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.

The nominees meet their latest Academy guest Bill Kroyer (r).

Well, the second to last tour stop brings the filmmakers to Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks. For Emud, it was a return to his workplace where he is on the Disney live-action/CG flick, "G-Force." He was thankful that Sony gave him ten days off to tour both in San Francisco and L.A.

We arrived and were greeted by a dapper looking Don Levy, marketing master for Sony, who had to leave us early to hand out an award at the publicist's awards that afternoon. For each stop of the L.A. leg, Ron invited a different member of the Academy board. At Sony, the filmmakers had the pleasure of meeting Bill Kroyer. FX was particularly impressed with meeting someone who worked on "Tron." Bill shared a story of "Ice Age" director Chris Wedge entering x-sheet data into the computer on the film. Bill said he was glad that Chris stuck with computers after the job.

Ron Diamond leads the Q&A at ICM with The Lady and the Reaper's Javier Recio Gracia, Enrique Posner and Raul Garcia.

In L.A., the nominees visted agencies ICM, CAA and William Morris. Here are their visits in pictures.

While you wait for more details from the San Fran leg of the tour. Here’s some more pics to check out from Skywalker Ranch and Pixar, courtesy of Ron.

The famous Nominee Cake - 5 films, 5 images, all edible.

Written by Dan Sarto

No Oscar Tour would be complete without the famous Nominee Cake!  As the 2011 Tour winds down, so do the nominees and assorted guests, at least for one evening.  Held again this year at Ron's house, the party was fun, intimate and warm, despite the rainy weather outside.  And of course, we all got sugared-up feasting on the nominated films - literally!

Tour host Ron Diamond (l) shows Granny O'Grimm's Nicky Phelan his legendary artist sketch book.

written by Rick DeMott

Day 2 of the L.A. leg of the tour had a late start at CAA in the afternoon. As the agents and their clients settled in for the screening, the nominees went for a cup of coffee.

The Lady and the Reaper producer Enrique Posner told me that the British Health Services had contacted them about using their film as part of training EMTs that reviving every patient might not be in the best interest of the patient. He was amazed at how the information travels to places that would have never seen their film before the Oscars. He added that balancing all the press requests ever since the nominations has been a major challenge. They even received a letter from the president of Spain.

Having read the tour blog, Posner joked that we needed to spice up the material. So they want to start a rumor that the only other Spanish nominee Penelope Cruz has left Javier Bardem for their Javier — Javier Recio Gracia.

Looking across the Disney Legends Plaza to the 7 Dwarfs holding up the roof of the Eisner building.

Written by Dan Sarto

The final day of the 2011 Oscar tour was the busiest of all – morning at the Disney ARL, lunch, 2 screenings and several tours throughout the afternoon, followed by the AWN-Acme Oscar party Friday evening.  You could sense the animators were getting a bit antsy, greeting the same questions with the same answers for the umpteenth time, their smiling faces showing traces of exhaustion and anxiety as they silently counted down to the Oscars on Sunday.  No rest for the weary however as things really were just getting started.

The tour members are welcomed to PDI by Eric Darnell and Gail Curry and some champagne.

Check a few shots from the stop at PDI/DreamWorks in Northern California.

Here are some more pics from the first stop on the L.A. leg of the Oscar Showcase tour - Sony Pictures Animation.

Who says there are no celebrities in Animation?  We arrive at Pixar an hour early, the van is buzzing with excitement.  We are about to meet some of the ROCK STARS of animation.  To be granted a tour at Pixar is a privilege not extended to everyone!