Computer Graphics World

Images ©2008 Disney Enterprises, Inc. as the little American white shepherd dog with the black lightning bolt on his side discovers in Bolt, Disney's latest animated fi lm. Bolt, the dog, stars in an action-packed TV show, and the CG feature opens with an amazing chase scene. Bolt leaps through the air, stops the bad guys in their tracks with his superbark, and, most important, rescues his co-star, Penny, from the green-eyed villain. en, it's over. e director yells, "Cut," the crew takes Bolt back to his trailer, and Penny goes home. e production crew, we learn, wants little Bolt to believe he really does have superpowers; they won't let him live a dog's life with Penny. And, he does believe. So, when a series of mishaps put him outside the trailer where he spots the green-eyed man, he believes the villain has kidnapped Penny again. He races to her rescue, only to land in the back of a truck heading for New York City. And that's when Bolt's real adventure begins. Directed by Chris Williams and Byron Howard, Bolt stars the voice talents of John Travolta as Bolt and Miley Cyrus as Penny. It's the fi rst fi lm shepherded through Disney Animation Studios by John Lasseter, who arrived as chief creative offi cer at Disney in 2006 following the Pixar acquisition. "Every artist in this building is operating at a level they've never operated at before because of John Lasseter," says Clark Spencer, Bolt producer. "Four years ago, this was a completely diff erent fi lm, with a diff erent title and diff erent directors. is movie would not be what it is without John Lasseter's involvement in it." Four hundred artists worked on the feature for 88 weeks, producing approximately four seconds of the fi lm per week. Lasseter chose the directors: Williams directed Dis- ney's fi rst 3D short fi lm "Glago's Guest," wrote the story for Mulan and e Emperor's New Groove, and received an Annie nomination for the latter; Howard was a supervising animator on Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear, an in- between artist on Pocahontas, an animator on Mulan, and received an Annie nomination for his character animation in Brother Bear. For Bolt, Howard tend- ed to concentrate on the animation side, while Williams focused on the story. "John [Lasseter] loved the essence of the story we had, that a dog lives on a TV show and only knows the TV show, and is thrown into the real world and discovers [his previous life] is a lie," Clark says. "And then he returns to the little girl to fi nd out if she was acting." In the fi lm, once Bolt is in the real world, he tangles with a street cat named Mittens. Later, a hamster named Rhino, who lives in- side a glass ball, rolls into the adventure. Here's the dynamic among the three: Bolt believes Mittens will lead him to the green-eyed villain and, thus, to Penny, so he leashes the cat to his collar. Mittens quickly realizes who Bolt is and ridicules his supposed superpowers. Rhino, on the other hand, a nerdy fanboy who has memorized every "Bolt" TV show, totally November 2008 21 CG Animation ■ ■ ■ ■ Images ©2008 Disney Enterprises, Inc. Bolt, the dog star of the fi lm Bolt, owes the look of the painterly CG background behind him (at left) to new technol- ogy invented at Disney Animation Studios for this project. Four hundred artists worked on the feature for 88 weeks, producing approximately four seconds Four hundred artists worked on the feature for 88 weeks, producing approximately four seconds of the fi lm per week. Lasseter chose the directors: Williams directed Dis- of the fi lm per week. Lasseter chose the directors: Williams directed Dis- ney's fi rst 3D short fi lm "Glago's Guest," wrote the story for and received an Annie nomination for the latter; Howard was a supervising animator on Lilo & Stitch an animator on and received an Annie nomination for his character For Bolt, Bolt, Howard tend- Howard tend- ed to concentrate on the animation side ed to concentrate on the animation side "John [Lasseter] loved the essence of the story "John [Lasseter] loved the essence of the story we had, that a dog lives on a TV show and only we had, that a dog lives on a TV show and only knows the TV show, and is thrown into the real knows the TV show, and is thrown into the real world and discovers [his previous life] is a lie," world and discovers [his previous life] is a lie," Clark says. "And then he returns to the little girl to fi nd out if she was acting." In the fi lm, once Bolt is in the real world, he tangles with a street cat named Mittens. Later, a hamster named Rhino, who lives in- side a glass ball, rolls into the adventure. Here's the dynamic among the three: Bolt believes Mittens will lead him to the green-eyed villain and, thus, to Penny, so he leashes the cat to his collar. Mittens quickly realizes who Bolt is and ridicules his supposed superpowers. Rhino, on the other hand, a nerdy fanboy who has memorized every "Bolt" TV show, totally of the fi lm per week. Lasseter chose the directors: Williams directed Dis- of the fi lm per week. Lasseter chose the directors: Williams directed Dis- ney's fi rst 3D short fi lm "Glago's Guest," wrote the story for ney's fi rst 3D short fi lm "Glago's Guest," wrote the story for Mulan Mulan and and received an Annie nomination for the latter; and received an Annie nomination for the latter; Lilo & Stitch Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear, an in- an animator on Mulan, Mulan, and received an Annie nomination for his character and received an Annie nomination for his character Howard tend- Howard tend- ed to concentrate on the animation side, ed to concentrate on the animation side, ed to concentrate on the animation side while while "John [Lasseter] loved the essence of the story "John [Lasseter] loved the essence of the story we had, that a dog lives on a TV show and only we had, that a dog lives on a TV show and only knows the TV show, and is thrown into the real knows the TV show, and is thrown into the real world and discovers [his previous life] is a lie," Clark says. "And then he returns to the little In the fi lm, once Bolt is in the real world, he tangles with a street cat named Mittens. Later, a hamster named Rhino, who lives in- side a glass ball, rolls into the adventure. Here's the dynamic among the three: Bolt believes Mittens will lead him to the green-eyed villain and, thus, to Penny, so he leashes the cat to his collar. Mittens quickly realizes who Bolt is and ridicules his supposed superpowers. Rhino, on the other hand, a nerdy fanboy who has memorized every "Bolt" TV show, totally November 2008 21 Bolt, the dog star of the fi lm Bolt, owes Bolt, owes Bolt the look of the painterly CG background behind him (at left) to new technol- ogy invented at Disney Animation Studios for this project.

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