Computer Graphics World

Interview with Chief Editor Karen Moltenbrey How long was Igor in production? Igor was in production for 22 months, starting in November 2006, with CG being done in less than 18 months. Postproduction fi nished mid- August 2008. Is this Sparx's fi rst feature animation? Yes, this is our fi rst one. Igor, which is 86 minutes in length, is Sparx's fi rst feature. Prior to this, Sparx did some TV series and direct-to-videos, such as Rolie Polie Olie and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. Why did you undertake such an ambitious project? Sparx has been doing animation for 10 years, and we felt that it was the right time and a natural evolution after our work on Twice Upon a Christmas. How was the work divvied up among the groups? Visual development was carried out in Paris for the fi rst six months. At the same time, we started to enhance our Maya pipeline and create all the tools that would be necessary for our Vietnam studio to do the animation. Character modeling and rigging were done in Paris, while set and prop modeling was done in Vietnam. We went straight to a 3D animatic with a team of six animators and two cameramen. e 3D animatic was done in Paris in four months, with all box modeling made in Vietnam. We spent two and a half months revising the animatic prior to layout and animation. In Vietnam, 50 animators had six months to create the animation. We went for a three-step process: blocking, inter, and fi nal (being mostly facial anima- tion). At the end of animation, the movie was brought back to Paris for the lighting and fi nal compositing. What challenges surfaced as a result? We have extensive experience shar- ing work between Vietnam and Paris. Nevertheless, given the ambition of the movie, communication and data synchronization were the keys to make things happen in such a short period. at said, we would have loved to have had the director in both locations at the same time. In the recently released CG feature Igor, a hunchbacked lab assistant from Malaria has big dreams of becoming a mad scientist and winning the fi rst-place prize at the annual Evil Science Fair. He fi nally gets his chance when his cruel master kicks the bucket a week before the big event. Igor, with the help of his two experimental creations—Brain, a not-so-bright organ confi ned to a jar, and Scamper, a cynical rabbit that was once roadkill—embarks on building the most evil invention of all time: a huge, ferocious monster. Rather than evil, the monster turns out to be Eva, a gentle giant who aspires to be an actress. Soon these misfi ts uncover a truly evil plot that threatens their world, and they spring into action to save it. Similarly, with the feature Igor, Sparx Animation got a chance to prove itself in the CG world with its "huge" animated creation. Unlike with Igor, in this instance mostly everything went according to plan, and it was Sparx that succeeded in world dominance. Well, nearly so, if you consider how diffi cult it is for a European-created CG feature to break into US theaters! Here, Sparx general manager Jean-Philippe Agati provides details about this engaging fi lm. Jean-Philippe Agati is general manager of Sparx Animation, a production studio founded in 1995 and specializing in keyframe animation. with facilities in France and Vietnam. Work on Sparx's CG feature Igor was split between the studio's Paris and Vietnam facilities. November 2008 47

• Cover