Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538315
FALL 2025 33 holder. Or if you're lucky, you'll design a rear-view mirror. In animation you get to design the whole thing. And you get to design really crazy things." This was the case for Senteno. When he switched to animation, he could finally use all the knowledge and research he'd acquired over the years. "Back at ArtCenter we had to think about who the client is," he says. So, designing Eel O'Brian's car for Caped Crusader, he asked himself questions like what would a sporty, single guy drive in the 1930s? "Business coupes were a really popular body style with single dudes," he says, choosing a look that fit not only the character but the world of the show. RACE TO THE FINISH Beyond the design, the condition of a car can also say a lot about a character. Mr. Wolf's beater in The Bad Guys 2 may be in terrible shape, but he keeps it clean on the inside because it's a point of pride for him. From the smiley face Mr. Piranha draws on the back window to the bungee cord they use to tie their stuff down, "there's a story in every little detail," says the film's Co-Director JP Sans. But car designers need to know more than the character's relationship to the car. They also have to know physics and engineering. A well-designed car has to function at every step of the animation pipeline, which essentially means it has to move like a real car. "It needs to [be able to] turn sharp corners and run along a road that's uneven," explains VFX Supervisor Matt Baer. In other words, the car needs to be designed with high sus- pension and wheels that can turn without hitting the body of the car. Plus, he says the car needs enough volume on the out- side to support camera rigging—there's a computerized, not-quite-real feeling that FALL 2025 33 "IT NEEDS TO [BE ABLE TO] TURN SHARP CORNERS AND RUN ALONG A ROAD THAT'S UNEVEN." —MATT BAER