Bob and I, standing on the far left of the first row, join in the dramatic pose while 3-D stereo pictures of the entire group are being taken in front of the main campus fountain.

By Cima Balser

In all our travels, we’ve always found animation studios to be great fun to visit.  UPA in its day had a bookcase filled with faux books, with carefully lettered titles on the bindings, such as “Brain Surgery Can Be Fun.” 

During the entire time Yellow Submarine was being produced there, the receptionist at the entrance never recovered from shock as each day he watched the Carnaby-clothed artists march in and out.  One day there was a serious complaint from the tenant downstairs, and soon after the crew was reprimanded by a shamefaced John Coates.  We heard that a very, very large billboard size poster with carefully lettered “POOP” was being lowered and waved across all the windows of the office below. 

So yes, animators have traditionally played and had fun, along with their real work. However, as Bob and I tagged along with Ron and Dan’s group to DreamWorks’s campus in Glendale, we found that the bar had been lifted higher than we could have ever imagined.

No lounge is complete without the means to dispense fine adult beverages.

Pictorial by Dan Sarto

Our final studio tour this year is DreamWorks Animation, a bustling campus that serves as HQ for the company's ever-growing global operations.  Having released two features, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss In Boots, since our last visit, both of which are nominated for an Oscar this year, the studio continues to expand its slate of productions.  The recently announced plans for a studio in China serve as further illustration of these expansion efforts. 

Each year on the Oscar Showcase Tour, our day at DreamWorks is always great.  The studio goes out of its way to provide a full day of demonstrations, a great lunch with executives and a packed screening of the nominated shorts.  Of all the stops on the tour, DreamWorks always shares the most detailed and intimate look at films in progress, which for an assembly of animation directors and producers, is always a welcome treat.  This year was no different.

The entire assembled group. From left to right, me (Dan Sarto), Bastien's girlfriend Julie, Connie Siu, Bob Kurtz, Bastien Dubois, Ron Dyens, Max Lang, Jakob Schuh, Ron Diamond, Geefwee Boedoe. Everyone is quite animated because this was taken with a prototype 3-D stereoscopic camera. Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation.

Written by Dan Sarto

Every year for more than a decade we’ve toured DreamWorks’ expansive Glendale campus with either the Animation Show of Shows, our Oscar Showcase tour, or both.  We’re always greeted with open arms and we’re always shown tasty morsels of upcoming films – last year, for example, Simon Otto showed us 20 minutes of How To Train Your Dragon well before it was released.  This year did not disappoint.  We scampered about all over the newly built-out animation building, over 100K square feet of offices, high-res monitors and talent.  Talking to people here, you can’t help but sense their enthusiasm as they discuss their work, the studio and DreamWorks’ string of successful films.  From Jeffrey Katzenberg’s lunchtime visit to our jaunt through the new motion-capture studio, our afternoon at DreamWorks left a tremendous impression on our assembly of animators and producers, and myself as well.

The DreamWorks brunch is always a heavily attended event.

One of the yearly treats of the Oscar Showcase tour is DreamWorks' Saturday brunch. Check out who in the community came to celebrate.

DreamWorks had a full day for the Oscar nominees when they came to visit. Here are their adventures in pictures.

DreamWorks' Pierre-Olivier Vincent gives his POV on the How to Train Your Dragon designs.

written by Rick DeMott

For the third day of the L.A. leg, DreamWorks put together a full day of events for the nominees. Katie Koskenmaki, our host and artistic development coordinator for the studio, said that different departments were fighting to get a chance to meet the nominees. For the first time, French Roast director Fabrice Joubert joined the festivities.

First up, designer Pierre-Olivier Vincent, aka POV, ran through the visual development on DreamWorks' upcoming How to Train Your Dragon. The project began with the designs of the book, which was written and illustrated by Cressida Cowell. The designs and tone of the book was cartoony, but over the course of the film's development, which included three director changes, the script became more dramatic. For Cowell, she didn't mind the tone shift, but insisted that the core of the story remain the relationship between the main character Hiccup and his father Stoick.

Every year the day before the big event offers two annual events that allow the nominees to take a chance to relax with fellow members of the animation community. Check out this year's pics.

I was lucky enough to be included in part of the Oscar Showcase tour this year. Every year the nominees for animated short films are given a tour and luncheon at some of the animation studios here in the Los Angeles area. The organizer of these celebrations, Ron Diamond, invited me to join them at DreamWorks on the last day of the tour. Ron and I are on the Executive Committee of the Short Films/Animation Branch of the Academy, and see scores of animated shorts every year. There is always a wide range of styles and ideas presented in various mediums. It’s always interesting to see which ones will make the final cut for the Oscar nominations. This year the field was exceptionally strong, with every film being quite unique and different from the rest. Meeting the filmmakers and hearing about their thought process and methods of getting it on the screen was extremely interesting and inspiring.

The tour members pose outside the Campanile Theater.

The Oscar Showcase tour came to an end on Friday with a visit to DreamWorks. The filmmakers were clearly tired from their long week and a half, but their excitement hasn't wavered. Ron invited Academy board member Rick Farmiloe to join us for the day to experience the tour with the filmmakers. The day was a bit of a homecoming for Farmiloe, who served as a story artist on the original "Shrek." At Disney, he animated classic characters like Lefou in "Beauty and the Beast" and Abu in "Aladdin."

Oscar winner Suzie Templeton gets a chance to talk with My Love director Alexander Petrov. © 2008 AWN Inc.

The day before the Oscars DreamWorks hosts a brunch at Campanile. Look at the animation who’s who gallery.