Creativity After Hours: The Visual Evolutions of Michel Gagné
I'm an artist and there's a voice inside of me that needs to speak to the world. That's why I do what I do."
What Michel Gagné does is design and animate
special effects for such movies as The Swan Princess, Demolition
Man, The Iron Giant and the forthcoming Osmosis Jones.
Including his short, Prelude to Eden, it's a body of work
that has earned him three Annie Award nominations. Beyond his job,
he creates paintings, sculptures and illustrated books, with each
work reflecting a common theme. "I'm a compulsive creator," he says. "The subject
that fascinates me the most is creation." "Prelude to Eden was the embryo of me
trying to express myself. The theme of the film is about creation,
and it was the beginning of my creation. So it's a fitting theme
and a fitting title. Creation is a theme that I'm obsessed with.
I read books about it. I always try to come up with my own theories.
I'm doing a graphic novel right now, and also a children's book,
that's based on creation. It's definitely a recurring theme with
me." Gagné himself was created in Roberval, Quebec,
and he began his feature animation career with Sullivan Bluth in
Ireland. After doing character animation on The Land Before Time
and All Dogs Go to Heaven, he switched to doing special effects
for Rock-a-Doodle, moving to Bluth's unit in Burbank.
His Own Film At first, since he couldn't afford the use of
digital ink-and-paint systems, Gagné was going to cel-paint the
film. Then he connected with Cambridge Animation from England, who
came to Universal Studios in 1992 to market their new system, the
Animo. "They were trying to break into feature film,"
Gagné recalls. "My friend Jon Hooper hooked me up with Peter Florence
from Cambridge Animation. I showed him the film. It was all done
in pencil test and I didn't have a system to color it. I told them,
'If you can do that, you can use my short film to demonstrate your
software.' They said, 'Great.' So the next thing I knew they set
me up with these great computers and scanners. I didn't know how
to use any of the equipment but in time I figured it out."
While on A Troll in Central Park
in 1991, Gagné wanted to work on more compelling subject matter.
Something besides dancing flowers and singing mermaids. Something
that would combine the high-energy approach of anime with the fluidity
of American character animation. Thus, in his spare time, he began
his own short film, Prelude to Eden. It would be heavy in
action, use dynamic camera angles and be animated entirely "on ones."
As Bluth animators observed his pencil tests, they became intrigued
and contributed to his after-hours project
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