Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475662
42 KEYFRAME F I N A L N O T E The story of Lewis, a 12-year-old inventor who time travels into the future with a mysterious teenager named Wilbur Robinson, 2007's Meet the Robinsons was Walt Disney Animation Studios' first movie to use CG to animate human characters. "Humans are always a challenge. We know how humans are supposed to move physically, and in animation we are always trying to caricature areas like posing, timing, and spacing. [So] this was all new territory for us," says Amy Smeed, a current Head of Animation who worked then as an animator on the film. The newness of CG animation entailed a big learning curve on the movie as the studio transitioned, teaching CG to some of its 2D animators. "For someone like me, that meant I was able to learn from some of the masters like Nik Ranieri, Dale Baer, and Ruben Aquino," says Smeed. "They were pushing on us to really think about silhouette value in our poses as well as the other principals of animation." Using IK Rigs helped the animators with squash and stretch, as well as smear frames, but technology isn't the main component that contributes to the movie's longevity. Smeed feels it has to do with the balance of entertainment and sincerity. "There are a wide variety of unique characters and personalities that add a lot of specificity and humor," she says. On top of this, she adds: "We see the feelings of a young boy wishing to be adopted and wanting to go back into his past to meet his mother … I always get emotional when I see the scene of Lewis watching his mother drop him off at the orphanage. It's a movie where the audience can laugh throughout, but you also get the emotion and sincerity of the characters." NEW TERRITORY AS MEET THE ROBINSONS HITS ITS 15-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, TAG MEMBER AMY SMEED REFLECTS ON WORKING IN WHAT WAS THEN THE NEW WORLD OF CG ANIMATION. Image courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios.