00:00Hey, my name is Chris Evans. I'm one of the TDs here at Omation.
00:07I've been animating for about seven years, and I've got to say, I've never worked in a place like this.
00:22The process is pretty simple. You start with the script, and then you record the actors' voices.
00:31And then you start crafting with hand-drawn storyboards.
00:39You start crafting what it's going to look like.
00:44See? On time, just like I said...
00:49That's the animator's guide to starting to build the physical performance.
00:55And in this movie, we had a lot of characters. There was probably over 200 characters designed.
01:02I would say, actually, that made it into the movie, there was about 165.
01:06Creating a character does start off with still 2D, still drawing and sketches.
01:10What the director has in his mind, he tries to tell the artist, and they'll put it on paper.
01:17And then it's the job of the modeler to take that and bring it into the computer world.
01:22And they'll usually have, they'll come up with model sheets, so they have different views, profile views of the character, like, you know, from the side or the front.
01:31So the modeler can then know what it looks like from different angles.
01:34And then they'll start modeling it in the computer, pulling points, trying to get it to match up to the drawing.
01:39And then that'll go through several approvals, back and forth.
01:48Here are the ones we don't like.
01:54I think these are both great, and I don't think we need any more of this.
01:57I come in and I start getting my hands in there and trying to establish what they could look like.
02:00And I offer, usually, depending on the character, two to three options to the director.
02:06And then we look at it, opens discussion.
02:09A lot of times, sometimes it'll be something that'll be approved on the spot.
02:13Sometimes I have to go back to the drawing board and then revisit some revisions.
02:17Here you're seeing the initial model, which was grayed out.
02:21And I've gone in and actually painted where we could have hair.
02:25This is showing us different color variations on the eye.
02:27At the time, one was to be cataract and the other one to be just normal.
02:33So basically, you know, there's some different hues that we were looking at.
02:36Well, this is Danny Glover's character in the movie Miles.
02:40So you have your actual model on the bottom.
02:42And then I obviously brought his photograph in.
02:44And one of the things I noticed is that he likes to keep a little stubble
02:48and try to incorporate that into his character.
02:50So that is there.
02:52I did try a gold tooth, which did not get approved.
02:55Well, we had 109 versions of Otis.
03:00And it wasn't frustrating for anybody by no means.
03:03We knew that was going to happen.
03:04Yes, Steve was very, very involved.
03:07All the main characters were like that, every single one of them.
03:11Cabbage Patch is a pretty important scene in the film, although short.
03:14I wanted to convey beauty and really elegant shots.
03:19So I did a lot of research on the way of ground and skies and colors and what was going to really sell that.
03:26In the way of the junkyard, I actually pulled a lot of the crew and we went to several junkyards, which was very interesting.
03:34A lot of great things came out of it.
03:37And then it was a matter of just starting to create, trying to come up with a style that we felt hadn't been done in CG before.
03:47It's a very curvy, round location, which goes well with the characters.
03:52Whereas if you look at a lot of other CG films, it's more architectural.
03:58And we even tried to take the square architectural stuff out of the buildings.
04:03The buildings have little warp to them, little wonkiness, what we call wonkiness in the industry, where lines, instead of going like that, they've got some curves to it.
04:11Then you've got the props, and props generally are things like cars or anything that a character touches, picks up.
04:19So anything else that has to move within the set, within the environment, that all has to be created.
04:30The basic role of the animation supervisor on a 3D film is to work with the animators in a given sequence
04:37and to sort of capture the performance that the director wants on a scene-for-scene basis.
04:44It would probably be more dynamic if he ran right towards it.
04:46He leapt towards camera, he could leap right out, woo!
04:49You know, right off the scene, trying to move, we just see him leap out.
04:57To begin the sequence, we'll sit down with the sequence first,
05:01and we'll go through it and decide which animators would be best for what shot will cast them, based on their talents.
05:07And, um, to go through that, then get your animators together, go through it with Steve,
05:13he'll tell you what he's looking for.
05:15More specifically, he'll know, like for this one, he wanted Otis to really be, like, off-balance.
05:22And so, you'd show it to him, he'd be like, no, more.
05:25It'll be funnier if he's more off-balance.
05:28You know, so the animators will go back and put that in.
05:30One of the biggest challenges as an animator is to, to convey the proper feeling that the director wants.
05:37You know, if there's a scene, you know, where something happened to someone,
05:41you really need the character to, you really, you need to convey to the audience that,
05:46you know, this is a sad moment, it's a touching moment, you want the audience to feel something.
05:49There's one scene where Daisy and, uh, Otis are lying down on these, uh, uh, Shae's lounge chairs.
05:59And it's just the subtlety of the eye blinks, the, the way he moves his eyebrows.
06:04Those are the ones that are so tough to do, but if they're believable, you forget you're looking at an animated cow.
06:10And I think there's a lot of that in this movie.
06:14Everybody cross the land and gather around.
06:17You're two steps when the sun goes down.
06:19Even telephone from the county seat.
06:21Two steps in the...
06:23The way the motion capture system works is we suit up the capture subject that we're going to be capturing
06:28with a Lycra suit and we attach the, to that, uh, these hyperreflective markers.
06:33The way these work are much the same way as street signs or the reflective material you get in some sports clothes.
06:38The cameras have got little red circles around them which shine out light, which these markers reflect back.
06:43the, the way this placeouvertes reflect back.
06:47.
06:53.
07:08There's so much that has to be decided that ultimately that's why I think if you can get
07:29a base of what the what the general goal is look-wise it allows everyone to be creative
07:34within that you know within that context so having having this goal of a living storybook
07:41allows everybody to put their spin on it and come up with their own specifics so when
07:44it comes to approval time you know for the most part I'm already looking at something
07:49that's in line with what the the common goal is here we go we're going to the other building
07:57because one one large building is not enough to house the talent that we have on this
08:04picture
08:06quick game of fake foos every day
08:10well well well look what we have here
08:16this may be a bad idea but eliminate his hands
08:23I mean I said it may not be the best idea but I think we I think it's important we throw
08:29it out there
08:31just that scene
08:33yeah the problem is gone it might create a new one
08:37interacting with steve-o is a is a is definitely a fun time it's uh you know it's
08:44he's a great uh piece of reference in terms of just uh performance and things like that
08:49he is uh he I mean he's a funny guy so we have a and this is a funny film so several of the
08:55scenes and things like that if uh if he wanted to say oh this is exactly how Freddy should do
08:59this weird thing he'll just get up and do it and after you know several minutes of laughter
09:04and whatnot you sort of uh sort of get back to um okay so this is how we should be this is how
09:11he should behave here or whatever but uh but yeah it's definitely a good time because uh you
09:16know he keeps it he keeps it entertaining as well as work
09:21I like to tip the crew
09:23whenever somebody does a really good shot it's like
09:27the technology's gotten to a point where it's it's a lot better for an artist
09:32it's a lot easier for an artist because you're a lot earlier on you're always fighting the
09:37technology which takes away some of your your creative juices you're always getting frustrated
09:42by technology and not being able to put out there what you want to based upon the limitations
09:47of that technology now it's to a point where um if you have a crazy idea in your head it's
09:55it's it's becoming a lot simpler to be able to to animate that in the computer
10:00well I started my career in 2D and and when I first entered 3D I'm blown away what we can do now
10:05and so yeah I mean it's it's endless and the amount of uh people that are able to get involved
10:11in 3D even is is great because you know early on it was a pretty selected view and very very expensive
10:17I think it's a performance thing I I think the enjoyment of animation is sort of in creating a performance
10:24and sort of bringing things to life that you otherwise wouldn't be able to in your own way
10:31and what you can lend to a scene and it's a little part of yourself when you're animating a scene
10:36it's sort of like you it's it's almost as if you're putting yourself on the screen and that's
10:41and when it when you're happy with it if it comes together it's pretty rewarding it's like uh it's
10:47like having a baby that's there's no other way to describe it because when you see it all come together
10:52textured and I mean it doesn't even have to be moving you know the first time you see it you're
10:58like yes when people without being judged or oh I think this could be better it's really more of a
11:04question of can you can you raise that what would we do to make it better I think the best part of
11:10people just clicks in and it gets more exciting because then you're you're playing in this this
11:15land of well it's already really good but is there something else you know
11:19back to work back to work
11:23let's go go go go go go
11:28the surf culture here in San Clemente and lower trestles especially which is one of the best surf spots in
11:38America makes this a truly amazing place to work I surf every day it's been just a wonderful way to
