentions that she really enjoyed creating the Tengu, the birdlike protector of the mountains which has its origins in Japanese folklore. “I was trying to look at various drawings and go back to the culture of origin of these cryptids,” she recalls. “Every single cryptid does come from an existing mythology. I loved the Tengu by the

Mysterious Creatures: Dash Shaw’s Sundance hit Cryptozoo features the voices of Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Emily Davis, Zoe Kazan, Grace Zabriskie and Peter Stormare.

‘We just started and did it and made mistakes and we learned from those mistakes. If you work on your movie every weekend and every evening, the material starts to grow. All of a sudden, we had 70 percent of the movie drawn!’

— Animation director Jane Samborski

virtue of how that puppet is rigged and moves, it is very much like the early drawings.”

She adds, “For me, the film is about each of the individual characters’ relationships with the magical world. Each one has their preconceived notions about the magical world, about what it owes them and what they owe it. They try to do the best they can, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans. We can’t always know where things go.”

Shaw, who cites films such as Akira, Belladonna of Sadness and Fantastic Planet as the film’s visual inspirations, says he loves the film’s Baku crea-

ture, the Japanese supernatural being which devours nightmares. “There is this Japanese experimental manga called Comic Baku, and when I first came across the idea of a dream-eater, I thought it would be a great centerpiece for the movie,” he recalls. “Movies are very dreamlike, and you lapse into this other reality. So it works very well. I also love how Jane animated it — it’s this little elephantine being, and in the universe of the movie it’s the most important character.”

And how does the talented couple manage to live together and create art together while raising their small daughter at home? “I am the luckiest human being alive because of the way we work together,” says Samborski. “I feel like everything that I’m good at is what Dash needs help with, and all the things that I’m terrible at is where Dash comes in like a knight in shining armor. There are times where we are on each other’s toes! But Dash sees the big picture, and I can see the little details. We come to the problem from opposite directions and, thanks to some miraculous fate, we end up in the same place.” ◆ Magnolia Pictures releases Cryptozoo on August 20 in the U.S.

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A Fantastic Finale A suspenseful feature offers a satisfying ending to Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters saga.

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he end is in sight for our favorite trolls, aliens and wizards. That’s right, almost five years (and 53 episodes) after Guillermo del Toro and his talented team introduced us to the Tales of Arcadia saga, the characters from the Emmy-winning trilogy (Trollhunters, 3Below and Wizards) join forces for a deeply satisfying feature-size finale on Netflix this month.

Featuring the voices of top stars such as Kelsey Grammer, Nick Offerman, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Colin O’Donoghue, Tatiana Maslany, Lexi Medrano, Alfred Molina and Steven Yeun, Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans is directed by Johane Matte, Andrew L. Schmidt and Francisco Ruiz Velasco. It was written by del Toro, Marc Guggenheim, Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman, who serve as exec producers alongside Chad Hammes.

The movie finds Jim and his fellow heroes trying to join forces to prevent Arcane Order leaders Bellroc and Skrael from unleashing dark magic that would destroy humanity. However, since the Amulet of Daylight has been destroyed, Jim has doubts about being a good Trollhunter, while Bellroc and Skrael try to lure Nari back to the Arcane Order for their evil plan to succeed.

Three’s an Evil Crowd: The Arcane Order is out to take over all the worlds intersecting in Arcadia in DreamWorks’ epic, character-packed feature finale.

Lots of Characters and Emotions “We always hoped these three series could culminate with a massive ‘all-stars’ reunion,” says del Toro. “We wanted the feature to improve and expand but to also deliver more scope, more spectacle ... more emotion, too. We are very proud of Tales of Arcadia and extremely eager to deliver this spectacular finale.”

“While we were making Trollhunters, those in the know knew we were going to make two more television series from our world of Arcadia,” says Hammes. “As 3Below and Wizards incubated, the Tales of Arcadia was born. Almost from the beginning, I remember Guillermo saying

that the studio should allow us to make a movie as the final chapter to the three TV series.”

Schmidt adds, “I had heard discussions about this early on during Trollhunters. Long before I joined the project, the series had originally started as a film, so it only seems fitting that after such a long, epic journey, a feature film would be a fitting capstone.”

According to the creative team, they all had an idea of where they wanted to finish, but like all journeys, they needed to figure out the exact road to get there. As Ruiz Velasco points out, “There was a lot of writing and brainstorming involved.”

Hammes mentions that it only took a couple of

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‘While we were making Trollhunters, those in the know knew we were going to make two more television series from our world of Arcadia … Almost from the beginning, I remember Guillermo saying that the studio should allow us to make a movie as the final chapter to the three TV series.’

— Exec producer Chad Hammes

weeks from the first draft to nail the current resolution of the movie. “It was our second attempt,” he says. “Initially, we had something really comical leading to something sad and it didn’t feel like ‘our’ movie. It felt like someone else’s movie.”

Hammes says the way the work was divided between the three helmers was pretty straight-forward: “Three directors had the task of handling three acts,” he notes. “Give a whole act to each individual director, but also give each of them enough time in production to talk among themselves so they stay in sync with the common creative vision, captained by Guillermo.”

According to Hammes, before reading the movie script, most everyone thought the quality of the animation was going to be the project’s biggest challenge. He adds, “But the creative leadership thought differently. We knew our vendors were committed to the extreme and that the quality of animation would be there. Once we read the first draft of the

script, it was obvious to the creative leadership that the biggest challenge was digesting the massive amounts of visual effects. So, I think my biggest challenge was not to ‘look at the forest,’ but rather stay focused looking at one tree at a time — pacing myself. Don’t think ‘how,’ think ‘when.’”

A Big Dramatic Denouement The artistic team’s goal was to keep the visuals and colors coherent with the previous series. As Ruiz Velasco explains, “This movie is an extension of those shows, but at the same time we wanted to push the bar in lighting and use new tools we had for the movie. Alfonso Blaas, our production designer, created a color script for the movie.” Adds Matte, “Giant kudos to the whole art team! The main characters also got an upgrade to their animation rigs.”

Like most other projects produced during the pandemic, the movie faced its share of re-

mote-workspace issues. “Remote communication was a little challenging at the beginning, but we quickly figured out ways to make it work,” says Ruiz Velasco. “We were lucky that we already had all the heavy lifting of the movie done.”

“We were always working remotely to some degree, since a large part of our team is located in different parts of the world,” says Schmidt, referring to 88 Pictures in Mumbai, India, Original Force in Nanjing, China and CGCG in Taipei, Taiwan, which helped produce the animation. Including the in-house production team, the freelance artists and the overseas vendors, the movie used the talents of over 300 people. He adds, “But the remote work process deprived me of being able to drop into Francisco or Johane’s office for a quick question or work with editorial in person — a personal connection and collaboration that I truly cherished.”

Of course, the filmmakers also had to keep track of the projects’ many colorful and distinct characters. “We tried to fit all the characters from all three Tales of Arcadia shows into the production, but some were lost along the way for logistics and cleaner storytelling,” says Schmidt.

“If you only consider the main characters from Trollhunters, 3Below and Wizards, there are at least 16 characters to track,” says Hammes.

“Once you consider secondary characters like Barbara, Strickler, Archie, Coach, etc., the list gets pretty large. It was truly artful how Guillermo, Marc, Dan and Kevin were able to keep all these strong characters in-play within the limited time of a movie script.”

And how did the big boss react when he saw the final version of the movie? Hammes says del Toro called him on the phone and simply said, “Oh, Chad, it’s fantastic! Great job!” Ruiz Velasco thinks it exceeded del Toro’s expectations.

“Seeing it with the final music, audio and image all together after working on a fragmented puzzle for so long is very exciting,” he offers.

After toiling on the finale for so many months, the directors and producers hope both the fans and the casual viewers will enjoy the exciting ride they’ve crafted for them.

“If they haven’t seen the Trollhunters series, I’d like them to take away the desire to tune in and watch it,” says Schmidt. “If they’re already established fans and know the world and characters, then I hope that they find a satisfying closure to the epic adventure.” Ruiz Velasco says he hopes those who haven’t seen all the previous shows will go back to the very beginning after watching the movie. Matte adds, “I hope everyone enjoys the ride!” ◆ Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans premieres globally on Netflix July 21.

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She Means Business!

DreamWorks Animation’s Boss Baby sequel introduces us to a new charming executive infant!

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here’s a new Boss Baby in town. She’s clever, cute, fearless and voiced by Amy Sedaris.

That’s pretty much all you need to know about DreamWorks’ sequel to its 2017 blockbuster hit, which was nominated for an Oscar and went on to gross over $527.9 million worldwide. The follow-up to that movie, which also inspired the Netflix series The Boss Baby: Back in Business, made its theatrical and streaming premiere July 2, giving audiences the chance to revisit some of their favorite characters and meet some eccentric new ones.

The Boss Baby: Family Business is directed by DreamWorks veteran Tom McGrath, who also helmed the first Boss Baby outing as well as three Madagascar movies and Megamind, and penned by the original’s writer Michael McGrath (Hotel Transylvania 3). The sequel catches up with the Templeton family 25 years after the events of the first movie.

Tim (voiced by James Marsden) is now all grown up and married with two daughters of his own, Tabitha and Tina. When Dr. Armstrong, the enigmatic principal of his daughter’s advanced preschool, causes a crisis in Baby Corp, both Tim and his brother Ted rely on the magic formula to become kids again and save the world from the principal’s evil plan.

Along the way, Tim discovers new ways to understand and bond with older daughter Tabitha, and Tina surprises them both by revealing that she is the new female Boss Baby!

‘Even though these movies are broad comedies, and you’re always trying to make them funnier, the heart is the brothers’ story and the Tim-Tabitha father-daughter relationship. That is always in the back of your mind.’

— Director Tom McGrath

McGrath recalls when he got the call from DreamWorks’ then-president Chris DeFaria in the summer of 2018, telling him they were going ahead with the sequel and asking whether they could attach his name as director. “At that point, I had done five movies back to back and was thinking about taking some time off,” he recalls. “Boss Baby had been my pet project after the Madagascar movies, and originally I had just wanted to tell a story about two brothers. But then, I started to think about what we could do in a second movie. I thought, well, we ended the original movie with [Tim and Ted] as adults, so we could pick up the story where it left off.”

Family Ties The film’s producer, Jeffrey Herman (Kung Fu Panda 3, To: Gerard), points out that one of the big joys of the movie is exploring the grown-up Tim’s relationship with his daughters. “One of the project’s happy surprises was how it broadened out from a brothers story to an ensemble piece, particularly thanks to our amazing voice talent,” he says. “One of

the sequel’s most powerful elements is Tim and Tabitha’s relationship, which evolves as the result of them spending time together when Tim becomes a little boy again. This father-and-daughter story brings an additional level of sweetness and sincerity to the overall mix.”

“In addition to Alec Baldwin, who is back reprising his memorable role of Boss Baby, we were so fortunate to have terrific stars such as Amy Sedaris (Tim’s youngest daughter Tina a.k.a. the new Boss Baby) and Jeff Goldblum (Principal Armstrong),” Herman adds. “Each one of them is such a wonderful ad-libber, and they brought so much to their roles. They shine every time they are on the screen.

Our animators really stepped up their game, too, and were very excited to match the intensity and zaniness of the vocal performances.”

A CG Valentine to 2D Classics One of the key visual touchstones of the first Boss Baby outing was how it paid homage to some of the wonderful classics of the Golden Age with eye-popping visuals that were reminiscent of the

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Features Magic Formula: Director Tom McGrath brings his fondness for Chuck Jones cartoons and classic Disney movies to the second feature outing for The Boss Baby.

‘What was special about Boss Baby was that it surprised audiences with its heartfelt story and depth of emotions it evoked, as well as the comedic elements. We wanted to up our game with the sequel.’

— Production designer Raymond Zibach

work of Maurice Noble, Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle.

McGrath and his artistic team continued that tradition in the sequel, especially in Tim’s fantasy sequences, another throwback to the earlier film.

“A key aspect of what makes this film special is that Tom is a huge fan of classic animation, and we put together a team of key artists and talent who share this passion for the art of animation,” says Herman. “I think what the Boss Baby franchise does remarkably well is to emulate the style of the great 2D animation of the past in CG. You can clearly see Tom and his team’s fondness for those wonderful Chuck Jones cartoons and classic Disney aesthetics.

It’s a rare thing to witness to see how the artists respect and understand this art form and how they

are able to pass it on to the next generation of animation lovers.”

The sequel’s production designer was no other than DreamWorks veteran Raymond Zibach, the four-time Annie-nominated studio veteran, whose many credits include the three Kung Fu Panda movies, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and The Road to El Dorado. Zibach says he welcomed the chance to work with McGrath again. “We had worked together before, both on CG and 2D animated projects, and we both love the design of 2D animated movies,” he notes.

“We both have the same fondness for the old Disney movies and Warner Bros. shorts,” says Zibach. “When I learned that the studio was going to

make a sequel, I was excited to join the team because I know what he’s after. It’s so much fun to bring those old design principles and apply them in the world of CG animation. We met those challenges in the first movie, but I thought we could go even further. I signed up to see how far we can push that aesthetic and work cohesively in a 3D animated movie.”

Zibach says comedy staging in animation is a team effort that goes beyond just clever situations and funny characters. “When you study the Warner Bros., UPA and early Disney shorts, it is clear that it’s not just the animation that is funny,” he explains. “It’s a whole science of staging for comedy: it’s the sound, the look, the editing, the lighting — everything works together to accentuate the comedic moments. What was special about Boss Baby was that it surprised audiences with its heartfelt story and depth of emotions it evoked, as well as the comedic elements. We wanted to up our game with the sequel.”

The film’s art director Andy Schuhler, who designed the fantasy sequences for the first movie, agrees. “In CG, it’s so easy to get reality,” he notes.

“You can take it for granted. Tom’s desire is to push the medium back into making artwork versus photography. The artwork that is created is the inspirational pieces, but because you’re moving the camera around, you don’t get a piece of artwork that represents it perfectly. My goal is to get the camera on the set early enough so that you can move the camera around and try to design in time, as you make adjustments to the view.”

“I come from a story and animation background, so when I’m art directing, it’s great that we question different aspects of the story and we can throw all the good ideas out there,” says Schuhler. “Tom is great about coming up with different thoughts and doodles. He’s a great designer. Once you get a drawing out of him, you’re 90 percent there, and you just keep going in that direction until you hit the target. As an art director, you have to come up with the visuals that complement the humor that Tom is looking for. I feel like he is like our modern-day version of Chuck Jones.”

McGrath says he hopes families will be inspired by the positive message of the movie as well as enjoy the physical comedy and the humor we have all come to expect from the Boss Baby universe.

“We are hoping that people will be inspired to reach out to an estranged family member after they see the movie. Wouldn’t it be great to call your mom, dad, siblings and forget about that stupid argument that created a rift between you? I hope it resonates with its message of unity and celebration of the family.” ◆ The Boss Baby: Family Business is now in theaters nationwide and streaming on Peacock.

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Features S horts

Senior Moments The directors of the prize-winning short Peel discuss their process and inspirations.

P

Can you tell us a little bit about the short’s inspirations and origins?

Samuel Patthey: My two grandmothers were both taken to retirement homes. It was when I was regularly visiting one of them that I discovered this microcosmos. Instantly, I felt I wanted to depict its inhabitants with their wrinkles, their distorted hands and their shaky, yet graceful gestures. The soft time perception, the calm and precise soundscape fascinated me. So, I asked Silvain to join me for this project, because we both love observing and trying to capture through drawing this sensitivity.

drawing had to be animated into a scene with the same tools. Another aspect is that we both love drawing on paper and experimenting with some techniques. For us, it was obvious that this movie had to be made on paper.

Silvain Monney: For about a year, we went there every week, once or twice, to fill our sketchbooks with drawings and some notes.

We tried to remain quite discreet, to be like a hidden camera. The idea was not to talk about the life before or residents stories: we really wanted to focus on the place and how it works. Of course, we made some contacts with some of the residents! After a few months, we began to scan everything, put the drawings on a wall and built the film in a very lively and intuitive way together, discussing and testing a lot. We start working on an animatic with our sketches and drew some new scenes for feelings we wanted to express. Samuel spent a lot of time on the sound as well; it is a very important part of our movie and it really helped us to go from drawings to a film.

How were you able to capture all the details?

Patthey: We worked with traditional animation because we wanted to stay as close as possible to our initial observation drawings. It was essential for us to keep the authenticity of the drawings, their documentary aspect and obviously the feeling we had. Therefore, the technique used at the residency for the initial

Can you talk about the animation process and your visual style?

Patthey: The visual style was induced by the selected observational drawing for the movie. Silvain animated his drawings to a scene and I did the same for my selected drawings. Valentine Moser worked on some of my scenes because I had too many scenes to animate by myself.

She was a great help with an incredible sensitivity for this project.

Monney: To produce the animation, we hired Valentine Moser for a few months. So we were three people animating everything on paper.

At the end, I made most of the compositing and post production, as Samuel continued animating (he had more scenes than me). The

eel (Écorce), the hand-drawn short by Swiss-German illustrator and director Samuel Patthey and co-director Silvain Monney takes an unflinching look at the daily lives of the elderly residents of a retirement home. The short won the top prize at the Annecy Festival earlier this year. Patthey and Monney were kind enough to answer a few of our questions recently:

rest of the film we did all by ourselves, except for the sound. We worked together with Florian Pittet, who also works in Fribourg. The sounds were recorded at the same place where we did the drawings. The visual style is directly related to the sketchbooks and the techniques we used in it.

Silvain Monney

Now that you’ve won the Samuel Patthey top prize at Annecy, what are you working on next?

Patthey: I am currently developing my next short animated movie. It’s an autobiographical fiction with the working title Sans Voix. It depicts the daily life of a young raver who has to deal with a big change in his life.

Monney: For me, I wanted to take a break from earning a living with drawing. It took [a lot of my] energy and I wanted something else. So at the moment I am an apprentice gardener. I still love to draw but I wanted to do something closer to nature and less in my head. But, of course, I am still drawing and I have some comics and videogame projects.

What do you hope audiences will take away from Peel?

Patthey: My biggest wish is that our short can induce a reflection about our society and how we get old and die. Dying is the most certain thing in life. Shouldn’t we think and talk more about death and therefore about life?

Monney: We didn’t want to be political or too critical of retirement homes. However, I would be really happy if our film can open the discussion about the place of the elderly in society. And, of course, I am really happy when the audience is moved by what they see. ◆ For more info, visit dokmobile.ch/en/ecorce.

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Thoroughly Modern Hanna-Barbera Toons Carl Greenblatt and his team had a lot of fun bringing classic Saturday Morning cartoons back to life in Warner Bros. Animation’s Jellystone!

By Ramin Zahed

H

ey, hey, hey! This summer, Yogi and many of his pals from the Golden Age of Hanna-Barbera cartoons are poised to win over a new generation of fans on HBO Max. The green tie-wearing brown bear with a healthy appetite is only one of the stars of the lively new Warner Bros. Animation series Jellystone! He is joined by the likes of Boo Boo, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Jabberjaw, Magilla Gorilla, Augie Doggie and Top Cat, all of which have been popular with animation fans for more than seven decades.

“These characters are animation royalty and you can’t really find anyone who doesn’t have some love for a least one of them,” says the show’s exec producer Carl Greenblatt, who also created Chowder and Harvey Beaks and has worked on hits such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Fish Hooks and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. “There’s something very universal and endearing about these characters, and to get to play with them has been a dream job.”

Greenblatt, who also voices Doggie Daddy, Grape Ape, Boo Boo, Peter Potamus and several

‘It’s kind of nerve-wracking to take on characters that are so important to many people. But it’s wonderful to feel that you’ve done right by them.’

— Show creator and exec producer Carl Greenblatt

other of Jellystone Park’s memorable residents, says he re-watched many of the classic cartoons to prepare for his plum assignment. “It was important for us to know what worked and which parts were worth keeping in those shows,” he explains. “We also needed to add more personality and depth to some of the lesser-known characters. Of course, when you have strong main characters like Yogi or Top Cat, we just have to re-imagine them in this world.”

Females of the Species One of the show’s improvements over the classic versions is the addition of strong and important female characters. “We felt that the original shows were missing main female characters,” points out Greenblatt. “Even as side characters, they didn’t get to be funny or

much fun. That wasn’t cool, and all of us felt that we had to fix that. So we changed some of the characters in cases that made sense, for example Augie Doggie is now a helicopter dad who loves his daughter very much. Jabberjaw and Squiddly Diddly are girls and Baba Looey is now Bobbie Louise. We felt like our world is more balanced now.”

Greenblatt and his team also wanted to add more personality and depth to some of the lesser-known characters in the HB library. “We all know that these shows had some awesome visual designs and great voices, but some of them didn’t have a lot of depth,” he mentions.

“So the goal was to make those characters more well-rounded and funnier. We needed them to be more than one-note jokes to appeal to modern comedy sensibilities.”

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TV/Streaming

Animal Attraction: The terrific voice cast of Jellystone! includes Jeff Bergman, Niccole Thurman, Thomas Lennon, Grace Helbig, Ron Funches, Paul F. Tompkins and show creator Carl Greenblatt.

The famous characters also needed to get a design makeover for their sophisticated 2021 viewers. Greenblatt reached out to talented character designer Kali Fontecchio (Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes Cartoons) in early 2020.

“The first few months, Dave Tilton and I went down a giant list of the Hanna-Barbera characters. Until you see a list of names you don’t realize just how many there are — hundreds! It took me a hot second to tackle the Carl Greenblatt style; intensely cute and cartoony, and deceptively simple. It took probably about five to six months to design the entire cast of characters that populate Jellystone!” she reveals.

Fontecchio says she especially enjoyed gender swapping many of the designs to add more strong female characters. “I loved coming up with attitudes and outfits that would define these newly female characters. Fashion can say so much about a character, I gave Cindy Bear a motorcycle jacket for her off-duty look since she’s a bit cooler than Yogi, whereas Squiddly Diddly now has a ’90s teenage look which can influence how to draw special poses and inform her personality.”

The artist says she loved working with the amazing original designs by Ed Benedict and Iwao Takamoto. “It was a bit intimidating,” she notes. “Luckily, having the unique filter of Carl’s personal style to inform the design language made the task a delight. He magnanimously guided us through his cartoon vision in which heads are huge, eyes are squishy, and the sillier they are, the better.”

When asked about the secret to updating classic characters, Fontecchio replies, “Having a unique vision helps breathe new life into these beloved cartoon staples. Staying true to

their cartoony nature helps keep them feeling classic. On the Mickey Mouse shorts, Paul Rudish had a similar approach to Carl, with a loose inked feeling to drawing the characters. It adds a lot of life to the drawings if they’re not so preciously cleaned up. With the Looney Tunes Cartoons, Alex Kirwan chose the late ’30s, early ’40s aesthetic, which has set the new cartoons apart from other iterations of the Looney Tunes characters — less angular and more volumetric. It’s a delicate balance between having a new take on something while retaining the guts of what made the characters so likeable and appealing-looking in the first place. I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with such amazing talent and contribute to their artistic interpretations. Lending a helping hand in adding designs to such iconic characters is a fun occupation— child me would be jealous!”

A Cast of Characters When it comes to the evergreen appeal of the characters, Greenblatt believes that while they were the product of a very economical business model, the creators were able to come up with some crazy and fun characters and situations within those restraints. “As a kid, these characters really spoke to me,” he adds.

“Maybe the animation quality wasn’t as high as Disney cartoons, but they had this breadth and scope that was really appealing. You will see about a dozen or two regular characters in the first season of the show, but there are still so many more we hope to feature in the future. Fans will also be able to spot some great cameos — Space Ghost, Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor, Speed Buggy, Glump, even Funky Phantom! — in each episode that we in-

cluded as little Easter eggs. It developed into a fun game among the board artists, where they competed to hunt down random weird characters and put them in the background of episodes. We had so many characters to play with we didn’t need to make any new ones.

Anyone we needed, we could pull from the library and re-imagine them a little bit.”

In addition to the team in Los Angeles, the animation production was handled by Snipple in the Philippines and Cheeky Little Media in Australia. “Our goal was to make Toon Boom Harmony look as hand-drawn as possible,” says Greenblatt. “One thing we did differently on this project was to bring in all the board artists as part of the writing staff. We had a couple of months to work out the stories and the world together in one room. Having that time together (before the pandemic) was really helpful so we could hit the ground running.”

Greenblatt, who was a big fan of Captain Caveman, The Flintstones and The Jetsons when he was growing up, says he hopes to bring many more of the classic Hanna-Barbera library characters to Jellystone! in upcoming episodes of the show. For now, he is proud of what he and his team have done with these beloved icons. “It’s kind of nerve-wracking to take on characters that are so important to many people,” he admits. “But it’s wonderful to feel that you’ve done right by them. The best feeling in the world is to see and enjoy the DNA of all these artists who collaborated on the series in the final work. I’m so proud of what everyone contributed to this show.” ◆ The first season (10 episodes) of Jellystone! premiered on HBO Max on July 29.

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TV/Streaming

Bobs Gannaway

A New Crew Clocks In Bobs Gannaway shares a few secrets about his new Disney+ show, Monsters at Work.

T

ylor Tuskmon is an eager young monster who has to learn how to become a jokester when he lands a job at Monsters, Inc. He is one of several new misfits at the center of Monsters at Work, a charming new spinoff series based on Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2001 movie, which premieres this month on Disney+. In addition to meeting new characters such as Tuskmon (voiced by Ben Feldman), Val Little (Mindy Kaling), Fritz (Henry Winkler), Duncan (Lucas Neff) and Cutter (Alanna Ubach), fans can also enjoy the classic shenanigans of favorites Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) throughout the 10-episode run of the first season.

Produced by Disney Television Animation, Monsters at Work was developed and exec produced by Disney animation veteran Bobs Gannaway (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Planes: Fire & Rescue, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Timon & Pumbaa, 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Secret of the Wings). Sean Lurie is producer, and Kat and Steve Anderson serve as supervising directors. The late Rob Gibbs (Monsters, Inc.) also served as director on some of the earlier episodes.

Emmy, Humanitas and Annie Award winner Bobs Gannaway was kind enough to talk to us about Monsters at Work and how he and his team set out to bring the characters from the Pixar classic back to animated life in their charming new show:

Thanks for taking the time, Bobs. Can you tell us how you came on board this much-anticipated new show?

Bobs Gannaway: Three years ago, Disney TV animation approached me to develop the series based on the wonderful Pixar movie. I was very excited about bringing everything I learned in TV animation as well as working in features to this project and to bring the audience back to the place they love. We wanted them to spend time with the characters they fell in love with and meet new characters as well. The idea was to elevate the production across the board and try to do right by this great movie that we all love.

The show’s CG animation looks fantastic. Can you tell us where it’s produced?

It’s being produced by Icon Animation (Elena of Avalor, T.O.T.S., The Rocketeer) in Vancouver. Working with them has been fantastic: We worked with them as partners who worked hard to continue to elevate the project. They were adding things in animation to continue to improve on the show.

A lot of the pre-production, design, boarding and layout and writing is done by our team in L.A. and Burbank. Pixar was very helpful in the beginning.

They provided us with a lot of the development art that had been created for the original films, so we could be inspired by things that their story didn’t ask for or understand how they got where

they got. During the process we checked with them occasionally, and Bob Peterson (who also does the voice of Roz) consulted on scripts. The great thing was that we had this blessing from them from the start. They told us, “Here, go have fun with this world.” And most importantly, expand the world and don’t just repeat the movie.

Do something new.

Did you have any qualms or hesitation about approaching such a Pixar classic?

The thing is, we are all fans, too. Everyone in animation is an animation fan. Everyone wants to do right by something they fell in love with. We all want more of something, but you don’t want to mess it up, right? From the beginning I asked everyone on the crew, what can we do to really take the audience back to Monsters, Inc., both in terms of storytelling and to keep the heart and humor of a Pixar film? Something I told the crew was, “Look, we’re not making a series. We’re making 10 little movies!” The pacing, the storytelling, the design all needs to have a theatrical touch to it.

You have been able to bring back classic theatrical characters from movies such as The Lion King, Peter Pan, Cars and 101 Dalmatians to TV shows in your career. What is your secret sauce for spinoff success?

It is a challenge, because we want to do stuff that

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TV/Streaming is nostalgic to us, but also keep it new and fresh for the audience. For this show, the bottom line is that the whole original cast is back. That’s a testament to their belief in the show and all the new characters are so excited to be part of this world.

What we got right was we truly go back to Monsters, Inc. with Mike and Sulley. I fell in love with the new guys, too. Pixar and Pete Docter have also been very supportive of this project.

I have a little tidbit: When we were bringing back the cast, I didn’t think we were going to bring Smitty and Needleman because their original voice actor Daniel Gerson passed away in 2016. But characters have their own lives and they would not allow themselves not to be in the show. So we brought them back because it felt like the right thing to do. I believe that Dan would want these characters to live on. [On the new show, the characters are voiced by Stephen Stanton.] You may notice that on the trash can that Smitty and Needleman push around, it says Gerson Industries, which is our little tribute to Dan. Why do you think Mike and Sulley and all these characters are so beloved?

What Pixar does so well is that they make sure that you care and that the characters feel real to you. When you go to Disneyland, you go there to be with the characters, not to be with a plot. What’s so great about Pixar films and the Monsters, Inc. movies are the characters. That’s why they are so lasting. So we see more hijinks in this world, and you get to spend more time with your old friends.

In the old days, it was very hard to duplicate the animation quality of theatrical features for TV shows. Can you talk about how technology has really caught up now and allows you to do amazing things for the small screen as well?

In the past, it was simply impossible to match feature animation quality. What we did here was ask everybody on the team to do their best to improve the process. An example is the camera on the show: We use the same lenses that the Monsters, Inc. uses; the camerawork adds to the familiarity of the staging. We told the team at Icon that they can add to the animation as well. We told them, you will not be punished for making it better. I am so proud of the show because I feel everybody contributed across the board and all those efforts made it better.

Icon has worked on Disney TV properties before. We were very clear about the level of quality we were expecting, and they were very excited to be able to raise their game.

Which Monsters at Work characters or storylines are close to your heart?

I am really excited about an episode I proposed at the very beginning of the process. It took us

two years to get it right. It’s the one where we get to visit the Adorable Snowman (voiced by John Ratzenberger). We went through at least three different scripts — we threw out an entirely boarded episode — until we got the story right!

Will we see any crossover characters or fun Easter eggs?

We don’t have any crossover characters from any other films, just the Monsters, Inc. world. We have some Easter eggs here and there. Pay very specific attention to the graphics in the show. The world we live in is filled with stuff on the walls, billboards, streets — and when the animated world doesn’t have that, it doesn’t ring true. We worked very hard with our graphics designer Marty Baumann to get all the details right. If you see a newspaper on the show, that entire article is written. It’s a great way to expand the world.

The show has a terrific 2D opening credit sequence. Can you talk about that a bit?

Now, for the Bobs bio question! When was the first time you realized that you wanted to work in animation?

My mom was an art teacher and my father was an architect. I loved, loved, loved Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts strip. I would cut them out of the paper every day and redraw them. I was a Chuck Jones fan, of course. Every Sunday night, I would hope and pray that The Wonderful World of Disney focused on animation. (Not that I minded the real-life adventure episodes.) I wanted to be an animator, but I didn’t have enough training in drawing, although I could draw a little bit. I applied to CalArts for animation and USC for filmmaking; I got into USC, but kind of like Ed Catmull who wanted to be an animator by route of technology, I got in through the filmmaking, live-action and writing angle, but still got to where I wanted to be. I am so blessed that I got to work with people like Chuck Jones and Roy Disney and Maurice Noble.

Screaming for Laughs: Ben Feldman, Mindy Kaling, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Henry Winkler and Lucas Neff lend their voices to the new show’s colorful monsters.

Geefwee Boedoe [Oscar-nominated director of the 2010 short Let’s Pollute], who did the original Monsters, Inc. opening 20 years ago, also created our show’s opening title. He did it using paper cutouts the old school way, and was so excited to do this sequence. If you sit through the entire credit roll at the end of each episode, you’ll get an audio treat as a reward! We want to entertain you as much as possible so we do a different version of the Monsters, Inc. theme on every credit roll, which is tied thematically to the show.

Spoiler: For example, we have an episode where we have a bagpiper character, so we do the theme song with bagpipes during the credits. Listen, we’re in the entertainment business. You bought the ticket, so we are going to entertain you the best we can!

Finally, any words of advice for students and animation job hunters?

I think things are incredible nowadays with everyone having access to worldwide distribution.

I would say it sounds very Joseph Campbell-like, but pursue your bliss, and write what you know and believe in. Don’t pitch anything that you won’t spend your own money to make. It is irresponsible to ask someone else to spend money on something you wouldn’t sell your own car to pay for. Be passionate and believe in what you’re doing, and don’t pitch to sell. Pitch because it’s something that comes from your heart. ◆ Monsters at Work is now streaming on Disney+.

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Delivering Smiles John Trabbic III and Dave Johnson take us on the creative journey of making Nickelodeon’s new show Middlemost Post.

J

ohn Trabbic III, the creator of Middlemost Post, can’t wait for audiences to discover the wild, optimistic world of his new Nickelodeon show. “My own backstory is that of a troubled youth, who went down the wrong path, got into a bunch of trouble and then, hit rock bottom,” he says. “Then, I got sober and decided to turn my life around. That’s why the main character of the show is Parker J. Cloud, an exuberant character that used to rain on people’s parades. But he also decided to transform and shine.”

As Trabbic mentions, Middlemost Post, which is billed as Nickelodeon’s first original animated series in five years, centers on a dynamic rain cloud who lives and works in the Middlemost post office with Angus, a rule-abiding mailman, and Russell, their magical pet walrus whose stomach is so huge that it also serves as a storage room. The three unusual characters travel through Mount Middlemost and the

“six territories of Somewhere” to deliver packages, meeting quirky people and having terrific adventures along the way.

The show creator’s partner in crime is exec producer and writer Dave Johnson. “I was brought in to help on the development side to work with show creators at Nick to get them ready for the greenlight process,” he recalls. “Middlemost Post was one of about half a dozen shows on the block, and it was the newest one. I loved the show concept, because it was weird and very character driven. John and I worked on the bible and wrote the pilot, and put it together in about nine months all the way to the pilot and presentation to the

studio. It was the one show that really stood out and was greenlit in February of 2020.”

Adjusting to Rainy Weather Trabbic and Johnson were excited about their new show and looked forward to putting their team together and to move to the new space for the production at the Nick studio in Burbank. Of course, that’s when the first wave of the COVID pandemic happened, and the studio had to shut down. “We were all sent home, so we ended up doing the show entirely from our homes, without even meeting our staff in person, and I think it has actually helped the show,” notes Trabbic, who worked

‘It’s a very layered comedy. We’re OK if it gets sad or emotional, too. Because you know what? You can’t lie to kids after these past two years!’

— Exec producer Dave Johnson

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TV/Streaming Cool Cumulus: A reformed raincloud teams up with a sea-postman and a magic walrus in Nickelodeon’s latest original toon, Middlemost Post.

borhood, and we wanted the show to have the same kind of do-it-yourself feel.”

Trabbic says he has always been inspired by animated shows that are wacky, imaginative and that trigger wonders. “I love things like Tex Avery and Looney Tunes cartoons, Peewee’s Playhouse and even the California Raisins, because they were so wild and surreal,” he mentions. “I wanted the same things in my own show!”

Going for the Dream

‘Our show was spawned during a dark, difficult time. It brought us all together and gave us something to look forward to every day.’

— Creator John Trabbic III

as an Illustrator on the FX show Archer and moved on to be a storyboard artist for shows such as Pig Goat Banana Cricket and SpongeBob SquarePants.

“I guess you can say it was a blessing and a curse,” he adds. “We were so stoked to have our own offices, but then, I ended up doing the show in my garage! But as Dave mentioned, the whole working-from-home factor ended up being one of our strengths. We were presented with this challenge and didn’t let it get us down. We rose to the occasion and we’re proud of that!”

Johnson agrees. He points out that they had to change the rules to adapt. “People who know us, know that we like to go rogue once in a while,” he admits. “We’re always looking for a better way to do things. We learned quickly that having a writers’ room via Zoom is not ideal because only one person can talk at any given moment. So, we had to modify it to make it work for us. We learned to work more efficiently. We had three writers, a script coordinator and myself in the room, and ended up

using more freelancers on the show. Both John and I did some of the voices on the show because we had to keep the number of the voices on the show smaller than usual, because not everybody had the equipment in their homes.”

Northern Help The show’s animation production is handled by a team of 200-plus at Toronto’s Yowza!

Animation, which uses Toon Boom Harmony to create its 2D animation. Middlemost Post also incorporates some mixed-media animation. “A local Burbank stop-motion studio called Apartment D Films helps us with that,” says Trabbic. “We also use a lot of freelancers on some of the specialty projects, so there is some TVPaint, some Flash, and most of the show is done with Harmony.”

“I’m very proud of the work John does on the show,” says Johnson. “He’s one of the most creative people I know. He would just go to the craft store and buy the material and build it all in his garage. I’m a big fan of things like Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Mister Rogers’ Neigh-

Trabbic remembers a time in his life when he had given up on his dreams and was working as a journeyman carpenter back in Michigan. “I was about 27 or 28, and my son was just one year old,” he says. “My wife and I had just bought our house, and I had the American dream, but I wasn’t fulfilled. One day, I came home from work and told my wife that I felt unsettled and wished that I could do art for a living. My wife said, ‘We can move in with my parents and you can go to school!’ So, that’s what I did. I quit my job, sold my house and went to art school.”

So, Trabbic studied art for three semesters, and before long, he was hired as an illustrator on the FX show Archer, which then led to storyboard artist positions on Pig Goat Banana Cricket and SpongeBob SquarePants. “I got this bug to be a show creator,” he adds. “The dream is to have your own show, because then you can hire all the people you admire and you put together a team that is better than you!”

Both Trabbic and Johnson hope that their show will bring some much-needed light and humor into everyone’s lives. “Looking back, our show was built through a dark, unprecedented time, during COVID and the whole election year landscape,” says Johnson. “This show kept me out of the real world. John and I laughed so much because we are actually 10 years old in our brains. But we’re not pandering to our audience.

It’s a very layered comedy. We’re OK if it gets sad or emotional, too. Because you know what? You can’t lie to kids after these past two years!”

Adds Trabbic, “Our show was spawned during a dark, difficult time, and we didn’t know what the future was going to look like. This show brought us all together and gave us something to look forward to every day. You will see a lot of love on this show. It wasn’t all blood, sweat and tears. It’s also a lot of joy, fun and laughs. We want our viewers to forget about the dark stuff and feel the same joy from our cloud and his friends.” ◆ Middlemost Post premiered on Nickelodeon on July 9.

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Musical Fantasy Misfits How Megan Nicole Dong created the weird and wacky world of Centaurworld.

By Jennifer Wolfe

T

he definition of “centaur” is fairly relaxed in Megan Nicole Dong’s new series for Netflix, and that’s a good thing. An action-adventure, fish-out-of-water story wrapped up as a road trip musical fantasy with sci-fi elements sprinkled in, Centaurworld features hybrid creatures in just about any configuration you can imagine, along with a few others that you definitely can’t. What, exactly, is a taur-tornado? Well, it’s a lot like you’d think, except it’s not. Either way, you’d better stay out of its path.

Arriving on Netflix on July 30, Centaurworld follows a warrior horse named Horse (Kimiko Glenn), who is suddenly transported from her embattled, war-torn world to an exotic, brightly colored land inhabited by silly, singing centaurs of all species, shapes and sizes. Horse is desperate to be reunited with her Rider (Jessie Mueller), who has been left behind on their home world in the heat of battle. To reach her goal, Horse befriends a group of magical creatures, embarking on a journey of selfdiscovery and acceptance that will test her more than any combat she’s faced on the field of war.

Horse’s magical companions are led by the protective Wammawink (Megan Hilty), a fluffy pink llama centaur who uses her magic to help keep the group of misfits fed, sheltered and safe. The main

cast is rounded out by Parvesh Cheena, who voices Zulius, a brash and quick-witted zebra centaur with a mischievous streak; Josh Radnor as a timid and slightly dim giraffe centaur named Durpleton; Chris Diamantopoulos as Ched, a bird centaur with anger management issues; and Dong herself as the zany yet anxious Glendale, a gerenuk (longnecked antelope) centaur with a magical storage compartment that can contain anything.

Uppity and Muppet-y “That character was just so specific,” Dong recalls about her decision to take on the role of Glendale. “The Muppets were a huge inspiration for the show, and I really wanted a character who was, like, pure Muppet. That included the vocal performance, which I wanted to be super, super silly sounding. Something almost Cookie Monsterlike, but still female, while also sounding super pushed and uppity. It was such a specific thing

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Megan Nicole Dong

Hot to Trot: Megan Nicole Dong’s new show Centaurworld follows a war horse who is transported to a new land inhabited by silly, singing centaurs of all species!

that I had in mind that I ended up voicing her myself because it was kind of hard to describe what exactly we were going for,” she explains.

Dong, who is also known for her Sketchshark comics, is an avid marine biology enthusiast. The Centaurworld creator and first-time showrunner moved up through the ranks as an artist on DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie before becoming a supervising director on Nickelodeon and Netflix’s Pinky Malinky. She is now executive producing the 10-episode series alongside co-EP Dominic Bisignano (Star vs. the Forces of Evil).

“A lot of the characters in our show are kind of orphans, or don’t have any existing blood ties or living relatives,” Dong says of the cast of characters that populate the show. “I really wanted Centaurworld to be about finding your tribe, with the idea of finding your own family and finding people that you relate to and love genuinely.”

Friendship is a central theme in Centaurworld, Dong emphasizes, particularly female friendships.

“Strong female friendships have carried me through some really tough things in my life, so that was something that was really important for me to show.”

Dong, who plays both piano and violin, accidently discovered a talent for musical theater as a student in high school, and continued writing songs afterward. She also wrote music for Pinky Malinky. She envisioned Centaurworld as a musical series and, along with Bisignano, wrote some 37 original songs for the show.

Each episode includes three to five songs performed by the voice cast members, many of whom have had Broadway experience.

“We just have a lot of really top-notch singers,” Dong reveals. “Kimiko Glenn plays Horse, and Jessie Mueller plays Rider, and they’re both from the original Broadway cast of Waitress.” Diamantopoulos also performed in Waitress, and Hilty is another hard-hitter, known for her performances as Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked and Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5: The Musical, as well as her Tonynominated role as Brooke Ashton in Noises Off. “I always knew that I wanted the music to be super integrated into the story,” says Dong. Because of her love of musical theater, it was important that the songs didn’t “just happen” without any connection to the story or action. “I wanted them to be character-driven. I wanted them to be really

seamlessly woven into the stories,” she continues, describing how the songs were shared with the production team and other writers collaborating on the script so that everything flowed together.

The 2D-animated series boasts a range of distinct visual styles, overseen by art director Kimberly Knoll. “From the beginning, I knew that I wanted to tell the story of a character from one world, and essentially from a completely different style of show,” Dong explains. “Our main character, Horse, is from a more action-fantasy, almost Game of Thrones-y kind of world. So her world is more gritty and realistic, and we knew we wanted more of an action style of animation for that. And then Centaurworld is very bouncy and Muppet-y and colorful. So in order to show that contrast, we knew we wanted two styles and we needed to work with two different animation studios for that.”

Production took place at Netflix Animation’s in-house studio, with the animation provided by Mercury Filmworks in Canada and Red Dog Culture House in Korea. The two animation houses employed a mix of Toon Boom Harmony and TVPaint.

“Red Dog Culture House did more of the action style, and Mercury Filmworks did a lot of the Centaurworld animation,” Dong recounts.

Dong pitched the series to Netflix in early 2018, just as the streamer was bolstering its animation slate with new original series. “That was really exciting for me, because I got to develop the show at the studio as they were building up a culture and building up a studio around it,” she says.

Inspired by Life During development, Dong wrote and storyboarded the entire first episode, as well as the first four songs. “Because it combines a lot of different genres, and because it was so ambitious, I knew that I had to do more than just write a bible in order to really communicate what the tone of the show was going to be.”

Above all, Centaurworld has heart. “The character of Horse and her journey was inspired by my own life, too,” Dong says, recalling how her experiences as an Asian American, coupled with her accidental entry into musical theater, helped change the trajectory of her life.

Horse is plucked from the familiar heat of the battlefield and plunged into a world she can’t comprehend. Her journey and transformation — as bewildering as it may be — is ultimately filled with joy and a sense of belonging. “She’s a war horse, she’s really tough. And she thinks that all her vulnerability is weakness, but a big part of her journey is discovering that vulnerability is a strength.” ◆ Centaurworld premieres on Netflix on July 30.

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Drawn to the Marvel Universe The new animated series What If…? offers alternative storylines featuring Peggy Carter, Tony Stark, The Hulk, Nick Fury and many of the other fan favorites.

T

he summer of 2021 is shaping up to be a great time to be a Marvel enthusiast.

In addition to enjoying the much-anticipated live-action feature Black Widow and the Loki series, fans can also dive into the beautiful, animated world of What If…?, the muchwritten-about new series based on the comic series and created by A.C. Bradley. The show is directed by Bryan Andrews and exec produced

by Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and Brad Winderbaum. Marvel veteran Ryan Meinerding is in charge of visual development.

Bradley, who was a writer on DreamWorks’ Trollhunters and story editor on 3Below, began work on What If…? in the fall of 2019. She says she was pretty excited to join the team and to come up with concepts for the project. “I love the opportunity to play in this toybox,” she tells us. “These were iconic characters if you grew up reading comic books — and if you are just living and breathing right now in this century!”

The show creator loves the fact that the top brass at Marvel allowed her and story editor Matthew Chauncey to go in any direction that

they thought was fun and interesting. “The one rule we had was that we couldn’t do anything that is happening in the movies or the TV shows,” says Bradley. “I mean, we did what a lot of fans do after they see the movies: You go out and have burgers with your friends and try to guess what might be coming up next or what you thought would happen when you play with these characters.”

Polished to Perfection Bradley says she enjoyed the luxury of being able to really polish the 10 episodes of the first season of What If…? compared to her work on Tales of Arcadia, during which she had to write about 78 episodes in three years. She

notes, “Our biggest challenge, however, was setting up the animation pipeline. My preference for the show’s animation was originally 2D, but producing 2D animation is actually more difficult because there are not too many animation houses that are available to do the work. However, the design is very complex and lends itself better to a hybrid style of animation. I think we were able to pull it off beautifully. Each episode is allowed to have its own visual style, but the whole show definitely has a very cinematic feel.”

Andrews, who has worked as a storyboard artist on a wide variety of acclaimed animated shows such as Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars and Primal and most of the Marvel

‘One of the things that drew me to this project was that I wasn’t pigeonholed to write for only the female characters ...

I got to write Dr. Strange in one of our episodes, and I’m not a six-foot-tall, vaguely British man.”

— Series creator A.C. Bradley

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Grand Design: Marvel’s head of visual development Ryan Meinerding helped define the show’s cel-shaded animation style, which was designed to echo the live-action movies.

‘This show gave us the opportunity to move the needle of American animation. We knew that we wanted to treat it like a prestige project that feels like and honors the cinematic universe. Getting most of the original voices back to reprise their roles was also key to the success of the show.’

— Director Bryan Andrews

live-action features, says he was quite excited when he was approached by the producers to jump on this project. “I loved the concepts and visuals,” he says. “This project gave us the opportunity to move the needle of American animation. We knew that we wanted to treat it like a prestige project that feels like and honors the cinematic universe. Getting most of the original voices back to reprise their roles was also key to the success of the show.”

He’s not kidding about roping all the “original voices” for the project: Jeffrey Wright stars as The Watcher who is the running thread throughout the anthology. Then, there’s Hayley Atwell, the late Chadwick Boseman, Josh Brolin, Dominic Cooper, Michael Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Djimon Hounsou, Samuel L. Jackson, Toby Jones, Michael B. Jordan, Neal McDonough, Natalie Portman, Jeremey Renner, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Stanley Tucci and Taika Waititi, all of which lend their voices to familiar characters on the show.

“Our character designer Ryan Meinerding is also a big fan of animation, and he was nerd-

ing me out for this opportunity to dive into this smorgasbord of radness,” adds Andrews.

“We had the chance to collaborate with a great group of artists and three amazing animation studios, which have done amazing work.”

Australia’s Flying Bark, France’s Blue Spirit and Canada’s Squeeze were the three big vendors on the project. “One of the challenges was that they all had different pipelines and some couldn’t share assets,” says Andrews.

“But they all did amazing work and pivoted as best as possible. You can pull freeze frames from the episodes and put them on your wall.

They are really that beautiful. I hope people pause and appreciate how much artistry has been involved in each episode.”

Shattering Stereotypes Bradley says she was especially pleased that she was able to write for a wide variety of characters on this show. “One of the things that drew me to this project was that I wasn’t pigeonholed to write for only the female characters,” she points out. “We’ve come a long way, but I still get the feeling that women are

usually writing women characters and people of color write the people of color characters and white guys get to write everything else. I think that wall needs to start crumbling down.

Look, I got to write Dr. Strange in one of our episodes, and I’m not a six-foot-tall, vaguely British man.”

Andrews says he especially enjoyed working on the first episode of the series, which features the storyline about Peggy Carter ending up with the Super Soldier Serum that gives Captain America his special powers. “In our minds, that was the episode which really kicks things off in the beginning. We got to start with something that was pulpy and set in World War II. Captain Carter was so perfect and playing in that universe was friggin’ awesome!”

He adds, “I also loved the zombies episode as well as the Dr. Strange story, because it’s not so sprawling. It has a smaller group of characters and tells a very personal story and doesn’t end the way you think it will. But I have to say: Each one of the episodes is unique in its own way.”

Both Bradley and Andrews hope that audiences will enjoy the imaginative spirit and cinematic appeal of their show. “Marvel movies have become comfort food for us for the past 10 years,” says Bradley. “I want everyone to have fun, whether they watch it by themselves or with their loved ones and their kids.

After a year and half that everyone has been through, we want audiences to just sit back, relax , laugh and have a good time.” ◆ What If…? premieres on Disney+ on August 11.

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Starfish Sidekick Takes Over

Vincent Waller

Marc Ceccarelli

Veteran producers Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller tell us everything we wanted to know about The Patrick Star Show.

I

s the world ready for a surreal animated universe headlined by Patrick Star (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke), SpongeBob’s goofy sidekick? The top brass at Nickelodeon and exec producers Marc Ceccarelli (SpongeBob SquarePants), Vincent Waller (SpongeBob SquarePants) and Jennie Monica (SpongeBob SquarePants) definitely believe in the spellbinding potential of The Patrick Star Show.

Following on the heels of that other SpongeBob spinoff Kamp Koral, this new animated offering follows a younger Patrick living at home with his family, where he hosts his own variety show for the neighborhood from his television-turned-bedroom.

In addition to Fagerbakke, who reprises his role as the not-so-bright, pink echinoderm, the show also features the voices of Tom Wilson as Patrick’s fun-loving dad who always puts his family first; Cree Summer as his loving mom who is a kooky oddball; Jill Talley as his eightyear-old little sister (and Squidward’s grandmother, Grandma Tentacles); and Dana Snyder as GrandPat Star, Patrick’s genius grandpa.

SpongeBob regulars Tom Kenny, Rodger Bumpass, Carolyn Lawrence, Clancy Brown and Mr. Lawrence are also featured in the spinoff.

No Rules Allowed “One of the best things about this show is that there are very few rules!” says Waller, who along with Ceccarelli is also overseeing Kamp Koral and the original SpongeBob SquarePants series. “There are about 15 different art styles involved.”

Adds Ceccarelli, “It’s a much more surreal show than SpongeBob, because it’s all told through Patrick’s perspective. Patrick is easily distracted, so the

show kind of feels like that. There are a lot of distractions and digressions. It’s not as story-centric as SpongeBob or Kamp Koral. The stories are constantly interrupted by fake commercials and other shows. The structure of the show follows a lot of classic TV tropes.”

According to the exec producers, they tried to imagine what it would be like if Patrick were to program a whole TV network. “It’s a sitcom. It’s a variety show. It’s a space show, a barbarian show, a prehistoric show, a comedy horror show — and they’re all Patrick-centric.”

We also get different versions of Patrick in each one of the genres the show incorporates in each episode. As Waller explains, “For example, the space show features a seriously unhelpful robot called PatTron. In the midseason finale, one of the stage managers goes to the green room and says, ‘Pat, you’re up!’ and eight Pats stand up because we have eight versions of Patrick on the show.”

Of course, the various visual styles are wild and eclectic to match each TV world. For example, the space show is inspired by UPA cartoons with flatter, designy-style animation. There is also a stop-motion segment, produced by the talented folks at Screen Novelties studio (The Legend of Boo-kini Bottom), which takes viewers to a world that is inspired by 1940s-era Frankenstein/Draculatype horror movies. Then, there’s the prehistoric show which follows a sepia-tinged Squigglevision theme with lines crawling across the screen!

The show’s traditional animation is produced

by Rough Draft Studios. “They have done an amazing job switching to watercolor on paper backgrounds,” says Waller. “The textures and depths that the artists are getting are really amazing.

There’s an episode in which Patrick actually goes inside his dad, and we see inside his father’s body, and I couldn’t believe how delightfully lush they made those interior paintings look.”

Don’t Adjust Your Screen!

While the show is script-driven, many of the writers are former storyboarders who worked on SpongeBob SquarePants. “Many of them became script writers, but they still come at it from a very gag-driven visual place,” says Waller. “They also know what puts board artists through hell, so they know what to avoid as they write the scripts!”

Since Waller and Ceccarelli work on three Bikini Bottom shows at the same time, they have gotten used to very long hours. “We get up at five to go over the scripts and the animatic and to approve the designs of the shows,” says Ceccarelli. “Then we have meetings until six, and then we spend three hours after that preparing for the next day!”

Waller adds, “Being trapped in your house because of the COVID lockdown made it a lot easier to spend so much time working. Marc and I were really surprised by how well things worked out when we switched to doing it all virtually.”

As Patrick gets ready to steal the limelight, the producers hope audiences will welcome this new addition to the Sponge-verse. “Viewers should prepare for more insanity than they’re used to,” warns Waller. “I hope they have as much fun watching it as we had making it. During the day, my wife says, ‘I hear you laughing over there! You must be having fun!’ And I am. My job is really fun!” ◆ The Patrick Star Show premiered on Nickelodeon on July 9.

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TV/Streaming Mice at Play: The new series Mickey Mouse Funhouse features Disney favorites like Mickey, Goofy, Minnie and Donald, and introduces a magical talking playhouse named Funny.

Phil Weinstein

The Mouse Is Back!

Mickey and his pals move into a silly talking funhouse in their new Disney Junior show.

N

o, you’re not imagining things. Disney is unveiling yet another new animated show starring Mickey Mouse, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy and Pluto this summer.

The new preschool show Mickey Mouse Funhouse features the classic Disney characters and a few new ones, including a magical talking playhouse called Funny, a pet doghouse named Teddy and Windy the Weathervane!

The colorful new series is executive produced by Emmy-winning animation veteran Phil Weinstein, whose numerous credits include Hellboy Animated, Curious George 3, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures. Thomas Hart is co-exec producer and supervising story editor, Mark Drop is story editor and Emmy winner Alan Bodner (Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure) serves as art director “We wanted to put all these familiar characters in a magical and more whimsical setting,” says Weinstein during a recent interview.

“We borrowed a lot from Disney theme parks and classic animators and artists such as Mary Blair, Evyind Earle and Freddie Moore. For me, it was really important to give our audience a fun look at this magical world that Mickey and his friends were living in. We started with

Freddie Moore’s original design of Mickey, but fans will sense some subtle adjustments. We wanted the characters to live in a fun, magical world, and the CG was more design-oriented, cartoony and definitely not photorealistic.”

In Praise of Funny The animation veteran says he gets a special kick out of the new character of Funny, voiced by Harvey Guillén. “Getting that character was challenging because we didn’t want him to be a teacher or a parental figure, not like Bear in the Big Blue House,” he explains.

“Funny is Mickey’s buddy and he makes you laugh, and he’s silly and definitely not perfect!”

Weinstein points out that preschool shows tend to be deceptively challenging. “It reminds me of that time when Walt Disney was asked about the importance of the learning components of his movies and TV shows, and he responded, ‘I’d rather have an audience be entertained first and then maybe learn something along the way than have to teach the audience something and hope that they’re entertained by it.’ We are trying to make an entertaining show, but we include important social lessons and wish fulfillment elements,

and teach them about creativity and friendship as well.”

Like most animated shows made during the pandemic, Mickey Mouse Funhouse was made remotely from the homes of the production team. “I started working on the show just before the pandemic, but we had to put the crew together (about 50 people) after the lockdown. Our studio partner overseas is Technicolor, India.”

When asked about the phenomenal longevity of Mickey Mouse, who turns 93 on November 18 (release date of the short Steamboat Willie), Weinstein has a simple answer: “What’s pretty cool about Mickey and all these classic characters is that you immediately know and recognize them: If I ask you what Mickey’s like, you know he’s an earnest and positive sort of dude. Donald is a cranky guy, etc. Of course, not everything is perfect in Mickey’s life. He has to work on these relationships!” ◆ Mickey Mouse Funhouse debuts with the primetime special “Mickey the Brave!” on Friday, July 16 at 7:30 p.m. on Disney Junior. The show premieres Friday, Aug. 20 at 8 a.m. on both Disney Channel and Disney Junior.

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Spinning New Tales Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends casts an entertaining web for younger fans.

I

t’s never too early to introduce young kids to the world of Spider-Man and some of the other Marvel superheroes. That, at least, is what the development folks at Disney were thinking when they greenlit Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends, a preschool show which centers on the adventures of Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and their buddies Hulk, Ms. Marvel and Black Panther.

The show’s exec producer is Harrison Wilcox, whose many credits include Avengers Assemble, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ultimate Spider-Man. “I had just rolled off Black Panther’s Quest and now that I had young kids of my own, I was excited about making a show for them,” he tells us. “What has always drawn me to this job is the opportunity to introduce Marvel characters to the next generation of fans. The show is fun, like laugh-out-loud fun. It’s got that feeling of wonderment from the Marvel and Spider-Man stories I grew up on, plus that joy that Disney and Disney Junior series are known for.”

“The show is also my first CG series and the first show I’ve worked on at Marvel where I’ve been involved in every step of the process,” he notes.

“I thought the biggest challenge would be in the writers room, tailoring stories to such a young audience. But that wasn’t the case at all. There’s something about Marvel characters, and Spider-Man

characters in particular, that works for all ages.”

The Marvel veteran says the show is the result of close collaboration between the writers and the artists. “It’s a creative team with as few barriers as possible. Everyone has their responsibilities, but our writers and our board artists and directors communicate openly throughout the process. We’ll take a good idea from anyone on the team, regardless of their title.”

Canada’s Atomic Cartoons was the animation partner studio for the project. “They’ve done an amazing job and created a vibrant look that fits well with the comic-book roots of the show,” says Wilcox.

A Very Youthful Hero Wilcox adds, “When Spider-Man was created, he was the first superhero that wasn’t an adult.

There’s always been a youthful exuberance and relatability to the character. Making a show about a team of Spider characters, Miles, Gwen and Peter, that represent many elements of our audience, was something we leaned into and it felt like a very natural fit. Also, we’ve been lucky to have the very best of partners with Joe D’Ambrosia and Lori Mozilo, our executives at Disney Junior on this project. Lori in particular has been in the trenches with us every day. This show would not be half as good without her ex-

pertise with this demographic.” Wilcox says that he and his team all felt very lucky to be making a show that’s meant to bring laughter and joy to young children, especially during such tough times. “That’s definitely been one thing that helps us keep motivated during these workfrom-home conditions,” he says. “I hope kids will have fun and find the same joy with these characters that I did when I was a kid.”

When we ask Wilcox to share some words of wisdom about thriving in animation, he responds, “Conan O’Brien, on his last taping of The Tonight Show, said something about how nobody gets exactly what they want in the entertainment business, but if you work hard and are kind, amazing things will happen. As he was saying this, the live-action series I was working on at NBC was cancelled. Not long after, I was offered a job at Marvel to help create animated shows for the next generation of Marvel fans. I had never worked in animation before, but am glad I took the job and was able to be a part of Marvel and Disney for the past decade. So I’ve always taken what Conan said to heart, and tell that story to anyone who asks me this question!” ◆ Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends premieres Friday, August 6 at 9 a.m. on Disney Channel and Disney Junior.

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Event Watch

Hot Tickets: Among the highlights this year are (from top): a panel on the making of Sony’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines, the VR project Once Upon a Sea, the new Pixar SparkShort Twenty Something and the game cinematic Watch Dogs: Legion — Tipping Point.

Interactive Immersion W

This month’s virtual SIGGRAPH offers a wide showcase for the latest CG and technology achievements, as well as opportunities for connecting with schools and studios.

hat better way to escape the summer doldrums than by diving into the wonderful collection of panels, keynotes, production sessions, screenings and meet-and-greets that this year’s virtual SIGGRAPH confab is offering. Of course, we don’t have the electric excitement of “being there” in person and walking through the packed exhibitors’ space that we used to enjoy in pre-COVID times, but there are still lots of wonderful opportunities to take in the best of the world’s latest CG achievements, VR projects, student films, tech papers as well as job recruitments and art galleries. We had the chance to check in with this year’s conference chair Pol Jeremias-Vila, Computer Animation Festival Electronic Theater director Mark Elendt and VR Theater director Larry Bafia to learn more about the 2021 edition:

Can you tell us what to expect from this year’s SIGGRAPH program?

Elendt: As a developer at SideFX, I’m always interested in the new research presented at SIGGRAPH, so I look forward to the Technical Papers program. There are also courses suitable for everyone, whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned veteran. Another one of my favorites is the Talks program. While Talks cover a diverse set of topics, they often dive into more tangible applications of research to practical problems.

For example, I’m always interested in the latest production techniques, so you’ll definitely find me watching the two pipeline Talks. Unlike much of the on-demand content, there are many sessions that will only happen once, including some great Production Sessions offerings. Make sure to add those do-not-miss events to your calendar!

But, what I appreciate most about SIGGRAPH is

the chance to see work that falls outside of my area of expertise. You’ll likely find me in the Q&A for the Art Gallery’s “Forms And Reflections” or even, perhaps, exploring projects on immersive medicine. You never know what might inspire you.

Jeremias-Vila: What Mark said! Plus, don’t forget to mark your calendars for live sessions from our Featured Speakers as well as within the Production Sessions program. There’s something for all walks of computer graphics in both lineups, including deep dives into the productions for Pixar’s Soul, Netflix and Sony Animation’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines, visual effects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and more. I would also encourage everyone to take advantage of the fact that a majority of the Talks and content will be accessible on-demand until October 29.

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Event Watch What are some of the more innovative highlights that we can’t miss?

Elendt: There is always a lot of diverse computer graphics content at SIGGRAPH. But, as its director, I have to put in a plug for the Electronic Theater. This mainstay of the Computer Animation Festival is recognized as a qualifying festival by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and is one of the premiere screenings for computer animation. One thing we’re adding for those who will be joining us virtually for all of SIGGRAPH 2021 are two watch parties for the Electronic Theater, which will allow attendees to chat in real time as they tune in to the show. Bonus: Nobody can shush you or tell you to turn off your phone.

What lessons did you learn from the previous virtual edition that helped you build this year’s program?

Elendt: Planning for a SIGGRAPH conference is a multi-year process. I have to commend last year’s team of volunteers who were able to pivot and convert all their well-laid plans to a virtual format. While it may not have been perfect, they did an outstanding job to lay the groundwork that our committee could build upon. As volunteers, we not only help put the conference together, but we’re also attendees. As attendees, we realized there were things about last year’s conference that could have been a little better or run a little smoother. We’ve investigated a plethora of virtual platforms and technologies to try to make this year’s conference even better.

Fortunately for the Electronic Theater, we found a great partner in Eventive in 2020 and have been able to build upon that partnership to offer an expanded experience for 2021. While not much has changed within the platform itself, there are two versions of the show this year — the classic showcase plus an extended Director’s Cut — and ticket sales are open to all, whether you’re registered for the rest of the conference or not.

Jeremias-Vila: We learned a lot from 2020 and attendees can definitely expect some surprises during this year’s virtual conference. In terms of what will be the same, we will mirror the structure and format of much of 2020 via a combination of both live, simu-live and on-demand session content. We’ve partnered with ohyay to offer spaces for networking/social hours, we have improved time zone management within the virtual platform to better suit our international community, and we are offering improvements to the chat functionality to better facilitate dialogue between attendees and speakers. Finally, in addition to the Electronic Theater changes that Mark has shared,

Pol Jeremias-Vila

Mark Elendt

we’ll be offering a new format for the Technical Papers Q&A sessions.

How will we experience the VR program this year?

Jeremias-Vila: For VR and other immersive programming, we’ve made every effort to offer greater access to selected projects, whether that’s through downloads for headset owners or expanded Panels, Talks and Q&As with directors from the VR Theater or contributors within the Immersive Pavilion.

Bafia: The virtual conference presents an opportunity for the VR Theater. During a typical in-person conference, the VR Theater has been limited to curating a program that averages around 45 minutes to one hour in length. Since SIGGRAPH 2021 is virtual, our VR Theater jury had the luxury of selecting many more quality works for our participants. We are pleased to be able to spotlight 15 experiences as part of this year’s program.

Can you tell us a bit about the Electronic Theater program? What are some of your favorites?

Elendt: We weren’t exactly sure what to expect this year, but my team and I were amazed at both the quality and quantity of submissions to the Electronic Theater. The sheer number of high-quality pieces — over 400 submitted from more than 40 different countries — made the jury process very challenging. The jury’s selecting of the awards was even more difficult.

Each award winner is special in different ways.

The Best Student Project winner I Am a Pebble is a beautifully artistic piece that pulls at your heartstrings with a story that deals with loss and loneliness. Jury’s Choice went to Meerkat from Weta Digital and is, conversely, a light-hearted cinematic that used cutting-edge, real-time technology via Unreal Engine. And, finally, the Best in Show award winner, Migrants, is a film with a lot going on: from thematic social issues to its animation style, and even down to the detail of material design used to create the characters.

The Director’s Cut will contain a few more films that might be considered a little less mainstream, but actually were some of my favorite

pieces. Finally, you can catch three world-premiere short films this year: Twenty Something from Pixar Animation Studios (U.S.) [all tickets], Julian Tuwim: To Everyman from Platige Image (Poland) [premium ticket only] and Blood Song: A Silent Ballad from Zati Studio and Thai Media Fund (Thailand) [premium ticket only]. This year’s show is a unique opportunity to see some films for the very first time, as well as to discover what filmmakers have been creating during the craziness of the pandemic. I think you’ll find the stories to be inspiring.

If you want to expand your experience of the show, check out episode 45 of the SIGGRAPH Spotlight podcast, during which I spoke with three directors about their projects. And, for anyone registered for the conference, tune in live to the Electronic Theater Directors’ Special Session on Thursday, 12 August, to hear from four more filmmakers on their work.

What can you tell those who are experiencing a bit of a virtual-event fatigue this year?

Elendt: I look forward to attending SIGGRAPH in person again, too. But, there are certainly a significant number of positive elements to having a virtual conference, such as greater flexibility and access to content — even just being able to rewind Talks to catch that little detail you missed. So, although the conference is still virtual, the opportunities to learn and interact with like-minded individuals cannot be beat.

Jeremias-Vila: SIGGRAPH is more than just its sessions and presentations and, as Mark said, we understand that the community aspect of SIGGRAPH is what we all — myself included — miss. To bring it around to the idea of changing someone’s mind, here it goes: If you like computer graphics and interactive techniques, this is the event of the year, hands down. Nowhere else can you learn about both the past and future of the industry, explore the latest scientific research and digital art, or hear from the most brilliant minds across the globe. The scope and variety of this year’s event is spectacular! ◆ For more info, visit s2021.siggraph.org.

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Larry Bafia

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Event Watch Best of Show Award: Migrants

Hugo Caby

Jury Prize: Meerkat

Student Prize: I Am a Pebble

Maxime Le Chapelain

Keith Miller

SIGGRAPH Spotlight A look at the Computer Animation Festival’s three prize-winning projects.

Best of Show Award: Migrants

Directed by Hugo Caby, Antoine Dupriez, Aubin Kubiak, Lucas Lermytte and Zoé Devise (Pôle 3D Digital & Creative School, France)

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he student team behind the poignant short Migrants, which is the winner of SIGGRAPH’s Best of Show Award, were inspired by the events surrounding the migrant rescue boat Aquarius, which was not allowed to enter ports in several European cities in 2018. “We were quite touched by this and wanted to tell a story about the issue of migration, but with the global warming theme layered on top of it,” says director Hugo Caby. “So, we chose polar bears as our main characters, as they are one of the species most affected by climate change.”

The beautifully crafted eight-minute short, which was the student’s graduation project at the French school Pôle 3D, took about two years to produce.

In addition to Caby, Aubin Kubika, Lucas Lermytte and Zoé Devise co-directed the project.

During the first year of the project, they focused on pre-production, the script, 2D animation, characters and environment designs. The second year was dedicated to animation, VFX, lighting and compositing. The team used Autodesk Maya for the modeling, set dressing and animation. For texturing, they worked with Substance Painter and Designer. Houdini was used for VFX, and they also employed a tool that smartly and efficiently scattered assets throughout the forest environments in each shot. For rendering, they used Guerilla Render, and Nuke for compositing.

“Our animator Aubin Kubiak did a lot of research during pre-production,” says Caby. “After a few different tests in 24 and 12fps, and after trying both more of a cartoony style and a more realistic look and feel, he was able to decide on the animation style for our characters. It was a lot of work to animate

the whole eight minutes of the short and, as he was the only person focused on animation, he almost did 90 percent of the animation himself. Although towards the end of the production he had some help from the rest of the team.”

One of the team’s key challenges was crafting the overall look of Migrants.

“Because we wanted to match the stop-motion aspect, we had to find solutions for every stage of production,” explains Caby. “This meant we had to make our characters move like puppets, make our environment and characters look like they were handmade, and work hard to perfect our visual effects.

Another difficult part was the COVID pandemic, which happened in the middle of the production process and made us switch to remote working. However, while we were able to quickly adapt to this, I think it affected us mentally and reduced our productivity. To get through it, we had to stay focused and communicate a lot.”

Caby says all of the directors had a deep passion for CGI animation even before they started the program at Pôle 3D. He adds, “But the passion and enthusiasm of our teachers for this industry confirmed to us that this is what we wanted to do. We learned a lot of different skill sets from all of our classes.

From art courses to development/coding courses, we tried to take advantage of all the knowledge that we could get. By the way, English classes are also helpful, especially for interviews like this one!”

Not surprisingly, all five directors have already found jobs in the animation industry. “We are all improving our skills and getting more experience,” says Caby. “But maybe someday, we’ll look to create new content together or on our own. Among the team, we talked a lot about creating our own studio in the future. It was a bit of a joke at first, but maybe we can make it happen one day.

Ten years from now, our technical skills and knowledge of the industry will be much greater, so we will know how to manage our own projects much better, etc. So never say never!”

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Event Watch Jury Prize: Meerkat

Directed by Keith Miller (Weta Digital, New Zealand)

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n 2020, Weta dazzled the industry by creating the stunning 80-second short Meerkat for Epic Games, showing off the potential of Epic’s Unreal Engine to accomplish real-time hair and fur animation. The project’s director, Keith Miller, tells us that this was a bit of a natural evolution for the team at the acclaimed VFX studio. “We’ve done feature animation in the past with The Adventures of Tintin, of course, but this was a great opportunity to forge ahead and use those skills to tell our own story,” he says. “Meerkat came about through ongoing conversations with Epic Games, and though one of our underlying intents was to have a deeper look at Unreal Engine’s fur technology, we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to develop an animated short in-house as a way of evolving our understanding of real time as a tool for linear media in a production environment.”

The team at Weta wanted to explore the strand-based fur system. “We bounced around a few ideas for ideal characters to test the tech while still producing a character-centric short that stood on its own,” notes Miller. “We thought about a musk ox for a period, and we had a moa in the early pitch deck as well. The idea of a meerkat eventually stuck and worked out well for us, since we were able to study them closely at Wellington Zoo. We introduced the eagle as the story evolved and we needed some tension.

That posed a particular opportunity to tackle feathers as well, since those required unique processes for working with strands.”

The labor-intensive project took about seven months to complete. “We had about a dozen crew from Weta Digital working on and off over that period, but the core team through the bulk of that period was only four or so people for the visuals. We partnered with Park Road Post here in Wellington for the audio work,” says the director.

Meerkat was Weta’s first exploration into production of linear media within a real-time framework. Miller says he found it empowering to

Student Prize: I Am a Pebble

Directed by Maxime Le Chapelain, Mélanie Berteraut-Platon, Yasmine Bresson, Léo Coulombier, Nicolas Grondin and Louise Massé (ESMA Nantes, France)

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rowing up in the beautiful countryside of Brittany in France, Maxime Le Chapelain spent a lot of time surrounded by nature. That’s why the natural world plays a big part in his beautiful graduation film from the ESMA school of the arts, I Am a Pebble. “The short came from the simple comparison of otters taking round shapes to sleep and the round rocks in the rivers of my countryside,” he tells us. “They share the same shape, the same place, and we tried to give them the same life. This story of family and identity came naturally as we wanted the otter to have a choice to make between the worlds of pebbles or otters.”

Le Chapelain and his team worked for a little more than a year, including preproduction and production — which was sometimes simultaneous.

“Six of us worked on this short, and for the last couple of months, we received some precious help from three interns to finalize the short.”

The animation’s rich, painterly look was the work of Léo Coulombier, who developed the tools that generated a brush effect in Nuke and applied it as the final step of the workflow. “Before that, we worked on many aspects like hand-painted textures in Substance, looping textures, animating on twos to be coherent with the final 2D style, and finally we did a lot of color scripting to get a clear target and not lose too much time in a heavy compositing process.”

The director says apart from the technical challenges, developing the

have the ability to look under the hood of individual shots within the context of an entire scene or short. “By being able to move outside a shot-based framework, you gain a better understanding of the big picture and can see how everything fits together, thus better informing you and enabling the artists to make broader changes that improve the content holistically,” he explains. “I see this being especially relevant for the animators. Our animation supervisor, Ludovic Chailloleau, did some brilliant work with these characters. As an animator typically working with a hairless puppet at the early stages, seeing the actual fur volume in the context of the lighting really informs the poses and improves the integration much more quickly.”

Miller mentions that whenever he works in real time, there’s a real immediacy to the process. “The ability to sit with a lighter or level designer and just tweak things together is powerful, especially with a furry creature like this where you’re able to see that impact live,” he points out. “I would also say the opportunity to develop this short from the ground up was rewarding to the artists on a pure creative level. When you open that up and everyone feels comfortable to present their ideas and achieves a real sense of meaningful contribution throughout an entire project – from story development through to final pixels – it shows in the work.”

Weta has been working in real time for nearly a decade now, from the development of the studio’s own Gazebo renderer for internal processes, to embracing engines like Unreal for interactive and immersive content.

“It’s increasingly clear that there’s a need and a role for real time,” Miller points out. “We’ve had the obvious applications for this with XR content and games and rides, through to live events like our work with Childish Gambino. But now we’re seeing the intersection of this space with traditional filmmaking and storytelling as well. I see this not only improving the tools for producing film as we know it today, but as the technology moves forward, I think we’ll continue to see the ways in which we experience media will evolve. I see real-time playing a big part of that.”

story proved to be one of the big challenges. “The idea of an otter living with pebbles could seem ridiculous, but that’s why it was interesting,” he explains. “To create drama and conflict with only a non-speaking animal and pebbles, we had to find scenes and actions with the pebbles that would lead the otter to a series of disillusionments and questionings. But as you can expect, actions made by pebbles are quite limited. And then, it became obvious that the otter’s perception against reality would help us build the dramatic tension through the movie to visualize the internal struggle of our main character.”

Le Chapelain says he owes a lot to the animation class he took at ESMA. “That’s where I discovered a completely new way to express and give life to characters,” he notes. “I truly learned I could work in animation when I entered ESMA. Before that, I only wished to tell stories through illustrations or films, but in animation you can do both at the same time. And once you try to bring life to what was originally a drawing, you want all your drawings to come alive. But the true value of ESMA for me were the group projects we worked on every year, because we created things we could not have done alone and it feels really great to grow with others.”

Counting artists such as Alê Abreu, Alberto Mielgo and Trevor Jimenez as his favorites, the 24-year-old artist says he looks forward to directing his next project. “It is a never-ending path to learn storytelling and animation, and I still have a lot of room for improvement,”he concludes. “So, one dream after the next, I train, I write, I draw and, sooner or later, something may appear on a screen. I hope to work on moving stories with a great team, being at the core of the craft and using all what today’s animation offers to bring more touching characters to the screen.” ◆

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Event Watch

Which 3D Animation Jobs Are Right for You?

By Felicity Flesher

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ou have your degree and a stellar portfolio, but what’s the next step?

Although 3D animation is a highly specialized field, the demand for new talent is high. The animation, gaming and VFX fields are steadily growing, and talented artists and engineers can advance quickly. You can now get an excellent starter 3D animation job with zero experience, based on your portfolio alone.

Here are some entry-level 3D animation jobs that you might pursue:

This role allows you to get to know everyone in the office while developing your skills, and to eventually prove that you are ready for promotion. If you’re unsure what kind of 3D animation jobs you want to pursue, this role can give you a better idea of what each position really entails. While you may not get much hands-on animation experience as a PA, you will still have to showcase your organizational abilities, attention to detail, teamwork and problem-solving, all of which are necessary for a successful career as a 3D animator.

Production Assistant

Junior Concept Artist

One of the most common entry-level 3D animation jobs is that of the production assistant or PA. Being a PA generally means no job is too small. That may mean preparing for meetings, maintaining the office, taking notes, ordering food and coffee, researching and being available to help with anything. In 3D animation specifically, a PA may assist in maintaining assets, which can require some appropriate software knowledge. A PA keeps production moving without any hiccups, multitasks and anticipates concerns before they happen.

Concept artists create the first sketches of a project. The early visual look for the project is generated off of a creative brief given to the concept artist. This is an experimental stage where you play around with various ideas before finding the right visual style. The findings will serve as a reference for further designers and animators in the pipeline. The junior artist then reports to the lead artist and uses their guidance to refine pieces of developmental or marketing art. It can take patience and good communication skills to execute multiple iter-

ations of an idea. You should be a skilled artist, imaginative and able to take criticism to succeed in this role.

Junior Previs Artist Previsualization (previs) artists use concept art and storyboards to create rough 3D animatics of scenes. Animatics are drafts to plan out size, scale, movement and timing for locations and characters. It is also a good way to layout the camera position and identify any problems that could arise during production.

The previs artist then communicates to the team. When used in live action, previs artists plan how VFX will work within a scene. Previs artists should have proficient knowledge of cinematographic composition, movement, 3D animation, perspective and VFX software.

Knowledge of architecture and coding may also be helpful.

Junior Storyboard Artist Storyboard artists play a crucial role in the 3D animation world. Creating a storyboard is often one of the earliest steps in production as they take a script or concept and pave the

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Event Watch storytelling, mood and look of the product. Shading artists must have the same skills as a cinematographer with the additional challenge of translating through digital technology.

This role is essential in corralling the many assets and ensuring the quality remains consistent.

Onward lead story artist Madeline Sharafian at work.

(Pixar Animation Studios) Previous page: An animator working on How to Train Your Dragon 2. (DreamWorks Animation)

Render Wrangler

way for visual storytelling. The rest of the team will follow these storyboard panels as reference and inspiration. Storyboard artists sketch out scenes, blocking and camera movement, which may be done digitally or by hand. Often, there are multiple artists working together in a uniform style under a head of story, who works closely with a director. An artist may have to work on the same scene over and over until the team is happy with the direction. A junior member of the team may be tasked with cleaning up or detailing more senior artists’ work. This job requires significant drawing ability, some cinematography knowledge and, most importantly, the ability to communicate visually and clearly.

Junior Environment Modeler The environment modeler creates models to fit the requirements of the production to help build virtual worlds. A great modeler should have an artistic and spatial eye and the ability to accurately interpret 2D reference material.

Ideally, a modeler should have technical experience with software such as Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush, Unreal Engine and Substance Painter.

You should also have an in-depth artistic understanding of space, texture, color, light and shadow. Software knowledge is important, but artistic knowledge and the ability to be prolific and quick may be even more valuable.

Junior Props Modeler A junior props modeler applies similar skills as the junior environment modeler to render

props assets within the digital environment.

You may start with simpler props and then move on to more complex hero objects. A props modeler is able to ensure objects work cohesively from every angle within a space.

Although you may want to show off your style in your portfolio, you will work closely with the art department to maintain a consistent vision. Learning to follow direction from your team and create props that work well within the digital environment will make you a better modeler and animator.

Junior Animator Junior animator is one of the most popular 3D animation jobs to consider due to its responsibilities. A junior animator will work with senior animators, supervisors and directors to recreate believable motion within a scene. You will brainstorm new ideas, research a specific subject’s motion and improve the quality of the overall animation accordingly. An animator should have excellent drawing skills and knowledge of 3D animation software. Additionally: expertise in understanding of anatomy, movement, composition, shot construction, storyboards, timing and continuity. A junior animator should be able to work well by themselves and with a team to create animation for a studio.

Junior Shading Artist Junior shading artists work to replicate real-world lighting within the animation. Proper lighting, shading and texture will help make an animation look realistic. It will also enhance the

The render wrangler is a systems engineer responsible for monitoring computers (render farms) and data during the rendering process for animation and turning CG data into imagery. This process can take a lot of time, during which much can go wrong. In the end, it’s the wrangler’s job to keep everything running smoothly. Render wranglers prioritize data and allocate disk space to ensure efficient optimized output. Because rendering happens around the clock, this job often requires after-hours work and may involve a lot of independent problem-solving. Among all 3D animation jobs, this position requires the most knowledge of 3D animation software; a high degree of computer literacy and coding is a plus for this position.

Animation Fix An animation fix looks for problem shots in animation renders and brainstorms ways to fix them. This job needs an eye for detail in order to review dailies. For example, lipsync or eye line problems, or just details that need polish. This job takes a great animation generalist to understand what elements need finessing and what steps to take to correct them. Quality control is an essential part of the animation workflow.

Among all of the 3D animation jobs, you should look to develop your skills and learn how to work well with your team. It’s only the beginning of your career, but soon you’ll be ready for advancement Felicity Flesher is a content writer for InFocus Film School in Vancouver, BC.

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State of the Art

The Changing Face of the VFX Industry Remote and hybrid models have taken hold, and flexibility will be key for studios going forward.

By Ben Stallard

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embracing remote models. But there are also We developed Hotspring to provide the legitimate concerns, such as challenges of infrastructure for remote working, to build communication, project management and the the bridges and pave the roads to the skilled need for reliable security. artists wherever they may be. It’s a tool to Ultimately, most studios didn’t have a connect with artists, but also a way to easily choice last year: they had to embrace the manage the work coming in from vendors and remote model. And if they weren’t prepared, handle the financial aspect as well. It’s a onethen they had to work through the roadblocks stop hub that enables VFX studios to stay lean and headaches. Luckily, and efficient, yet have the ability to scale up Visual effects houses such as DNEG the industry rapidly em- to tackle demanding projects with confidence. have been navigating the waters of braced remote tools for Not everyone may have been ready for remote collaborative work for months communication, managthe pandemic, as the aforementioned survey now as they deliver the shots for the ing projects and collabmade plain. However, I’d wager that even the upcoming feature Dune. oration, finding ways to most ardent supporters of the old-school, fulreplicate as much of the ly in-house production model have seen some in-house process as they benefits from embracing a hybrid model. That could. doesn’t have to stop as the world returns to Now everyone is a normal. Anyone can see that purely adhering Zoom expert, right? Ev- to the old way of working isn’t going to fly eryone has used Slack, in the future, particularly as upstart studios Microsoft Teams and/or more fully embrace the remote model via an Discord over the last year- array of technological enhancements.

Flexibility is absolutely key for any VFX stu46 percent of VFX studios had no work-from- plus. Our industry has relied on Shotgun for home policy or the technology to enable re- project management and tools like cineSync dio looking towards a sustainable future, and mote working and collaboration. Although and SyncSketch for rethat means that just over half of the industry’s mote reviews and col- The Mill, which recently recreated this CG version VFX houses had some level of planning to fall laboration. Even the core of Albert Einstein for a Smart Energy campaign, relies on Hotspring to outsource jobs to artists. back on and use to adapt to a different way of technology behind the working, the rest had to start from scratch — artistry is going remote, surely at a significant cost in terms of money as more and more studios use virtual machines and productivity.

The industry’s embrace of remote and hy- to allow artists to conbrid working models started years ago, as tribute secure work from nimble teams realized that they could thrive anywhere. And cloud with an efficient core group flanked by reli- rendering services are alable collaborators from around the world. ways a click away.

Likewise, some larger studios realized that they could scale resources in a more cost-ef- A Flexible Platform ficient manner with external artists. It has Hotspring is another key tool in the remote the ability to turn on the tap of talent as needopened teams up to a world of talent located pipeline for any visual effects studio, particu- ed provides savings and scalability in equal far away from the major cities and creative larly those that plan to stay flexible and em- measure. If you’re a core team of 10 people, hubs of the world, and enabled artists to live, brace a hybrid model as pandemic restrictions then you’ll want to be competing against work and thrive where they please. ease. Our platform allows VFX studios to eas- teams with 30 people – or even 100 people. ily outsource work to trusted artists and ven- Working with remote talent allows teams to dors around the world, studios who have used produce quality, efficient work, and Hotspring Pushbacks and Concerns It hasn’t come easily, however. There has Hotspring — such as The Mill, Electric Theatre provides the platform to get it done. ◆ been pushback from some proponents of the Company and Blacksmith – typically see outold-school model of having everyone within sourcing cost savings of up to 25-35 percent Ben Stallard is the Managing Director at four walls, despite the considerable overhead via the platform. This includes not only the Hotspring. He has produced high-end comof physical locations, hardware and a static traditional services such as rotoscoping, paint mercials at MPC, Clear, Aardman and The Mill. team. In some cases, fears of losing hold of & clean-up or tracking, but also CG asset cre- He was also head of production at The Mill in London. the creative process have kept studios from ation across TV, film and gaming.

veryone was impacted by the sudden surge of the pandemic in early 2020 in ways large, small and enduring, but the need for most visual effects studios to rapidly shift to remote working models clearly affected some teams more than others.

A recent report by Escape Technology and HP revealed that prior to the pandemic, some

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State of the Art

REUNITE

AFM 2021 ®

S A N T A N OVEMBER

2 -7

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M O N I C A

A M E R I C A N F I L M M A R K E T.CO M

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Reliving Moments of Truth Several new animated VR projects are inspired by personal and socially relevant matters.

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ith the SIGGRAPH confab just around the corner, we thought it would be a good time to spotlight some of this year’s buzzy VR titles and catch up with the brilliant creatives who have been raising the bar of this innovative medium with each new project. Not surprisingly, personal and more socially aware topics are dominating the field this year:

Replacements

Directed by Jonathan Hagard Produced by Andreas Hartmann, Nova Dewi Setiabudi Co-production of Kampung Ayu, Ossa Film, Suwe Ora Jamu Jonathan Hagard’s Replacements, which won top honors both at Annecy Jonathan Hagard and the Venice International Film Festival, is a follow-up to his 2009 film Time Lapse, which chronicles the changes experienced by a small village in Jakarta.

After the Islamic parties won the 2017 elections, the country went through more radical urban and cultural changes, so Hagard decided to cast his net wider and capture how a small community evolves through four decades.

“My grandmother once told me, it’s important to remember your roots to understand the future,” says Hagard.

“My response to the 2017 event was to make a new story inspired by this universal and human philosophy to remember and appreciate an Indonesian typical alley and how it changed in four decades. On one hand, I was inspired by my own family’s story and their house in central Java to add more emotions and nostalgia to the main protagonists. I also used the results of more serious urban researches I made in Jakarta’s alleys for about 14 years, to enhance its documentary and objective aspects.”

In 2018, after making several trips to Indonesia, Hagard completed an initial version of the project and his first VR prototype, which convinced him that the medium was a perfect way to tell this particular story. “That was the beginning of two years of intense production,” he recalls. “In the first year, I mainly focused on recreating the eras between 1980 and 2020 and the environments based on personal memories and actual archives.

During the second year, I was more dedicated to the animation, post work and on deciding and shaping the final scene, which was actually different from the initial storyboard, due to the evolution of Jakarta’s situation and a certain pandemic.”

The filmmaker first created digital paintings of the village throughout the decades as wide panoramas without focusing on one main element, which he compares to Asian traditional paintings or a 360-degree Japanese ukiyo-e. “Although I first thought about creating the animation in CG, I finally decided to make it in 2D to enhance its handmade and blurry, memory-like qualities,” he notes. “It was a mix of traditional 2D animation and rotoscope on top of 360 videos of actual people and actors in Jakarta.” He also decided to switch from stereo to ambisonic (full-sphere sur-

round) spatial sound to add more depth to the VR experience.

Hagard says he was attracted to the VR medium because of the freedom of exploration it offered him. “Replacements is a linear film, but it is full of small stories and elements that you cannot watch at the same time,” he explains. “Just like real life, you have to choose which element to focus on and which element to skip before it fades away in time. Just the fact of being able to turn your head and discover new stories and people —sometimes by choice, sometimes by accident— can be a great storytelling technique. Like one of Jakarta’s inhabitants, the viewers are challenged by their inability to focus on everything at the same time, they share their moods, routines and frustrations in front of the complexity of the surrounding space and the speed of the passing time.”

The filmmaker tells us that he counts great Japanese masters such as Satoshi Kon, Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki as three of his biggest sources of inspiration. He adds, “I am also very inspired by illustrators such as Nicolas de Crécy and, of course, Moebius. Outside the animation world, Jacques Tati is one of my biggest inspirations for the attention to details, the multiplicity of small stories and the absence of dialogue. In the VR world, Patrick Osborne’s Pearl is my favorite: It is not just beautiful, but it fully takes advantage of the 360 environment and is still until now one of the few VR pieces that almost made me cry.”

Hagard has a crucial piece of advice for future VR filmmakers. “I would say, don’t use an idea that you could make in a conventional film and then convert it to a VR film, because it would be too much work and it won’t add much in terms of storytelling. I think VR storytelling should be detached from other storytelling mediums. Think about why your story is the right one to explore in VR, more than any other storytelling methods.”

And what does he predict for the future of the medium? “Unfortunately, VR is still currently not so accessible,” he responds. “I hope with the arrival of lighter, easy to use VR sets, this technology will be more democratized. VR can be not only a way to immerse ourselves into a fictional world, but I hope it can also help us to relearn truths about our actual environments.”

Website: cargocollective.com/jonathanhagard/replacements

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VR

Namoo

Directed by Erick Oh Produced by Larry Cutler, Eric Darnell, Maureen Fan, Kane Lee Baobab Studios Acclaimed animation director Erick Oh’s new VR project Namoo (Tree) is the perfect example of how the meErick Oh dium can be used to tell more personal, intimate and stylized stories. The short, which was produced by Baobab Studios (Baba Yaga, Crow: The Legend) and developed both as a regular theatrical project and a VR experience, was inspired by the passing of his own grandfather.

The short played at Sundance and Tribeca earlier this year, and will be part of SIGGRAPH’s program in August.

“Namoo is deeply inspired by the loss of my grandfather about 10 years ago,” says the Korean-born writer-director, who was nominated for an Oscar for his short Opera earlier this year. “It took me a while to finally put this together in an art piece because I wasn’t ready to share this idea with the world yet. It was actually a sudden goodbye, so we weren’t prepared and experienced this deep grief. That experience led me to think about our lives and the meaning of it all. But even after my grandfather’s passing, I still feel his presence. I feel I’m more spiritually connected to him now. He’s still my guiding star and that led me to come up with the core idea of Namoo, which is about the celebration of life.

There’s beginning and there’s always the end. but the ending connects back to another beginning.”

Oh, who has worked at Pixar and Tonka House, says he embraced all the possibilities the virtual reality medium had to offer his narrative poem. “VR brings you deeply into your story,” he explains. “You become a part of the story on a very personal level. From the first moment I decided to bring this idea out to the world, I wanted this to be a very poetic spiritual experience and VR was the perfect platform for it. In order to make both the theatrical and VR versions successful, I had to understand the strength and characteristics of each medium deeply.

That was the biggest challenge — but also the most examazing team of Quill artists from all over the world. We were sending citing part of the production.”

“We have known Erick for a long time and love his previous works at progress and notes to each other in VR, and that was an amazing expeTonka (Dam Keeper),” says the short’s exec producer Larry Cutler, who is rience.” also Baobab’s CTO. “When he approached us about this project, we were Looking back at the experience of making Namoo, which took less very excited because he wanted to create this piece both as a 2D film than a year to complete, Oh is optimistic about the possibilities of the and VR piece, using the Quill animation tool. Namoo covers a man’s life medium. “It was challenging to make both 2D and theatrical versions from birth to death through a poetic use of a tree, which represents his from the same story and the world,” he points out. “But by doing that, we life and longings. It really ripped our hearts in a way, and we know we were able to learn so much about both mediums. In VR, you invite the wanted to make this project with him. Our goal at Baobab has always audience into your world and let them explore. This is incredible, but it been to bring in great filmmakers and give them the opportunity to tell also means that you can’t control the camera the way you would in a their story in different ways.” traditional format. Understanding this difference actually made me Oh points out that while VR projects have a tendency to be a bit techy think much more deeply about not only VR but also cinema. I definitely and rigid, he wanted to bring a handmade and warm feeling to his short. feel like I became a better storyteller and filmmaker after Namoo, and I “That’s why I thought of Quill, the VR animation software developed by can’t wait to apply what I learned to my next projects!”

Oculus,” he explains. “It lets the artist be able to paint, draw and animate Websites: erickoh.com/namoo intuitively in virtual space. Then we were able to coordinate a small but baobabstudios.com/namoo august 21

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Yasmin Elayat

Joe Brewster

The Changing Same

Directed by Yasmin Elayat, Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster Produced by Scatter and Rada Studio It’s easy to see why New York-based studio Scatter’s follow up to its first VR experience Blackout picked up the Best Narrative Prize at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival: Their powerful new project The Changing Same allows participants to travel through time and space to witness the connected experiences of racial injustice in America.

Director Yasmin Elayat first met her collaborators Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster five years ago when they were working on their documentary, The Changing Same. “The documentary chronicled the town of Marianna in the Florida panhandle, which was the site of the Claude Neal lynching in 1934, which is considered one of the worst spectacle lynchings in the U.S.,” notes Elayat. “That film, this town and the story of Claude Neal is the origin of the virtual reality series. Over the years and in the co-creation process it’s turned into ‘hybrid speculative fiction,’ where the story is based on real events that have become abstracted.”

Brewster mentions that his own personal experiences informed this important project. “This journey began as our own personal journeys,” he notes. “Before this project, not only did I struggle with obstacles related to class and race as a Black middle class male, but I struggled to understand my privilege and the reasons why some of my friends ‘made it’ while others were destroyed by systemic racism and injustice.

The Changing Same is my narrative and like most ‘makers,’ I share my story and hope that it inspires and informs others around me.”

According to the directors, the inspiration behind their project was that history is cyclical and that racial injustice hasn’t really changed, but has evolved. “Our goal with this project is for the audience to acknowledge our shared history, to bear witness to the past in order to heal and move forward,” says Elayat. “It was important to memorialize the unmarked sites of the Claude Neal lynching, for example, and it was also important to showcase Black joy, daily life and celebration.

Part of the approach to the world building and the creation of the virtual worlds was capturing the actual sites in the real world. We sent a team to Marianna to do a reality capture shoot, and using photogrammetry we captured the landscape and the sites. We then re-contextualized these real-world places and re-imagined them.”

The project brought together a team of international designers, technical artists, engineers, a reality capture team and volumetric specialists, Depthkit experts, lighting environmental artists and others.

Episode one went into production last year, and it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was part of Tribeca’s Juneteenth curation as well. “Every concept, the characters, the environments and the mechanics we designed with intent to leverage the medium,” says Elayat. “With VR, you have multiple experiential tools to tell a story. You can completely restrict and confine the user’s space, and you can be completely expansive with camera moves and physics to add a whole other experiential dimension. For example, our time travel mechanic where you travel through this abstract symbolic space spanning 400 years of Black History, is meant to feel awe-inspiring and infinite. It has many layers and symbols and Easter eggs to discover each time you travel through it.”

Brewster and Elayat are both pleased that they were able to get their project off the ground during such a difficult year. “We resisted changing the content to make the story less painful,” says Brewster. “We resisted decreasing the complexity and size of the build. We made the story more painful, and that required more joy — a solution that makes the narrative stronger. We increased the complexity and the original build was close to 7GB, but we were again advantaged by this. I am most pleased that we remained patient and we are still happy artistically, as well!”

Adds Elayat, “I am quite proud of the strong storytelling, the uncompromising subject matter, the technological innovation and the beauty of the world’s we’ve designed.”

Website: scatter.nyc/productions/the-changing-same ◆

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Courtesy of Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Skydance.

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The Way of the Samurai VFX supervisor Olaf Wendt takes us behind the scenes of Snake Eyes.

By Trevor Hogg

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n iconic ninja warrior in the G.I. Joe franchise gets his own movie with the release of the summer thriller Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. The action-packed film is directed

by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan) and stars Henry Golding, Andrew Koji and Úrsula Corberó. The storyline centers on the mysterious lone fighter who is trained by an ancient Japanese ninja clan called the Arashikage, but finds his loyalties tested when secrets from his past are revealed, as he eventually goes on the path to become the famous hero. The project utilizes practical and digital effects, with visual effects supervisor Olaf Wendt (Ad Astra) dividing 1,100 shots among Mr. X facilities in Toronto, Montreal and Bangalore.

“Snake Eyes [Henry Golding] starts off as a streetfighter and ends up as this accomplished samurai in the Arashikage costume, which is where the story ends,” Wendt tells Animation Magazine. "You also have characters like the

Baroness [Úrsula Corberó] who are wellknown that enter the movie."

Sword Fights on Freeways

The production spent two months in Japan shooting at Himeji Castle, Kishiwada Castle and Horyuji Temple, as well as around Tokyo, Osaka and Hiroshima. “[Our director] Robert Schwentke was after something that still felt grounded in realism. One of the big things for him was to shoot in Japan to get this feeling of authenticity.

We were also working with a lot of Japanese crew and stunt guys. That was the starting off point. We’re still having sword fights on top of a car carrier whizzing down a Japanese freeway.

The Arashikage have their own mythology and this special weapon called the Jewel of Amaterasu. Snake Eyes and Tommy/Shadow Storm [Andrew Koji] have superior fighting abilities, but they’re still [regular] people not superheroes.”

The signature action scene where Snake Eyes jumps from vehicle to vehicle on a freeway was filmed in Vancouver. “We shot on an airstrip with

‘One of the big things for him was to shoot in Japan to get this feeling of authenticity. We were also working with a lot of Japanese crew and stunt guys. That was the starting off point. We’re still having sword fights on top of a car carrier whizzing down a Japanese freeway.’

— VFX supervisor Olaf Wendt

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Freeways and Fires: The VFX team combined a mixture of practical and digital effects to create the visuals for sequences involving the freeway fights (top) and the period-style Japanese backdrops (bottom).

25 stunt cars and a car carrier. The remaining shots were captured on a bluescreen stage.

Sometimes the stunt guys were replaced with digital doubles because they couldn’t quite get the trajectory that Robert wanted. There are a couple of mini-oners [one-take scenes] where we go from airstrip to bluescreen back to airstrip footage within the same shot.”

The special effects team was responsible for creating a hydraulic rig to hold and shake the car carrier onstage. “In the end, we had to tone it down because you don’t want your principal actors to fall off — but things like that add so much to the sense of realism.”

According to the VFX veteran, atmospherics were critical in delivering the necessary visuals. “Some of the nights got foggy, which I loved because then the car headlights pick out the shapes. We made a point of building a fog system in our CG freeway and used that to enhance all of the shots where we had to add or extend the CG environment. Sometimes it was added on top of the plates.”

Then, there is the scene in which Snake Eyes has to battle three 50-foot-long anacondas as part of his initiation into the Arashikage Clan. “You look at real anacondas that get quite big and also bigger animals to see how they move,” explains Wendt. “These creatures have to feel threatening and move quite fast, but you also need them to feel big. When we started slowing the animation, they started feeling bigger, but at the same time august 21

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you have to keep the sequence moving.”

The R&D team worked on developing a new scale system that accurately placed individually modelled scales on the bodies of the anacondas.

“The scales follow the movement rather than slide against each other,” notes Wendt. “Given the size of those things, I always thought it would be necessary to go down to that level of detail. We did have some snake wranglers and three stunt guys in suits with giant snake heads modelled out of Polystyrene — or, in some cases, ping pong balls on sticks — to give the actors some eyelines. You always need a reference point so the camera operator can get a feeling for how big that thing is going to be in frame and something for the actors to play off of.”

Fans of the franchise know that swords play a big part in this hero’s journey. “Most of the sword fights were fought with full length swords, but for safety you can’t use metal blades because people are hitting each other,” says Wendt. “They’re using rubber blades which in many cases have to be enhanced. We would use cut-off swords if it gets too dangerous. For example, errant swords and motorbikes don’t mix. The blades that we used on set looked good but would sometimes wobble so you have to straighten them, or didn’t feel reflective enough so you add [reflections] in.”

The Arashikages’ Jewel of Amaterasu, named for the Japanese goddess of the sun, also plays a big part in the overall plot. “It looks like an

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avocado-sized jewel,” says the supervisor. “We had a fantastic prop that gave us beautiful interactive light, but had to be replaced because the jewel has the power of the whole sun encapsulated in it. We did quite a bit of look development and created this quite intricate simulation. The Jewel of Amaterasu can be used to incinerate people and buildings.”

Mixing Practical and Digital Fires

“Clearly when we shot at Himeji Castle or Kishiwada Castle, which Kenta [Takehiro Hira] blows up using the jewel, you can’t do any practical, so we had to add everything,” he points out. “But we also shot a backlot of the Arashikage Compound where we had a bunch of period style Japanese buildings and could do a bit of practical fire. Then we went to shoot specific fire elements. We actually built some temporary structures resembling these Japanese buildings, set them on fire, and shot plates. We used that to put bits of fire around the compound.”

Snake Eyes’ costume and motorbike were done practically. “We just added the visor and had a bunch of fully functional electric motorbikes that could accelerate in two seconds.” However, the Blind Master portrayed by Peter Mensah, was aided by a CG effect. “We shot a little bit of him with contact lenses but, for a couple of reasons, they didn’t work out. So, we had to modify his eyes to look blind on quite a few shots.”

Postproduction coincided with the global lockdown caused by the COVID pandemic. “It has always amazed me how quickly everybody could adapt and handle a big show like this with everyone working from home,” states Wendt. “We were lucky that we were able to get the film in the can before the lockdown hit and our transition to work-at-home was at the beginning of post, not during the middle, so we had a bit of time to adapt.”

Looking back at the overall VFX challenges of his team, Wendt says the freeway chase and the scenes involving the massive anacondas were the toughest ones to produce. “I knew the snakes would need a custom scale system, which we then proceeded to build in R&D. The freeway chase changed as we didn’t anticipate having to replace as much as we did in the end; that grew throughout shooting. The big variable was Japan, how much we could shoot practically and how much we would need to add?

We were pleasantly surprised that the footage required less treatment than we thought!” ◆ Paramount opened Snake Eyes in U.S. theaters on July 23.

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Tech Reviews Maya 2022

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t’s been a while since I’ve typed out a review of Maya. This is mostly because Autodesk has been doing a slew of sub-point releases at various times without a “major” release. And it was only earlier this year that Autodesk released both Maya and 3ds Max in a 2022 flavor.

First thing’s first — and it’s a thing that the Image courtesy of Gal Yosef

user base seems to be dialing into: Startup time. The 2022 startup time has been reduced to from a third to one half of the startup time in 2021. It may not sound like a big thing, but when you are rebooting or opening up multiple instances of Maya many times per day, a 90-second boot time can add up really quickly.

One of the huge talking points about Maya 2022 is the full integration of a USD (Universal Scene Description) workflow. In the past, it was released as a plug-in. Now, it’s fully integrated with a lot more feature workflows. You can import USD data into Maya as a full conversion to Maya data, but full benefits come when you are bringing in a USD as a stage, and the objects on that stage are referenced in. We are talking about differences of potentially tens of gigabytes of system resources.

Furthermore, when you manage your scenes with the USD layer editor, you are able to control the states of the stage, being able to quickly setup and save different layouts with similar objects with extremely low overhead and efficient translation to other artists — and other departments who use USD — Katana in the lighting and look dev department comes to mind. With USD becoming more and more the ubiquitous open source format of choice, it truly makes sense.

The rigging department got some fancy new tools in the form of Component Tags. These are collections of component selections (polys,

edges, etc.) that you can name, organize and then manipulate. They are akin to selection sets, but more manageable, and can be called by modifiers to affect that area — without affecting skin weights upstream.

For animators, a critical tool is the ghosting editor, which behaves like onion skinning in 2D animation. This gives the animator a clear analysis of how the animation is behaving and adjustments can be made on the fly — as opposed to watching it play through and then adjusting.

These are the greatest hits, but there are plenty more new features to look into for whichever department you are in — motion capture, effects, lighting or rendering.

Website: autodesk.com/products/ maya Price: $1,700 per year; $215 per month

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3ds Max 2022

long with the new Maya release comes 3ds Max 2022, which feels very much like a tip of the hat to all the modelers out there.

Some really advanced features have been added to already existing tools, and one that seems like an entirely new tool altogether.

The Smart Extrude is something that I’ve been wanting and needing my entire career without knowing that I wanted and needed it.

Now, when extruding faces on a poly object, if you extrude in the negative direction, it behaves like a Boolean. [A Boolean operation

by Todd Sheridan Perry

combines two or more solid shapes (say A and B) by checking if a point x lies inside of each solid.]

To clarify, if you grab a poly in the middle of an object and push it into the object until it goes out the other side, you end up with a hole. The inside polys have been created. The verts have been welded. Nothing more to do.

And if you do it with a poly on the edge, the edge or corner will disappear. Or, if you extrude out and then extrude sideways adjacent to the surface, the verts will weld and you won’t have internal polys. If you understand all of that, you also realize how much of a timesaver this is.

Symmetry has been extended with some cool tools for creating symmetry not only on multiple axes, but you can also create symmetry radially — rather than across like a mirror.

Or even use the pivot of an external object as the axis of symmetry. These controls are also available in the extended slice modifier.

The Relax modifier is also smarter in that it will attempt to retain the volume of the object as it relaxes the edges.

The new 3ds Max release now has the ability to make floating windows from your viewports. And so you can throw a window to an external monitor and set it to the new presentation mode which will remove any gizmos and just show the high-quality Gl render — or you can swap to Arnold and have it do progressive rendering for a client or director in near real time.

By the way, if you haven’t downloaded Retopology Tools as a free extra for Max 2022, you should. The Mesh Cleaner to Subdivide to Re-

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topology workflow is kind of bananas.

As I mentioned, you get lots of useful stuff for the modelers. I am looking forward to seeing more additions for other departments in the future, as well. For those who, like me, want to see USD implementation in Max (like Maya), Autodesk does have a USD plugin for 3ds Max 2022 in beta as of this writing.

Website: www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max Price: $1,700 per year, $215 per month

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Nvidia RTX A6000

vidia has dropped the Quadro Pro moniker, but not the pro. The professional line of cards are now the RTX A series, and I’m looking at the RTX A6000 this month. The card came out earlier this year, but due to popularity compounded with raw material supplies issues and the boom in crypto mining, it took a little while to get my hands on one of these monsters.

The first thing to notice about the new card is the chassis design, with its fan arranged as a blower rather than the axial fan of, say, the RTX Titan. This blows heat out the back of the computer rather than into the case, which not only allows you to stack RTX A6000s next to each other (connected via NVLink), but it doesn’t throw the onus of cooling components to the system fans. The power input has been reduced to one CPU 8-pin connector — but not to worry, there is an adapter included for PCIe power.

Inside, you have the Turing architecture and the second-generation Ampere RT core. which doubles the performance. But, the eye-popping change is that you have 48GB of RAM on the card. As we’ve all learned, GPU acceleration is best when it can fit the scenes into RAM. The more RAM you have, the bigger the scenes you can handle.

In a use-case scenario, I took an older scene using V-Ray Next in 3ds Max which was rendering at 48 minutes per frame on the CPU and six minutes on a Titan with 24GB of RAM — and the A6000 chewed through frames in three minutes. Now, obviously, this is not a

completely controlled test and, by all measures, anecdotal — but, those are pretty darn good numbers. I’m suspecting some of it has to do with faster motion blur and denoising.

Yes, this is a comparatively expensive card when you look at the market. But, in order to bring your system to the RAM capacity and speed of the A6000, you are talking about putting a number of cards together, and it doesn’t take too long to get to that price point. That’s if you can even fit them in your case (or buy an external chassis).

On a side note, the Nvidia Omniverse (which really deserves its own review — maybe soon) works well with the A6000, and it is able to use Pixar’s USD format to render scenes and act as an easy interchange between various 3D packages.

Website: nvidia.com/en-us/design-visualization/rtx-a6000 Price: $4,650

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Boris FX’s Silhouette 2021

t wasn’t too long ago that I reviewed Silhouette when it was a standalone product that could be launched from within other host software like After Effects and Nuke. Silhouette 2021 builds on that earlier structure and adds in a number of new features and workflows as well.

Silhouette 2021 can now be launched as a plugin within the host, providing access to the Silhouette suite of roto and paint tools without going into the standalone version. This reduces resource overhead, but it also keeps things clean as you don’t have to bounce around between multiple interfaces. In larger studios, or multi-studio setups, the standalone files can be opened up within Nuke (for example). This

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means that a third-party roto and paint vendor could deliver the Silhouette files, rather than matte renders or spline exports, and if the work needs minor tweaks, the primary studio doesn’t have to send the work back for redos. There is even a free render plugin that can render the output of the Silhouette project if you don’t need access to the actual data.

The roto tools have had a number of key advances that make the workflow easier and more efficient. Points can be assigned to control groups, which can then be attached to hotkeys.

So, instead of grabbing varying points as you animate the shapes, you can quickly switch between the control groups. Or groups can be collapsed to a point for easy manipulation, but then expanded when the edges become more complex and you need more points again. Similarly, when shapes have to make abrupt changes, you can split them in the timeline so that earlier keyframes don’t get unnecessarily complex on frames you’ve already worked on.

Additionally, weighted multi-frame editing has been made more controllable by the ability to add keyframes when doing multi-frame editing and feathering the influence with ease in/ out curves. Also, a brush reshape tool gives you the ability to move roto points around using a brush, like you would use to paint. Adjusting the size and falloff of the brush refines how much influence you have on the points. All of the above roto tools are focused on reducing the clicks you have to make.

There are plenty more tools and UI enhancements — too long a list to get into here — but 2021 is definitely worth an update.

Website: borisfx.com/products/silhouette Price: $995 annual sub; $1,795 permanent license ◆ Todd Sheridan Perry is an award-winning VFX supervisor and digital artist whose credits include Black Panther, Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Christmas Chronicles. You can reach him at todd@teaspoonvfx.com.

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Courtesy of Weta Digital

Capturing Natasha Romanoff in Action VFX supervisor Geoffrey Baumann offers insights into crafting the eye-popping visuals for Black Widow, Marvel’s big summer blockbuster.

By Tom McLean

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mazing action and VFX wizardry is expected in any movie that bears the Marvel Studios brand, but incorporating those elements with a gritty spy story and family drama in Black Widow posed new challenges for veteran VFX supervisor Geoffrey Baumann.

“We’re always chasing the best story,” he says. “If it helps make the story better, even if it isn’t necessarily on the page — especially in an action sequence — it is likely to be adopted,” Baumann says.

Black Widow follows Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff from her youth living in Ohio with an undercover family of Russian agents in 1995 to just before Avengers: Infinity War, when a message from her former undercover sister, Yelena Belova, sets them on a path that reunites the “family“ and pits them against General Dreykov’s mind-controlling Red Room operation and the power-mimicking Taskmaster. The movie also stars Florence Pugh as Yelena, Rachel Weisz as Melina, David Harbour as Alexei, Ray Winstone as General Dreykov and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster.

‘I was excited that the film was going to have a different look to it, and also potentially be touching on some different human emotions, and not just be all about CG.’ — VFX supervisor Geoffrey Baumann

Courtesy of Outpost VFX

Grounding the MCU Magic

Director Cate Shortland — working from a screenplay by Eric Pearson and a story by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson — brought a grounded approach to the familiar super-heroic action of Black Widow, along with an emo-

tional family dynamic that sets it apart from previous Marvel movies.

“I was excited that the film was going to have a different look to it, and also potentially be touching on some different human emotions, and not just be all about CG,” says Baumann, whose previous Marvel VFX credits include

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Courtesy of Maere Studios

Flying into Action: Florence Pugh (Yelena) on set in a helicopter rig for Black Widow's avalanche rescue sequence.

Avengers, Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Doctor Strange and Black Panther. “I knew that it was going to be a challenge to find the balance Cate wanted … and yet, at the same time, find ways to be a part of the MCU as well.”

Achieving Shortland’s goals required close collaboration between department heads and a willingness to roll with the punches. Sometimes, changes can be frustrating for the amount of work that ends up being discarded, Baumann admits, but having everyone focused on the story makes the process easier.

“On this film, we were fortunate with Charlie Wood, our production designer; and Rob Inch, our stunt coordinator; DarrIn Prescott, our second-unit director — we had great collaborators to support changes and to be able to make adjustments,” he says.

A good example is an early chase sequence in which Yelena and Natasha clash with Taskmaster in a sequence that includes motorcycles, cars and rooftop battles in Budapest. “We did previz extensively to get the camera angles that Cate liked, the shots she wanted,” Baumann says. “The second-unit team would always try to get more, if they could, but at least they had a clear roadmap of what we wanted to achieve.”

The sequence was fleshed out in production, to ensure that the first-unit and second-unit footage could be combined seamlessly into the final version.

Natasha and Yelena breaking their undercover father, Alexei, out of a gulag-style Russian prison dominates the middle of the movie, and comes complete with helicopter rescue and an oncoming avalanche. Baumann says the gulag camp was set into plates shot on august 21

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location in Norway to achieve a realistic look.

“I try to always do that if I can,” he says. ”I always feel that if anything is sitting in a plate, it always feels a bit more real.”

The sequence, done by Weta Digital, originally wanted to time itself to how long a real avalanche in that location would take, Baumann says. But, again, story was the prime consideration. “We had to cheat a little bit once we cut into the story of it all,” he says.

Baumann says the sequence came to exemplify the movie’s family dynamic. “What was kind of fun is you ended up with Yelena in the helicopter, Natasha on the bridge and Alexei down at the bottom,” he says. ”And there was this interesting discourse that kind of still felt like family in the middle of an action scene.”

There also was good collaboration between VFX and the stunt department to ensure the footage — shot in multiple locations and sets — connected. “There was lots of inter-connective tissue that needed to be thought out ahead of time,” he says. “And I thought that all worked out pretty well and stayed pretty consistent to what we had initially envisioned.”

Countering Natasha and friends is Taskmaster, a technologically enhanced fighter who can mimic the powers and fighting styles of other characters. Baumann says they began work on the character by figuring out which styles the character would mimic, and that kept evolving through production.

They relied on a stunt performer who had worked on multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe productions and knew the moves that had been developed for characters like Captain America and Hawkeye. Motion cycles were captured with the performer both in and

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out of the Taskmaster costume, Baumann says. ”We would have him wear the entire costume and then basically go through different characters’ training regiments,” he says.

ILM took the lead on animating Taskmaster, with the work spread among pretty much all the major VFX vendors on the film, Baumann says. Facilities contributing to the VFX included Digital Domain 3.0, Scanline, Lola FX, SSVFX, Stereo D, Virtuos, Trixter, Cinesite, Rising Sun Pictures, Perception, Mammal Studios, Capital T, Cantina Creative and Exceptional Minds.

The movie’s final act — as with most Marvel movies, Baumann says — proved the most complicated, difficult and flexible of the entire project. In it, all the characters have assembled on Dreykov’s airborne Red Room base, which is damaged and begins to break up, with characters and debris in free fall during their final conflicts.

Baumann says the final sequences in Marvel productions are always given a little more leeway to deviate from the plan — as long as it serves the story. “Everyone else’s role is locked into place a little earlier than the visual effects, so that’s where we have a perceived ability to continually make changes,” he says.

“But our window closes just like everyone else’s does — just a little later.”

Finished from Home

The film was nearly complete when the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the film’s release for more than a year. That didn’t really translate into additional time for the VFX team, Baumann says. Final stages were mostly completed on home workstations, though Baumann was later able to see and evaluate the final phases on a big screen at a facility in Burbank.

The final film has 2,467 VFX shots in it, Baumann says. ILM had the most, with just over 700, followed by Weta Digital with 400. Baumann praised the work of Perception, a New York-based facility that he has worked with to create design interfaces and languages on multiple Marvel productions.

Baumann says he is glad Black Widow found early success with audiences who have welcomed it into the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe with its positive message about family. “I really appreciated that,” he says. “I enjoyed my collaboration with Cate, and I think that was probably one of the highlights of it for me.” ◆ Marvel’s Black Widow is currently streaming on Disney+ and select movie theaters.

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A Noble Quest How David Lowery’s The Green Knight was shaped by the digital wizardry of Weta Digital, Outpost and Maere Studios.

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ne of this summer’s more intriguing fantasies has an unlikely source of inspiration: the 14th century Middle English chivalric romance known as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, penned by an unknown writer. Filmmaker David Lowery’s (A Ghost Story) new movie The Green Knight tells the story of King Arthur’s headstrong nephew (portrayed

by Dev Patel) who embarks on a quest to confront the eponymous knight, a gigantic treelike creature. To bring the period and fantasy elements of the story to cinematic life, Lowery relied on the visual effects expertise of Weta Digital, Outpost VFX and Maere Studios.

“Our post-production time was eight months, and we worked on just over 200 shots with a small but efficient team,” explains Eric Saindon, VFX supervisor at Weta Digital. “David and [producer] Toby Halbrooks always set up their own

‘It was a relaxed, creative and collaborative show with quite a long turnaround time which is all too rare in our business. It gave us time to iterate and achieve the look that David was after with a tight-knit show team.’

— Outpost VFX supervisor David Sadler-Coppard

small post-production group for doing VFX shots and plate clean-up. We shared as many assets as possible to help them out and make sure we were not duplicating work. David is always able to sketch out informative storyboards, while [production designer] Jade Healy always puts together detailed reference packs and artwork to give us a clear idea of the look and feel of the movie.”

Saindon mentions that the critical part of the film was grounding the imagery in live-action plates. “Ireland has so much history and great lo-

cations for filming — with a few little visual effects enhancements to an old castle, it’s transformed into a medieval set. Because we were able to get good LiDAR scans of all the locations, camera tracks and set extensions were easily possible.”

Making Mr. Fox

In the movie, Gawain travels with a mythical fox that has the ability to speak. “David would send us videos where he walked through the

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shot, acting out ‘Mr. Fox’s’ staging complete with yips and barks,” says Weta’s animation supervisor Mike Cozens. “Through this method, David gave us a strong idea of the intent of each shot. We leaned on our motion edit team to source performance options from our library.

Once we had something that worked, they would select, stitch and edit the performance onto the uneven terrain of the shots.”

Cozens mentions that the production used a handful of strong animators to keyframe on top of the capture, as well as create some of the hero performances from scratch. “The animation team also created the facial performance for Mr. Fox,” he adds. “The goal for this character was to give David the foxiest, most realistic performance, and the dialogue had to be believable and seamless inside of that.”

A particular scene that went through an intensive look development process was the Valley of Giants. “It was staged in multiple different environments, including a deep fog, a valley surrounded by snowy mountains and a high desert,” reveals compositing supervisor Simon Jung. “We landed on the barren landscape because it seemed most appropriate for the mood we were trying to convey, and it also best reflects the desperation our main protagonist finds himself in at that point of the story. To get the proper perspective, a reshoot of the location in Ireland was required using drones at the correct altitude. We stitched the images together to create the enormous expanse necessary to stage the giants appropriately to their size. The DP [Andrew Droz Palermo] had shot the actors against greenscreen at a higher frame rate, which helped us to slow them down and give weight to their movements, but made tracking them to the ground trickier. On top of the standard depth-cueing, we also used height gradients to make them appear taller.”

Creating artistic effects for the production was quite a challenging task. “The medieval town and the fox were difficult, but known, visual effects problems,” notes Saindon. “The time-lapses and the more arthouse shots were more complicated.

Our saving grace was that Dave gave us the freedom to come up with ideas and bounce things back and forth with him and the rest of the creative team. The giants are a good example. Dev was shot on location, then plates of the giants in full makeup were shot on greenscreen at various angles and speeds. We took all the different elements, moved them around and generated a landscape that helped tell the story.”

Outpost VFX was responsible for producing 30 shots over a period of a couple months. “We embarked on quite a lot of research into different kinds of moss and lichen on a macro photography scale,” says VFX supervisor David Sadler-Copaugust 21

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pard. “We needed to understand their growth patterns and textures so that we could create a fairly accurate FX sim to make the moss grow out of the ground in a believable way. Beyond the work on snow and moss, we were tasked with DMP and exterior environment extensions to add a bit more drama to what was captured on locaArthurian Atmosphere: The Green Knight's VFX quest included creature animation, moody atmospherics and tion. These included adding visual drama to the Irish landcapes, adding mountain ranges to these dreamy landscapes that David had shot, as well as burning buildings and sky replacement in a few shots to add atmosphere. It’s a really striking film.”

Some of the shots required sky replacements as well. “We worked on several shots adding extra castles and walls into the “Either the sequence where the house slowly background to keep it feeling ‘old world’ and catches on fire in the background, or the sefaintly fantasy, but not too overtly,” notes quence where the moss grows out of the Green Sadler-Coppard. “David was also a big fan of at- Knight’s axe will be fun to see on the big mosphere, so we were always adding more fog, screen,” he offers. “It’s subtle work but utterly snow and cloud into the shots whenever we necessary for the narrative. It was a relaxed, could. Several of the shots we had to add snow to creative and collaborative show with quite a were shot on quite sunny days, so we had to re- long turnaround time which is all too rare in move all that lighting from the plate, then go in our business. It gave us time to iterate and and add the snow and fog afterwards. Matching achieve the look that David was after with a the lighting as closely as possible and using 2D tight-knit show team.”

The Green Knight provided the team at Weta elements such as rain, snow and smoke to blend everything together really helped to bed any Digital with the opportunity to exercise differDMP work into the shots. For this show, in partic- ent muscles. “Working on smaller, more artular, we would end up throwing away a lot of the house films like this is always so interesting,” DMP with depth hazing and fog.” states Saindon. “One memory that stands out is The visual effects had to withstand long shots. from the first day of shooting at a cave some“We had to add a large animated DMP to a shot where in the middle of Ireland. The cave was which was well over 1,000 feet long with a mov- way up the side of a hill, past a muddy paddock ing camera, changing focus and exposure and a long hike up a winding trail. As on most throughout and a lot of wind and snow in the smaller films, the crew all helped carry each plate,” recalls Sadler-Coppard. “There were so other’s gear up the hill. While hauling a case of many edges to consider and every time it was up lenses uphill, I met Dev Patel for the first time, for final we would spot another issue and then carrying another load. It really shows the coltake another half day to fix and re-submit again.” laborative spirit of the crew when the main cast is willing to pitch in with the heavy lifting.” ◆

Fires and Moss

Sadler-Coppard points out that two cinematic moments stood out for him along the way:

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The Green Knight is now playing in select theaters through A24.

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Opportunities

Autonomous Animator

By Martin Grebing

Porous and Versatile: SpongeBob SquarePants is one of many popular cartoon characters to be animated both in 2D and in 3D.

2D or Not 2D W

hen producing a movie, music video, commercial or personal project, and the decision to use animation within said production is made, how do you know which type of animation to choose? To oversimplify, animation can be split into two worlds: 2D and 3D, each designation referring to the number of dimensions used to produce the animation.

What Is 2D Animation?

Any hand-drawn, hand-painted Disney classic, from their 1937 debut masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to their final, traditionally cel-painted 1989 animated hit The Little Mermaid, are great examples of 2D animation. The wonderful and timeless movies of Hayao Miyazaki such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are other perfect examples of brilliant 2D artistry.

What makes these works of art 2D is the fact that they are hand-drawn and hand-painted on paper and cels which exist in two dimensions only – X and Y. Therefore, all of the animation is done on a completely flat surface.

There is no actual height or depth to the process, other than what may be implied by illustrating such qualities (or sometimes by laying foreground cels on top of background cels).

However, 2D animation reaches far beyond traditionally hand-drawn works. For example, computers have greatly expedited the 2D animation process and made it exponentially more efficient so artists are not required to painstakingly re-draw each character in totality for each frame. Rather, they can break down animated characters into pieces, akin to a digital puppet, and animate each body part individually. Characters, backgrounds and pieces of each can be reused from frame to frame without needing to re-draw each and every line, shape and color, over and over again,

x-number of times for a single second of finished animation.

Some examples of 2D computer-aided animation would be The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park and just about anything on Nickelodeon.

What Is 3D Animation?

If you take 2D animation and add another dimension to the process, you come up with 3D animation. Like the aforementioned 2D animation, 3D animation exists in X and Y — however, the new dimension of Z is added, providing depth. This allows the animator to visualize, move and warp objects or characters from any angle at any distance.

The term “3D animation” is most commonly used to describe the process of an animator using 3D software (such as Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, etc.) to model and animate objects and characters in a virtual 3D environment.

Of course, 3D animation has essentially taken over the worldwide box office since Pixar’s 1995 ground-breaking release Toy Story, and earned countless multi-billions of dollars across a dizzying array of debuts and sequels from multiple studios.

If you were to one-up 3D animation software, there is actual 3D animation where animators use real-world objects in real-world settings with real-world lighting. This is often referred to as “stop-motion” or “stop-frame,” where animators move objects and pose characters incrementally, quickly move off screen, and take a single snapshot of the scene. This process is repeated tens of thousands of times to make a feature-length stop-motion movie.

Examples of this style of animation are The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline and The Wrong Trousers.

While stop-motion does not typically fall

under the 3D animation umbrella, I propose a paradigm change or at minimum a new category: Real 3D — as you can’t get more 3D than actual, real-world objects.

Which Path to Take?

If you are looking for a hand-drawn, sketchy style of animation (think Disney’s The Rescuers or most anything by Chuck Jones), you’ll need to go the traditional, hand-drawn 2D route. Try as they may, the world’s greatest software developers have yet to create the perfect filter, app or plug-in to make 3D animation feel like organic, natural-looking, hand-drawn sketchy goodness. Some have come close, but there really is no substitute for the real thing.

If you are looking for more of a flat style with solid shapes, harkening back to the classic Sunday morning newspaper comics of yesteryear, (think Aqua Teen Hunger Force or The Casagrandes), 2D is still the way to go, but in this case it will be software-driven 2D animation as opposed to hand-drawn.

If you want the sparkle, shine and incredible detail of animated blockbuster movies such as Despicable Me and Frozen, 3D animation is the only way to go. It is literally impossible to add anywhere near this level of detail and fluidity of motion without a skilled team of animators using high-end 3D animation software.

With all of the options available, visual style should be the primary consideration.

The number of dimensions you use to produce your animation doesn’t really matter because, once finished, it will ultimately be viewed as a two-dimensional work of art on a flat screen. ◆ Martin Grebing is the president of Funnybone Animation Studios. He can be reached via funnyboneanimation.com.

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A D ay I n T he L ife This month, we caught up with talented Montreal-based Framestore animation wiz Loïc Mireault. Over the past eight years, he has honed his trademark skills for character posing on a variety of creatures. Mireault recently delivered Flora & Ulysses for Disney+ and His Dark Materials Season 1 for HBO/BBC, and is currently working on Fantastic Beasts 3 for Warner Bros.

1 The usual morning wake up scene.

2 My favorite colleague is already waiting for me at my desk. Very needy colleague though ... always looking for attention!

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I like starting the day with dailies, setting the tone and the goals of the day, and it’s always nice to see my colleagues’ faces! I love working from home, but I have to admit that I miss the social part of working at the office.

After enjoying a delicious coffee in my daughter’s favorite dinosaur mug, I’m ready to start the day!

5 Always good to take a small break and stalk the neighbors!

I love my standing desk. It’s my best purchase of the year.

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…And then bother the cat.

9 My cat Dobby definitely has separation anxiety.

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After my daughter’s bath and a good shower, it’s time to read a good story before bed.

This one is a book about climbing! www.animationmagazine.net

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