After spending two days at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, you begin to wrap your head around what goes into creating, developing, producing, designing, animating, composing, mixing and editing a movie. In the new Disney*Pixar animated movie The Good Dinosaur, the animators, the producers and its director, Peter Sohn; ask the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?
Once the question was asked, it was up to all these people to try to tell their answer through an 11-year old Apatosaurus dinosaur named Arlo (voice of Raymond Ochoa) and his unlikely human friend, Spot. I was able to preview 30 minutes of the movie and let me just say, I cannot wait for Thanksgiving. And this is why? Well, The Good Dinosaur hits theaters on Thanksgiving and I honestly cannot wait to see the rest of Arlo’s & Spot’s story.
Production Designer Harley Jessup
Okay, going back to the story, Arlo is the last of his family to hatch and since he was born he has been scared of the world. After a series of events, Arlo ends up falling in the river and swept away from his family. Arlo finds himself alone, in the wilderness and hundreds of miles away from home. While traveling through this harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of. Ultimately, this story is about a boy (Arlo) and his human dog (Spot). Spot is the total opposite of Arlo, he is brave, confident, and tenacious with a great survival instinct. But what went on behind the scenes to create this grand world and the dinosaurs themselves. We had the time to speak to Harley Jessup, he is the production designer for The Good Dinosaur, and he got to help create the bigger than life character we see in the film.
A Behind-The-Scenes Look from The Good Dinosaur Production Designer & Animators
#GoodDinoEvent
Through speaking with Mr. Harley, we got to learned how these dinosaur, that have been extinct for hundred of thousands of years, got to be created. He explained, how Arlo evolved from an actual Apatosaurus dinosaur and into a more stylized version. If you are thinking how long does it take to get the dinosaurs and their environment from the first sketch to the final version. Mr. Harley explained, that through research and development it can take up to five years! Just imagine 5 years of getting every aspect of the movie correct. UFF!
One interesting fact that goes into creating these characters is, how they go from wire armature, shaping the character’s features with clay to moving into digital design. Mr. Harley, explained how Spot was rather difficult to characterize, since Spot walks on all fours and runs like a dog. Another interesting fact is that you have to create everything you see on the screen, from the grandeur, open spaces, to the building materials the dinosaur used for their houses had to be created by the art department. As I said before, once the characters are created it is time to get them digitize and animated, this is the job animators.
Animator Kevin O’Hara
To understand how this process occurred, we got to speak to animator Kevin O’Hara and supervising director Rob Thompson. Animated films are stunning to see, but everything you see in the film has to be digitally created one frame at a time. To animate the dinosaurs in the film and since dinosaurs are no longer around to be researched, animators had to look else where to be able to animate their walk and movement. The animators visited local zoo and studied elephant the elegant locomotion they have.
Animator Rob Thompson
Research is the key word in creating this vast world and unique characters. In order to accurately depict mountains, flat lands and the river, several research trips were taken to understand how weather, seasons, and the terrain is affected. Animators also got to act like the characters they were creating and are reminded of their characters each time they enter their work place. As you enter Pixar Animation Studio lobby, Arlo’s banner is actual size, about 18 feet tall. Pretty neat, right?
Now, next time you see an animated movie, you can know what goes on behind the scenes. A little hint: when you are watching The Good Dinosaur, look for the scene where Arlo is going up a mountain. That scene is about 21 seconds long and it took about a month to animate! 🙂
The Good Dinosaur opens in theaters on November 25, 2015. Stay tuned for more The Good Dinosaur adventures. In the mean time check out the following The Good Dinosaur clips.
The Good Dinosaur Official US Trailer 2
The Good Dinosaur – Official US Trailer
Disclosure: I was provided an all expense paid trip to San Francisco to attend the #GoodDinoEvent, #MilesEvent, #Waltagram, and #InsideOutBloggers events. No additional compensation was received. I was provided with the information in this post by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.