MOC: We did all the usual things here, which were conceiving the idea, storyboarding it, designing it in terms of the backgrounds and props. And then when we started working with them, they would take our boards and start translating what those look like in 3D sets. They took the character models and then started conceiving those in three dimensions, where we could do turntables and actually see what these characters look like dimensionally. Then we had to figure out what exactly those textures were. Chuck Jones drawings could be open to interpretation and they're flat and graphic, and we assumed that the Road Runner had feathers, but what were those? How many layers were there and how do you take a simple graphic shape that was indicated for the tail and actually give it dimension? And the same thing with the Coyote in regards to the fur and we had to give him little toe nails and finger nails. We basically had to give it much more detail than the original drawings so it would support it in this 3-D space and look really sophisticated on a very, very large screen, so a lot of attention was given to small details.

BD: How did you arrive at your CG look?

MOC: In the actual design of Road Runner's legs, for example, they're very sleek with little lines on them. We had to figure out what those little lines are so we started looking at chickens and thinking about texture and how big the bumps should be and his skin. And then we had to make decisions about the eyes for both characters because in the drawings they're just little black dots. And so we had to give them pupils and irises and colors to match the rest of the design. For feathers, they're all designed very flat and always on profile, but we had design them to have layers and move in dimension. Then we had to figure out how to handle the fact that when the Road Runner runs really fast, they basically blur into an oval shape. So what was that going to look like? And when Coyote sticks his tongue out, what does that look like? We just wanted it to look believable within this world that we created. Visually, we certainly did our research on the Maurice Noble designs from the early '50s. We wanted it to feel the same, but take some of those shape and design sensibilities that we remember so well and give them rock texture (including the imperfections) and sand texture and give dimension to the cactus in 3-D space. And when you put the lighting and atmosphere in it, it was very cool and dimensional but still felt very graphic. We didn't want to go photoreal.

BD: What was it like working in 3-D?

MOC: Well, that's what was really cool about doing this, and having that extra tool was really interesting to me because now we can do these gags with the 3-D advantage. We were really able to push and pull that dimension. We're definitely going the other way from Avatar. And to be able to have 3-D and be in your face with these gags, I think works pretty well. And I also had the chance to use the camera differently. I'm able to move the camera through space and have tracking shots and zip camera and pull out from an extreme close-up to an extreme wide shot and still see the all the backgrounds stay in dimension. Again, the idea wasn't to show off but to have you feel the 3-D and enjoy it.

BD: What do you have in store for the other two Coyote shorts?

MOC: The second one is called Fur of Flying and he goes after Road Runner with a flying contraption, and the third is called Rabid Rider, where he thinks he's purchased a futuristic high-speed vehicle, and when he opens it up it turns out to be a gyro scooter device. The flying one is really cool because we can take advantage of a flying camera through these shots and that gives us a lot of dimension when he's flying through canyons over the desert.

BD: And they're all done?

MOC: Yes, we just finished.

BD: And what about other Looney Tunes?

MOC: I can't talk about that yet because we're sort of in the pitch stage.

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN & VFXWorld.