What I’ve been up to lately

Wonder why I’ve been a bit quiet lateley?
I’ve been busy working on the first Dutch 3D animated/mocap movie, “Sprookjesboom de Film”.
As a mocap supervisor and tool/pipeline developer.

In theatres in Holland/Belgium end of February

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 Ranting

5 Comments to What I’ve been up to lately

  • zs says:

    Oh man, you guys have such excellent graphical artists/illustrators/bd-artists in those parts of the world… and you (well, not you personally, but the studio…so… ‘they’) make a film that tries to imitate Disney-big-budget productions… but with almost no budget and inexperienced 3d people. It’s such a pity you guys don’t use the talent that you have and you don’t find a stylized look that would be doable within the limitations. Cute cheap stuff can be done on a small budget. Disney imitations on a small budget though… so many people/studios keep trying like maniacs and fail miserably. I don’t understand why it is that people are obsessed with making 3d that looks clean/polished/pixarish… when there is a wealth of visual imagery that can inspire filmmakers and endless ways of stylizing, and making smart 3d that actually might have a chance to look good. Imitating Disney/Pixar without the resources that those guys have…. one of the worst ideas in animation history 😀

    • brekel says:

      So very glad you brought that up as I actually totally agree with you.

      Unfortunately hardly anyone in the west sees (3D) animation as anything more than the cute pixar-like style you mention. That includes the majority of the audience as well as the people with money to produce it.
      Seems like you need to get into anime to get some well needed diversity.

      For example, where is the first 3D horror movie, documentary or drama?

      Pixar films stopped being interesting and creative after the 2nd half of Wall-E.

      Unfortunately we have to work as a business and if people aren’t willing to pay for “non-Pixar style” animation the choice is to do it art-style with no money on your own, or make something the client wants to pay for and find some enjoyment in creating that.
      Which for me is the technical side of it.

      Keep in mind this production was done with about 6 3D people fulltime in the timespan of about 1.5 years, so this is really low budget. Which brings me to why I enjoy this…..
      Trying to be clever on the technical and production side of things to make it possible.

      • zs says:

        yeap, and congrats to you guys, you really did a good job within the budget limitations! but about design… I’m sure things are about to change, there will be more diversity in genres and visual styles, even in american feature animation. you know the Gruffalo I’m sure, now… that, I think, is a very viable solution for simplified-ish and very cute design that can work very well for a feature. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is also quite heavily stylized, and it’s mainstream US stuff. also, of course, there are countless visual styles that would work for a feature, and be very successfully doable in 3D (I mean… unlike the Disney thing which really needs budget to be successful), you just have to be skillful enough to convince the producers. If you give them impressive visual samples and a solid story maybe?… 😛 I’ve no idea how this works anyway, but it takes someone with guts and vision to convince these clients I guess 😀 And if the client is not cooperating…. you find another 😀 The bottom-line is that if the film is good, at the end of the day, it will stand a chance to convince people, but you need solid vision and commitment for that 😀 and an experienced 3D team anyway, and probably a lot of luck 😉

        • brekel says:

          Again I fully agree 🙂
          And funny you mention “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs”, that film marked the period where I started liking Sony Picture Animation much more than Pixar, as indeed it was a much fresher style.

          The project I showed was a bit special as the design style was already laid down as it is tied to the graphics style of characters in an amusement park. And I know for a fact the art director is a huge fan of the Disney style unfortunately.

          But we’ve been pushing for other styles for other projects, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

  • ehsan_j says:

    wowwwwwwwwwww !!!… so nice…

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