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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.9 - DECEMBER 2000
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LEAF Roundup 2000 LEAF Awards Animated commercial: AKA Pizazz, Fishing Line The international cast of nominees and guests adjourned to a smoky West End haunt, a brisk walk away, under the Christmas lights of London's Regent Street, and celebrated until the wee hours.
Day Two LEAF's second keynote speaker, Peter Molyneux, next took the audience from 1989's Space Invaders era to the latest production of Molyneux's Lionhead Studios, Black and White, 10 weeks before its scheduled release date. Molyneux explained how the elaborate, interactive role-playing game, inspired by a blend of King Kong and Dark Crystal, allowed players to control the fate of God-like creatures that lord over a complex 3D environment. Molyneux predicted computer game characters eventually would become indistinguishable from characters created for films such as Toy Story and Dinosaur. He also noted the comparative costs and returns of film and gaming tie-ins, citing the £100 million GoldenEye movie budget and its £250 million return; compared to the game's £4 million investment and £260 million return. "LEAF is a great forum for the convergence of these two art forms," he said.
Neil Eskuri concluded the morning with a romp through Disney's Dinosaur, outlining the creation of CG dinosaurs and lemurs and their prehistoric live-action environments, illustrating his talk with the Secret Lab's step-by-step video and slides. He revealed that his association with the epic production began with a yearlong brainstorming process with VFX supervisor Neil Krepela in 1994. This included consultation with associates at ILM, Santa Barbara Studios and DreamQuest Images before the Disney feature animation team decided to develop its own technology to realize 2,000 scenes, cut to 1,300 for the film's release five years later. After lunch, veteran animator Larry Lauria next hosted a course in character design in the main LEAF auditorium, his first time in London. With a video camera positioned over his shoulder toward his animation table, Lauria instructed a small gathering of artists in classic 2D animation techniques -- snaps, reversals, stretch and squash, character proportions and graphic design. Gladiator continued to draw audience interest with Mill Film's Dave Lomax providing step-by-steps of VFX scenes produced for Gladiator the Ridley Scott-directed Ancient Rome extravaganza. Lomax clarified Mill Film's involvement in the much-discussed tiger fight scenes -- actor Russell Crowe was in the arena with the animals; Mill Film closed the gap -- and revealed the extent of the CG replacement of the Colosseum in the equally famous "360-degrees" Steadicam shot. He also hinted at Mill Film's upcoming projects -- Tomb Raider, Cats and Dogs and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" -- and answered audience queries about Mill Film's use of flame* and Softimage in its feature work.
Pixar Animation Studios' Jesse Hollander also received an enthusiastic response, and obliged with an encore screening at his presentation of the LEAF short film winner, For the Birds. As lighting supervisor for the three-minute short, Hollander recounted the development and production of the latest in the long line of Pixar's award-winning in-house endeavors, emphasizing the Pixar credo, "No amount of technology can turn a bad story into a good one." The day concluded with a panel session headlined "Stop-frame vs. CGI." Despite the provocative subject matter and an expanded panel of seven speakers chaired by Andrew Ruhemann of Passion Pictures, the day's late start cut the discussion short, leaving the question of validating the two media unresolved.
Day Three Dave Witters of WAM!NET followed with a discussion on a similar theme, titled "You Animate, We Render." Sony Pictures Imageworks followed this with a discussion of platform integration, which concluded with a panel discussion chaired by Mikael Shields of AtomFilms that asked, "Is there any future for putting animation on the Internet?" Jetinder Patria, of the English West Midlands brand creation company the Boxroom, stayed with the discussions for all three days and proved to have questions for practically every speaker. "I always like to come to LEAF," he said. "It's the biggest thing for CG in Britain." The LEAF master classes maintained their draw through all three days, thoughtfully juxtaposing Disney's Dinosaur on day one with FrameStore's Walking With Dinosaurs on day three, and MPC's Body Story on day one with Glasswork's discussion on a similar theme on day three. Smaller courses were aimed at working professionals, including ILM's guidelines for building a show-reel and a session with Sue Nichols of Disney on storyboarding.
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