December 22, 2004
-
Just got back from seeing the EL VEZ MERRY MEX-MAS SHOW at the Knitting Factory. Some favorites: A disco rendition of Donde Esta Santa Claus; A Chicano Charlie Brown’s Christmas; Esta Bien Mamacita (“It’s alright, Mama” en español)… Very camp & trashy Christmas fun with lots of sparkly costume changes!
Tomorrow night: BOWLING at All-Star Lanes!
Ward Jenkins from Ward-O-Matic does some Photoshop retouching to Polar Express stills in The Polar Express: A Virtual Train Wreck (The Conclusion). An example from Ward’s blog:
BEFORE
“…He looks so vapid. The one thing that I noticed in the movie, was that it seemed like they wanted to light Hero Boy’s eyes with such intensity that we would be in constant awe of them. But in reality, they looked like doll eyes…”AFTER
“I softened the intensity of his irises and pupils by adding a little bit of shadow just underneath the upper eyelid. Also, I widened his mouth, and again, tweaked his eyebrows.”I don’t remember which animator gave me this advice, but it has always stayed with me when drawing characters: When you look at a character (or live person) the first thing you look at, before anything else, is at the eyes. The eyes are the emotion and soul of a living character. When creating a believable character, if you get the eyes right (and that includes eyebrows), you’re halfway there.
Amazing that something so essential like this was lost on the PE’s character designers/animators.
Related links: Here’s Part 1 of Ward’s Polar Express: A Virtual Train Wreck. Tool Time at Pixar confirms that it’s as much the ’drawing’ as the technology, that gives the characters so much life in The Incredibles.
