Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1120864
gets angry. As the snow comes in, the scene is blanketed with white, and the battle takes place in a blaze of reds. In developing the style for this period in time, we took from many places—1950's movies, Sears catalogs, the Saturday Evening Post. I collected photos of Maine in the winter and autumn to get those beautiful changing of season colors. All backgrounds were painted traditionally; in addition, I actually started to use the computer on the job. At Warner Classics, I had spent months painting bullseyes to learn air brushing. Now, I was painting clouds to learn PhotoShop. I worked back and forth with the layout and background departments. It was wonderful working with both Bill Frake (Head of Layout) and Dennis Venizelos (Head of Background). The real challenge was having to impart color direction and style ideas to the department's crew. Coming from small department at Warner Classics, I had never overseen that many people before. This film was a lesson in how to work with many people and keep it moving forward. Every day, I would go around to each department. I have always felt that to get the best out of an artist, you must let them have a voice. It's a balancing act. You want the overall look to be unified but you still want everybody to be able to bring what they have to say to the table. We had reviews continuously. A lot of those times I was with Brad. I truly felt that if I could get the look to 85 percent, Brad would take it to the finish. You just knew this was a special film to be a part of. The talent I was surrounded by was incredible. To have taken a leap into a different world and help make something beautiful and memorable was most gratifying. I truly grew from the whole experience. It's just one of the greatest gifts of my career. F E AT U R E above: One of Bodner's paintings setting the mood; (right) an example of the color script. "To have taken a leap into a different world and help make something beautiful and memorable was most gratifying. I truly grew from the whole experience." SEQ 12 POWER STATION COLOR SCRIPT COLOR KEYS 36 KEYFRAME