The Sorcerer's Apprentice

So way back in December to mid June I worked on the film "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". I worked mostly on the Fantasia sequence (mops and sponges) and some of the end sequence of the movie at Double Negative in London.

On Sunday I was invited to a special Disney screening at Londons Vue Cinema in the Westend. To finally see the fully finished film way before it comes out in August is thanks to a kind lady at Disney who knew I worked it. And yes my name is on the credits as proof - ok you first have to let 2000 names roll past to get to mine :)

I took my sister and nephew to the screening too, and they both really enjoyed it. It is very fast paced at times and there are a number of big money shots and a few are over rather quickly sadly. So you don't get time to fully enjoy the big VFX. But then if every moment of VFX magic had 10 minutes or so each, perhaps the film would never end... There is just so many VFX moments in this film it can't not disappoint you from that perspective. The story on a whole is very Disney. - the good taking care of evil. There is a love story or two in the film. But its not too over powering that it distracts you from all the action that takes place in the rest of the movie.

The film over all is purely about the "magic" (VFX). There are so many VFX shots and magical things happening, you are constantly wondering what possibly is going to happen next. A very good film for the summer and the kids. It will be out in all Cinemas from August 11th.

I have found a cool Disney video that shows most of the Fantasia Sequence. There are a number of shots in the clip that I worked on. I will post times later on :)

*Update*

Shots I worked on are as follows:

• 1:38 -1:43 - Three shots in a row of all chose taking place
• 1:53 -1:55 - Mops jumping stairs jumping onto Dave's back
• 1:56 -1:58 - Mop tentacle moving across Dave's shoulders
• 2:02 - 2:04 - Mop mass jumping screen left, hiding in case being seen

There are more shots in the full Fantasia sequence of the film that aren't present here. It is finally nice to be able to show people some of the shots I worked on for this movie. :)

Toy Story 3 - Round-up

On Saturday I and a host of AMers all piled into the London ODEON Cinema to watch Toy Story 3. For me the best character in the entire movie is Ken voiced by Michael Keaton. Ken has a number of moments in the film which are so funny. I would have loved to have animated some of them shots.

I won't say to much here about the movie as it can be very easy to spoil it. But I did feel the movie dragged just a little at Sunny Side. There is so much going on in TS3 that you are easily entertained and pleased to see the old character back on screen. Even the old toys you possibly once played with as a child. I did in fact have one of them fisher price phones

TS3 has gone all out on technological front. The fur on the bear when it comes into contact with water. The number of models and different sets/locations in the movie. The fact that every character has imperfections like dirt, scratches and blemishes, there is an amazing amount of attention to detail gone into this film. I think old Walt would be pleased that his ideas of pushing things and constantly challenging technology is still being carried on today in his films.

Over all the film is very good and I can't honestly say which Toy Story film is better as they all different.

How To Train Your Dragon - An IMAX 3D Experience

Well on the 27th of March a huge mass of Animation Mentor (AM) students and Alumni :P (around 25) descended on London's BFI cinema for the IMAX screening of "How to Train Your Dragon" by Dreamworks.

Have to say its one of the best films Dreamworks has made to date. A decent story with no stupid jokes or very predictable ones just randomly thrown in (ok there was one or two). The characters, the look and the effort that has going into this film has clearly been well thought out. The animation, like you would expect was fantastic. If this had been a live action movie with CG vfx I don't think some of the voice actors would have come up to par with their acting ability, to match the amazing animation (acting in CG) that was put into this film. Its a shame that animators don't get similar treatment like actors or pay for that matter, or even the royalties for repeat showings of the movie.....

Voice casting was good too although it was strange how the older Vikings had very broad Scottish accents and the young kids had very American accents!!!!! Apart from that, over all the film was fun and easy to follow.

Not one AM student could find fault or disliked the movie, well done Dreamworks and all the people who worked on it :)

Toy Story 2 in 3D

On Thursday 14th of January I saw Toy Story 2 in the 3D and it was great to see on the big screen again, even more so in 3D. To think this film is around 10 years old and yet for me it is still a fantastic film to watch. The 3D element is nice, it adds a nice depth of field to the shots, nothing springs out the screen, but to experience the movie again in the cinema was really nice :)

Highly recommend seeing it :D

Special Princess and the Frog Screening @ Disney HQ London!!!

On Tuesday the 8th of December I and five of my fellow animators had the pleasure of being asked to attend a very special screening at Disney HQ in London for "The Princess and the Frog".

I have to say that I think Disney have their Mojo back and ok it had a number of clichés and a tip of the hat to the old Disney films (which I have no problem with). But in all I think they have made a truly fantastic film here. I think they captured the mood and the era really well. I love 1920's /1930's Art Deco style and the jazz music from them times. Oddly I have always found jazz music seems to go well with animation! Must be because they use to animate on 8's and 4's a lot back then haha who knows!

Vocal talent in the movie? oh boy they really went to town on getting the most out of their actors for this movie. The animators used every chance they could to make these characters feel alive. So nice to see squash and stretch in the their performances and faces. To think no technical problems and deformers to tweak, no cloth simulations to worry about and no rendering times!!! Just pure hardcore pencil and paper and the loss of million trees - I wonder what the carbon foot print would be for this film?

I will have to buy a copy of the Art of Book for this film as the Art Direction was very pleasing to watch and the use of colour really helped set the tone and mood of the picture. Colour really was another character in its self, but that could be me getting very arty farty.

From an animation point of view, for me it ticks all the box's of a good and well animated film with solid characters and well thought out story. From a family/average film goer point of view I think Disney managed to make this film not become too much of a girly film. The story hits all the morals in a classic old Disney fashion. I feel this film will do well with audiences, and I wish it every success.For me I can see a lot of hard work and planning has going into this film.

Thank goodness 2D is back, John Lasseter really knows his beans when it comes to animated movies, storytelling and making bold choices - like bring back 2D animation. I just wish I could be amazing with a pencil!!! Perhaps then I may have been given the opportunity to have worked on this incredible film. :)

Quote from the film "It's not slime, it's mucus!!!" - I wonder if that could be a new tag line?

My friend Fiona (who you see in the picture below) also did a review on the film which you can read on her blog here.