Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1490572
And so, while Guy was able to quickly get us pointed in the right direction, I continued on site with the main unit for an additional two years of production and helped the teams in Portland, Guadalajara and the UK interpret and sort out the little stuff. Looping Guy in for guidance, I also worked with Illustrator Jesse Gregg and color designer Jenn Ely to flesh out additional locations as the story evolved and to fine-tune the color story. We also laid the groundwork for the digital extensions and effects by Toronto's MPC that helped complete our world. Having worked with probably eighty percent of the fabrication team on other stop-motion productions, I had a connection to Art Director Rob DeSue and the team of artists who developed the look of our approximately 1/6th-ish scale world and hand crafted every bit of it. Even the dirt isn't free. It may be a bit of cliché to say it was an honour to support Guillermo del Toro's singular vision, but I remember seeing some of the early illustrations from the Gris Grimley era and the rumors of the film going into production in 2008/2009. I was mesmerized and excited. I thought, "I want to work on THAT. How can I get to work on that?" While I had been working in stop motion for a decade at that point, I was only on my first feature project as a draftsperson. It seemed like more than a bit of stretch. A truly remarkable series of projects then equipped me with the skill but also positioned me with the company charged with bringing the story to life. The second cliché is that we had an amazing team. The stop-motion world is absurdly small and we all mostly know each other's work. This was the unprecedented time of three stop- motion features being produced in Portland at the same time—ours, Henry Selick's Wendell & Wild and Laika's Wildwood. But we found that our favourite artists were coming to us, wanting to help tell this version of this story. Everyone was so passionately committed to supporting this vision. And I think you see all of that love and admiration on the screen. A. GEPPETTO'S TOWN WAS CREATED IN FORCED PERSPECTIVE AND SHOWS THE SIMPLIFICATION AND STYLIZATION OF THE REAL- WORLD ARCHITECTURE. B. AN EARLY DESIGN FOR ONE OF THE WINDOWS IN THE CHURCH BY CURT ENDERLE EMBRACES MEDIEVAL PERIOD GLASS AND INCLUDES A MONSTER FROM GUILLERMO'S WORLD AND A DOVE/BOMB IMAGE. C. THE CARNIVAL OF VOLPE UNDER CONSTRUCTION, THE LARGEST SET PIECE CREATED FOR THE FILM. A B C