Computer Graphics World

January/February 2015

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32 cgw j a n u a r y . f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 5 That Dawn becomes infatuated with the Bog King a er being doused with a love potion adds spice to the confl ict. "The Bog King was tricky to animate in the beginning because we weren't working on him linearly and the story was still coming in," Ooi says. "We relied on Gary [Rydstrom] to tell us where he was in the story. In the beginning, we played him like a bad guy, always angry, but Gary toned that down just enough that you might wonder if you misunderstood him. Once we worked on a later sequence with Bog and Marianne having a conversation in the dining room, we could see why. The change is quite dramatic. He's not a bad guy; he's just misunderstood." For reference, the animators looked at mobsters for the bad Bog and at a documentary about Alan Cumming for Bog's more emotional scenes. Bog's physical appearance changes subtly, as well. In the beginning, Bog is hunched over like an insect. A er his fi ght with Mar- ianne, when the two are in the dining room, he so ens. He still has his insect appearance โ€“ he never becomes handsome โ€“ but he looks less like a creature. "He's more upright," Ooi says. "He never becomes human, but his silhouette is a little so er." By the end, he's gentlemanly. He bows. S T R A I G H T O N Because this is a musical, the animators needed to perform the characters singing. "At fi rst I was nervous about going into a musical," Ooi says. "But Gary said the main thing is getting the right emotion across, whether dialog or song. Of course, there is the technical side, having the character inhale correctly, but we had reference from the voice actors. And in singing shots where there is a certain kind of rhythm you have to hit, that is a restriction. But the emotional part was similar to dialog shots." One of Rydstrom's favorite sequences was the fi ght be- tween Marianne and Bog, which happens while the two charac- ters (Wood and Cumming) sing a duet, Heart's "Straight On." "They were fi ghting and feel- ing each other out," Rydstrom says. "They each discovered the other one was just as worthy, and neither expected that. Heart's 'Straight On' is a really nice girl-power rock 'n' roll song. I see it as the heart of the movie." Marianne fi ghts with a sword. Bog with a staff . Both characters are winged, and during the fi ght the wings look like swirling capes. "We wanted the fi ght scene to be like a dance," Ooi says. "We got a lot of reference of tango dancing because we wanted them to feel like they were clashing with each other. We also took reference from Cirque du Soleil." The animators gave Marianne fencing poses and stances. Bog was a matador. "Marianne also does interesting fl ips and fl ies upside down," Ooi says. "For Bog, Gary [Rydstrom] didn't want martial arts; he wanted him to have an upright chest and fl uid swings, and turns as if he were dodging a bull. She does quick spins and twirls; he twirls and turns. She's connecting to him and he to her โ€“ not in a subtle way. It's more 'I have an oppo- nent I can fi ght.' " The tricky part was the song. "We had to fi gure out the rhythm of it," Ooi says. "We couldn't do our own thing and hope the soundtrack would match. We shot a lot of refer- ence and relied on Gary's input as well, and we put the jigsaw puzzle together." By the time the fairy prin- cesses have found their true and unexpected loves, they and other characters in the fi lm have sung 25 songs. That's down from the original 100 that Lucas gathered for Strange Magic. "But they are all great," Lucas says. "I loved doing this movie because I love the music. I loved coming to work on it. I love watching it. And that's the key for me in the end. I did it for the fun of it." ยข Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for CGW. She can be reached at BarbaraRR@comcast.net. VIDEO; INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE LUCAS: GO TO EXTRAS IN THE JANUARY.FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE BOX C G W. C O M THE ETHEREAL SUGAR PLUM FAIRY IS THE MOST MAGICAL CHARACTER IN THE FILM. PARTICULATES GIVE HER A THEATRICAL EFFERVESCENCE.

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