Disney’s Planes will open in US theaters in 3D August 9, 2013, however while I was in L.A for the premiere of Monsters University, which you can read all about it here, my fellow classmates and I had the pleasure of visiting DisneyToon Studios in Burbank. During the next couple of weeks I will tell you more about it in details, today I want to tell you what I learned during our session with Assistant Animation Director Ethan Hurd.
Have you ever wonder how many hours, weeks or even years it takes to make an animated film? Many of my favorite movies are Disney classics, who doesn’t love Beauty & the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and/or Aladdin? As I learned, today’s film standards haven’t changed that much through the years. Of course animators now have many tools that pioneer animator did not have, such as computers and computer graphic programs. As children we all love to doodle, paint and color, many of us loose those abilities as adults and others make careers out of it. One of these professional animators was our teacher for the day, Ethan. As soon as you met Ethan you can see how much he LOVES his career, Ethan can actually timeline his life through Disney films, his passion began after he saw Toy Story and instantly knew he wanted to become an animator. Since graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Ethan has worked in many, many Disney films our children love and adore, such as Toy Story 2. Ethan just finished working on the upcoming Disney movie Planes and this is where all of our learning began.
An animated film, such as Disney’s Planes, is a complex process, it takes one to two years to complete a film storyboards, storyboards are basically black and white drawings of the entire film. After this process is complete it goes to the animation department. The animation department together with the film’s director determine the scenes, characters and details. Once that is determine the black and white storyboards are loaded into MAYA 3D Animation software, which brings the characters into a 3D world, where animators can begin animating, modeling, simulation, rendering, and manipulating all the film’s characteristics. Just as the storyboard process takes 1 to 2 years, the animation process takes a long time. Two seconds of animation can take up to seven days to animate, you can image how long the entire movie takes to make. Today’s film standard is 24 frames per second, I don’t even want to think how many frames are in total in a completed film. I asked Ethan if he unconsciously or consciously has to mouth each character expressions and words to input those same movements into MAYA. Ethan’s reply is that, he often relies on previously recorded videos of the casts recording their voice overs, other times he does the stand-ins to captures the character’s details. This process is so incredible and honestly overwhelming, just imagine all those details we don’t pay attention to but these animators have to, their work is what bring a 2D drawing into a 3D image and therefore into life. What do you think? Do you know anyone who loves to draw? Please joined me in the next couple of weeks to explore more on this film making process, see you next time. 🙂
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Synopsis: From above the world of “Cars” comes “Disney’s Planes,” an action-packed 3D animated comedy adventure featuring Dusty (voice of Dane Cook), a plane with dreams of competing as a high-flying air racer. But Dusty’s not exactly built for racing—and he happens to be afraid of heights. So he turns to a seasoned naval aviator who helps Dusty qualify to take on the defending champ of the race circuit. Dusty’s courage is put to the ultimate test as he aims to reach heights he never dreamed possible, giving a spellbound world the inspiration to soar. “Disney’s Planes” takes off in theaters on Aug. 9, 2013.
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Disclosure: I was provided with an all expense paid trip to L.A to facilitate the review of Monsters University, no additional compensation was received. I was provided with the information in this post by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.