Sunday, November 12, 2006

A closer look at OTH



I thought I'd post some screen caps of some of the scenes I animated.

This is SQ 1631.

These were the first shots I received when I started on Over the Hedge. It was about 9 shots in total. I might have some thumb-nail drawings for this scene and when I find it I'll post it. If you've ever seen the trailer from the film you might remember the shot of RJ smiling with his can of chips. They froze on it and put Bruce Willis's name next to his head.

These shots were VERY technically challenging and it took awhile for everything to work right. As you can see, there's a wagon, and a lawn chair attached to it, AND a sac full of boxed goodies, AND a propane tank, AND a little turtle attached to that tank, AND a chain attached to the wagon, AND a Raccoon attached to that chain. AND you have to move everything to make it believable! No chain computer simulation either! We all had to move that darn chain! Animation is tough boys and girls....believe me. But all you have to do is load up on your animation passion pills and you'll make it through!

But with all these technical hurdles you still have to remember what's most important. What is the character thinking and why is he thinking that way? You have to dig deep and think about how RJ reacts to catching that can of chips. What does that can represent? It represents his life. If he doesn't give that can to Vincent the bear, he'll be eaten alive. So when he hugs that can close...he's thinking relief....his life is saved. Then we establish an obstacle, the slide. His life is in danger again. And when he screams....well, he's just thinking. Oh Shit!





























VERNE: " OH BOY!"
















5 comments:

samacleod said...

Wow, beautiful smoke fx.

It's kinda neat how you can scroll down and see it animate kinda.

Anonymous said...

do you shape the eyes seperately in there as well? or is it some software driven script that does it? becasue I felt that on some frames the eye isn't maintaining volume, of course, when seen in motion it wouldn't even be noticable.

nice job on the chain as well, i can imagine how difficult it should have been to get it to move believably.

Anonymous said...

These shots get a huge laugh every
time - that image of RJ holding
the chips is everywhere- including
a larger-than-life poster someone
made on their own down in the KFP corner of Lakeside. Nice work Cap'n!

Jeremy Bernstein said...

Macleod- Thanks bud. I worked hard on that smoke fx...it took me all night to write the script for it......not!

Anonymous- Why "anonymous"?? Who are we hiding from? How about I just make up your name? I like George. Hi George, thanks for the comments. I did shape the eyes of RJ the raccoon in those shots.And NO the computer software did not choose those shapes. Yes, of course it doesn't maintain volume because I chose those shapes specifically for the scene. Most of those wierd shapes are on "one's" and are used for stretch and squash and to just make the face more alive.
Hope that's clear George.

Ben- I just went down to the KFP corner and saw the poster of that shot! How cool is that? I never knew it was down there.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations for your job! Mi son loves draw and draw when he's watching movies like this. We live in Uruguay, South America and he dreams to create one day characters like dreamworks movies. I don't know the future ...but I enjoy a lot his characters!
Kisses Tadeo (five years old) and Nadia (his mum)