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Comic-Con International 2006 Report

Comic-Con veterans Maxwell Atoms, Liza Copplola, Mark Evanier, Peter Gal, Larry Loc, Steve Marmel, Peter McHugh, Mike Mika, Mike Moon share their take on the annual convention in San Diego with additional vfx happenings reported by Bill Desowitz.

Its the Con to End All Cons! Photo courtesy of Sarah Baisley.

Its the Con to End All Cons! Photo courtesy of Sarah Baisley.

Comic-Con International burst its seams by Saturday, July 22, 2006, when the San Diego Convention Center reached capacity at 125,000 and people had to be turned away for the first time. For an event that began in 1970 with 300 attendees in the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego, its now become the premiere location for movie, TV and gaming studios to showcase their films, shows and products and gobble up new properties and talent to make future hits.

Its become the three-ring circus of marketing might and hundreds of celebrity appearances that NATPE, the big North American TV programming market, used to be. Amongst the sneaks and previews of new TV shows and movies and games, there were some comicbooks to be found, plus diehard illustrators and indie publishers peddling their wares, which are nearly obscured now by new mega booths from Disney, Warner Bros., Nintendo, SCI FI Channel and Sony.

Running from July 9-23, the Con presented more than 600 hours of programming on all aspects of comicbooks and pop culture, including breaking into the comicbook business, filmmaking seminars, movies, interactive multimedia and Japanese animation.

The news broke that 2D is not dead at Disney during The State of the Animaton Industry panel presented by ASIFA, when Kevin Koch, head of the Animation Guild, said that a new 2D film, titled, The Frog Princess, is in development at Disney. Eric Goldberg, who has returned to Disney to work on animated shorts, said that Little Mermaid directors Ron Clements and John Musker will be helming the film. This was great new for the animation brethren plus all the panelists noted a tremendous upturn in employment. Goldberg also premiered A Monkeys Tale, a delightful, traditional short he recently directed, which is playing only at a Buddhist cultural center in Hong Kong.

Nickelodeon Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Disney/Jetix, Sci Fi and Warner Bros. featured the talents and development execs from their upcoming schedules in highly attended panels, plus the talent came to the respective booths for autograph sessions and photo-ops. For more details on what was presented, check out AWNs daily news coverage. Getting great buzz and reception were the new Hellboy animated series, animated by IDT Ent. and Afro Samurai, from FUNimation Ent., GDH K.K. and Spike TV, deemed too adult for Adult Swim.

Gossip and booze flowed at parties thrown by the animation talent agencies The Gotham Group and Natural Talent, plus Warner Bros. Animation, as well as the annual Writers Guild Assoc. reception for its Animation Caucus. Promoters for the new Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 & Naruto: Ninja Council 2 videogames were smart to give their partygoers vouchers for the Pedi-cabs in front of the center to whisk attendees with tired feet to at the Red Pearl Kitchen Restaurant in the Gaslamp District.

Lou Scheimer and Mark Evanier catch up after the He-Man & She-Ra panel.

Lou Scheimer and Mark Evanier catch up after the He-Man & She-Ra panel.

Filmation founder Lou Scheimer was in top form at the BCI panel on the upcoming He-man and She-Ra DVD releases. Will Vinton was also on hand signing posters and cards for his upcoming graphic novel that Darkhorse is developing as a theatrical.

There were plenty of opportunities at Comic-Con to delve into the vfx and animation with filmmakers on a number of high profile features.

With the flurry of 3D animation this year, Comic-Con designated the first day, July 20, to animation. Sony Pictures Animation hosted a panel devoted to its first two features, Open Season (opening Sept. 29) and Surfs Up (June 8, 2007), while Warner Bros. touted Ant Bully, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (March 30, 2007) and offered Happy Feet (Nov. 18) footage.

Surfs Up producer Chris Jenkins discussed how they developed their animated mockumentary about surfing penguins before March of the Penguins and Happy Feet. He talked about how the look of the film is very different from Happy Feet. In fact, he took on the film because he wanted the challenge of working with water: specifically the waves in this film as a character. Jenkins called it the first reality TV-style animated film.

They created the hand-held camera look for the whole piece, and utilize some aggressive virtual camera shots peering into the waves, and the POVs were very challenging too. Jenkins also commented that they did the voice talent recordings together. He said it made for a much better dynamic for the actors and enhanced the script by having the performers there together and working off one another.

Ant Bully director John A. Davis discussed the challenges of creating a fresh take on the world of ants. I thought of it as an alien culture thats like the Aborigine. Very tribal...with body paint and a recorded historyround and deep [looking] as opposed to the human world, which is flat and squeezed off.

The designers intentionally steered clear of A Bugs Life and Antz, creating more exotic and alien-like head shapes and mandibles for the males. Not surprisingly, the animation team at Davis DNA studio in Irving, Texas, needed to think outside of the Jimmy Neutron mind set that it was familiar with. Ant Bully helped them break free and try new approaches.

Davis also discussed pipeline changes at DNA on this four-year project. They added Houdini (for layout, camera, lighting, modeling and vfx), RenderMan and NUKE, with most of the adjustments occurring on the backend. They also made use of customized Massive Software for ant crowd scenes around the Queen. Meanwhile, the R&D team worked on new lighting, hair, finishing and a cohesive color script. They created a separate rendering department too, and it took a lot of programmers to manage the data. Overall, they added 100 more crew, topping off at 250.

Legions of Stormtroopers are an ever-present sight at Comic-Con. Photo courtesy of Sarah Baisley.

Legions of Stormtroopers are an ever-present sight at Comic-Con. Photo courtesy of Sarah Baisley.

As for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which will be the first 3D-animated foray for the franchise, director Kevin Munroe said it would be a grittier, more believable world with a limited color palette. He described it as a moving comicbook and said they are striving for a PG-13. Producer Tom Gray touted the efficient animation of Hong Kong-based Imagi Ent, which provided a crew of 350, having learned a lot from its previous experience on the Father of the Pride series, and has a host of other anime-inspired features in the works, including Gatchaman, also directed by Munroe.

In discussing The Power of the Dark Crystal, the upcoming sequel to Jim Hensons beloved Dark Crystal, director Genndy Tartakovsky addressed the challenges of staying true to Hensons vision: Well recreate the look with the latest Henson puppet performance technology, but make the action faster paced. The performances need to be believable, like Yoda, while the background CG will have that lush look of the Dark Crystal forest.

As for tackling 3D animation for the first time at the new Orphanage animation studio, Tartakovsky added, 3Ds another pencil. Ill find my favorite pencil and work with it [at The Orphanage], where well do everything from this to Tex Avery-style comedy.

Producer Lisa Henson promised that the CG environments would be a lot more interesting looking in this story about reigniting the dying sun of the inner world. She also suggested that Tartakovsky was an inspired choice to direct The Power of the Dark Crystal, and was pleased to be reunited with him after their Astro Boy project fell through at Sony. Labyrinth designer Brian Froud will again be doing the designs for Dark Crystal.

In discussing animated CG characters, Andy Jones (Superman Returns), Spencer Cook (Spider-Man 3) and Animation Mentors Chris Williams (Spider-Man and lead Sony Pictures Imageworks animator) and Dovi Anderson (Hellboy) stressed the advantage of being able to leverage assets at Sony on both live-action and animated movies.

We took the IBR, the image-based rendering process, from Doc Ock and leveraged off it and improved it for Superman and now weve handed it back and theyve improved it on Spider-Man 3, remarked Jones.

The human face is such a complicated thing to portray on screen and pass off as a real person, Cook added. We are constantly trying and improve that. The filmmakers keep pushing us to do bigger and better stuff because they keep writing more complicated sequences. Theyre trying to do things the audience hasnt seen before. Sony is a great environment for synergy and trading technologies. Since there is such a variety of projects going around from one show to the next, an animator from Open Season can come on to a live-action show to add a little extra oomph within certain realistic parameters.

Motion capture is an extremely valuable tool in certain instances, offered Williams. It gives you a lot of detail in the performance and gives you subtleties that are difficult to get from animation such as certain weight shifts. At times, Spider-Man would crawl up a wall and people would ask, Why not have him crawl like this and rotate the motion up? But all the stuff thats missing from that would be hard to add in as an animator... So if youre crawling on the ground, youre not going to feel the weight pull. I enjoy animating and thrive off of doing a shot where people might not know if it was live action or it was animated. If you can pull off a shot that looks like it was a real person, but it was animated, thats whats neat about visual effects.

In terms of vfx, the filmmaking team of Frank Millers 300 (director Zack Snyder and producers Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari and Debbie Snyder) discussed this gory account of the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae that opens March 16, 2007. Pale colors predominate with lots of bright reds. Overall, its an operatic, ballet of death, shot mostly against bluescreen to create forced perspective, augmented with CG animals, a hunchback and an eerie eye. An early animatic test of a battle shot on greenscreen was done as a proof of concept for Warner Bros. Animal Logic, Hybride and Hydraulx were cited as the main vfx houses, with simulated water for battle scenes supplied by Scanlines Flowline system.

Meanwhile, in discussing Warner Bros. The Reaping, the horror film about modern day biblical plagues starring Hilary Swank, director Stephen Hopkins said there were lots of CG enhancements and plenty of locusts, lightning storms, a plague of darkness and a river of blood created in the computer. Shooting took place in Louisiana after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, necessitating the removal of damaged areas from shots. Visual effects supervisor Richard Yuricich (2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner and the first two Mission: Impossible movies) came out of retirement to help with the 400-plus effects shots, working with Double Negative and a few other houses.

Finally, ILMs John Knoll, taking a break from Pirates of the Caribbean 3, discussed one of his technical wishes: One thing that I want to see some day and I think all the pieces are really there to do it is computer-assisted balance for characters. Because one of the most difficult things for animators to do really well is get good, believable mass and weight and balance for characters. I see characters that look like they are too light or floaty or wouldve fallen over at that point.

Since we have rigid body engines that are used routinely to simulate real physics on mechanical objects, theres no reason why that couldnt also be applied to characters so that thered be some computer assist to get more believable motion. Right now the only thing that enforces reality is the eye of the animator. A combination of rigid body engines along with some understanding of the range of motion of characters and mechanics of motion and balance could be incorporated into an animation tool. This could be post process, a filter on top of an animationan animator roughs in an animation and runs an analysis on it. You could either display diagnostics OK this section of the animation is doing a very high acceleration or you could use the original animation as a target for a simulation and then the simulation goes through and gets the animated character to do what is close to physically possible.

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(Top row left to right) Maxwell Atoms, Liza Copplola, Mark Evanier, (center row) Peter Gal, Larry Loc, Steve Marmel, (bottom row) Peter McHugh, Mike Mika and Mike Moon.

AWN asked some Comic-Con veterans for their perspective and observations on the show. These regulars include Maxwell Atoms, creator of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy; Liza Copplola, svp, marketing, VIZ Media; Mark Evanier, writer/producer; Peter Gal, exec director, development, Nickelodeon; Larry Loc, ASIFA-Hollywood exec board member/animation instructor, Laguna College of Art & Design, Cal State Fullerton & Brooks College, Long Beach; Steve Marmel, co-exec producer/head writer of upcoming Disney series, Yin Yang Yo!; Peter McHugh, agent, The Gotham Group; Mike Mika, studio head, Backbone Ent. and Mike Moon, vp of animation, Walt Disney TV Animation.

AWN: How many Comic-Cons have you attended?

Copplola: I have attended four Comic-Cons in San Diego.

McHugh: Six.

Moon: Ive been to eight and Ive enjoyed seeing it expand over the years and become so much bigger. It was great to go this year representing Disney.

Evanier: All of them.

Loc: I moved here in 1984 and have been to every Comic-Con since 1986, only missing 1988, the year my son was born. This time my son was on the video crew taping ASIFA panels and animated on the animation jam we had going on in the ASIFA-Hollywood Booth.

Gal: Six.

Marmel: Counting the ones I went to in Chicago when I was growing up, and the ones I attended once I moved to LA a lot. It probably speaks volumes that I cant give you a number because its THAT HIGH.

Mika: Its been three years now. It feels like more, though.

Atoms: Two. No, wait! Three. Maybe four. They all blur together.

AWN: What features, events, booths draw you? What parts of Comic-Con do you most enjoy? And what did you get out of them this time?

Evanier: I really enjoyed the panels hosted by that Mark Evanier guy. No, thats a terrible answer even though its true. I really enjoyed just being around all those people. Its fun to wander the hall because any second, you could run into an old friend or someone you always wanted to meet. Of course, you could also run into a fat guy wearing a Klingon suit he hasnt washed since the first run on Spocks Brain. But them is the chances ya takes.

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Presenting their new shorts for Nickelodeon were ; Su Moon (top left), character designer from I; Amy Winfrey (top center), creator of the cult web-series Making Fiends; Debbie Cone (top right), assistant director on Family Guy, Luke Brookshier (bottom left), storyboard artist on SpongeBob SquarePants; and Scott Sava (bottom center), CG-animator and comicbook author.

Mika: Im always interested in the creator events, where writers and filmmakers discuss what projects they are working on. The part I enjoy the most, however, is browsing for those old toys and memorabilia I used to have as a kid. I have a soft spot for vintage space toys and shows particularly. This year, there was less of it than normal, which was unfortunate, but I still had a great time browsing old magazines and comics.

Loc: I dont get a chance to see other events like I use to since I took over running the ASIFA booth and doing all the programming. That means that if I want to see something I need to program it.

Atoms: I really enjoy being packed in a room with a few thousand of my closest friends who wont shower because that would mean taking off their Mandalorian armor. Theres nothing like the acrid scent of Boba Fetts armpits to get you all amped up to look at statues of Mulder and Scully making out.

Moon: I enjoy anything thats unique from the indie press to the vinyl toy Displays to people watching. Its amazing how eclectic and diversified Comic-Con is, like nothing else Ive ever seen.

I enjoy the artwork! As an animator, it gives me such inspiration and a desire to draw, design, be creative. I always seem to get more inspired when I get back from Comic-Con.

Copplola: The booths that draw me are the ones that understand the audience that this is a crowd of people that want to immerse themselves in the experience of the titles. They want to see the latest products, play the hottest games, read the manga before any of their peers do and be the information holder of everything that has to do with a title. The booths that are interactive are the ones that appeal to me you can definitely tell the companies that put thought into their booths and how to appeal to the crowd. You can tell the difference between a booth built for a trade show and a booth built for the fans.

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I enjoy the fans and getting the chance to talk to them directly face to face about the titles, what theyre reading and why. The enthusiasm and passion that comes from our fans really helps validate our companys mission statement (to enrich lives worldwide through the highest quality entertainment and unmatched storytelling).

Its great seeing our industry peers as well but I get the most enjoyment from getting positive feedback from our consumers and hearing that were on the right path in terms of our products and our marketing.

What I got out of it this time is that comics are continuing to reach a wider broader audience I saw more families in the audience, more TV networks and studios exhibiting. Theres a genuine camaraderie in this industry that comes from wanting to grow the category and producing books that as a fan youd love to read and then as a publisher seeing that shared with so many others.

Marmel: Mostly, I go to immerse myself in my fellow nerd. I like reading about what Kevin Smith had to say, or watching Nicholas Cage try to convince us that when he was doing Leaving Las Vegas he really was dreaming about being in Ghost Rider, but Im there for the communal experience.

And I like to sit at the DC or Mavel comic booths and watch the trailers for new cartoons and comicbooks. This year, I must have watched the trailer for the Marvel Ultimate Alliance videogame about a dozen times.

The train ride down from L.A. Absolute nerdgasm.

I loved being on a panel and showing off new stuff. After a year of working on Yin Yang Yo and having the show exist only in my head, or on the page to be able to screen it to a full room and hear big laughs where we hoped wed get them was both a treat AND a relief.

McHugh: Walking the floor, seeing our clients and finding new and exciting voices. Its a great time to celebrate our clients and their work.

Gal: I am most interested in the small press section, the individual artists and the limited edition artists vinyls and other toys. I also go to a lot of industry panels and of course all the Nickelodeon events.

One of big surprises of Comic-Con was the appearance of Quentin Tarantino with his Grind House co-director Robert Rodriguez. Photo courtesy of Rick DeMott.

One of big surprises of Comic-Con was the appearance of Quentin Tarantino with his Grind House co-director Robert Rodriguez. Photo courtesy of Rick DeMott.

AWN: Did you see anything or anyone surprising?

Atoms: Yeah! Cartoon Network finally allowed all of its creators to meet each other. For a long time I thought Danny Antonucci was a robot. Now I know that hes mostly human. Mr. Warburton, however, is a robot.

Loc: No, it is a weekend out with 100,000 of my close friends.

Mika: Celebrities were walking among us. Thats par for the course, but it seemed more evident this year than in years past. I did see some great costumes that people had made and they were fantastic. The amount of effort that went into these years costumes was very surprising.

McHugh: The number of storm troopers was at an all time high!

Evanier: Im not sure, but I think I saw someone selling comicbooks. And yes, I know I used that joke when you asked me this after last years con... but its a good line and its more unlikely than ever.

Marmel: I actually ran into a lot of people who had visited, or friended me on my personal Myspace page. That was a different experience and pretty cool. It had the potential to be scathingly weird, but it wasnt.

Moon: EVERYTHING at Comic-Con is suprising! I certainly enjoy doing some people watching when I can there, too. Its amazing how involved and decked out some people can get!

Gal: I was shocked by the proliferation of vinyl figures this year they were everywhere.

Copplola: Not really. Every year theres an increase of large-scale exhibitors and this year we also saw a lot of new people in the industry who were aware of Comic-Con but had never attended. Its always fun to watch someone who was on the sidelines of comics become converted when they attend a mass gathering of fans and industry like Comic-Con.

AWN: How did this one compare to previous ones?

Mika: It was just as enjoyable as previous years, but it felt like there was less variety in the vendors.

Atoms: This was, by far, my favorite Comic-Con so far. Some people say its getting too big. Since when did America have a problem with big? I say, bring it on! I hope Comic-Con is twice as big next year! Of course, Im still reeling from all of the free booze, so take that with a grain of salt. And a lime.

Copplola: Much busier we had a few of our executive teams manning our retail booth because of the sheer volume of sales. At one point it became an all hands on deck situation due to the amount of fans in our booth I think our fans know they can expect a great booth from VIZ Media and we even have fans that bring back all the VIZ Media collectible canvas bags as their own version of collectible pins.

We also had the honor of hosting two of our creators Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Rurouni Kenshin and the new Buso Renkin series, and Matsuri Hino, creator of Meru Puri and the upcoming Vampire Knight, and it was great to see the enthusiasm and it was wonderful for them to see how well they are loved here in the United States.

Evanier: Last years con got off to an uncomfortable start because so many pre-registered folks spent so much time waiting in line for badges. There was so much less hassle this time that a lot of people felt like this was the best Con ever, even before they got inside. Other than that, it was the same convention as 05 except there was 14% more of everything.

Marmel: Well, this was the year that I got to bring a new show to the Con, sneak it before it was out and hand out comicbooks we produced to hype the series. I went to the Comic-Con with a comicbook based on the show we did. How great is that?

Gal: It just keeps getting bigger. But there was the same enthusiasm and excitement for new content.

After promoting their new show on a panel, Yin Yang Yo! (from left) co-exec producer/head writer Steve Marmel, director John Fountain and creator/exec producer Bob Boyle sign autographs at the Disney/Jetix booth.

After promoting their new show on a panel, Yin Yang Yo! (from left) co-exec producer/head writer Steve Marmel, director John Fountain and creator/exec producer Bob Boyle sign autographs at the Disney/Jetix booth.

McHugh: Its amazing how the Con has turned into such a showcase for film and television... perhaps a little too much. Theres an upside and downside to the trend. It lifts the profile of the Con, but it can also turn away whats most important... the artists.

Loc: Hollywood has been taking over for the past seven years. Comic-Con has become a place to roll out next years summer movies. I lost a lot of the screenings I do like the Silent Animation screening because it is all about how many people you can get in the room. I understand the pressure, but I miss the small funky events with a solid but not giant base.

AWN: Did you find any good buys?

Evanier: Didnt buy a thing. If Id gotten started on getting everything there I wanted, Id have had to include the purchase of a new house in which to store it all.

Marmel: Not a lick. But then I wasnt looking.

Gal: Found some interesting new talent, but no one I can tell you about

Mika: I definitely found some good buys. While some tables were overpriced, there were a lot that were much more affordable.

Copplola: I have two boys at home six and nine years old and every year I bring home a duffel bag of things I wind up purchasing at Comic-Con. Some of them make it to the kids and some of them...well, lets say theyre added to my office collection. Theres always good buys there and the Con exclusives are very well planned. Im still trying to figure out how to convince our consumer products group to give me one of the cool exclusive Naruto skateboards that were sold exclusively at Comic-Con. If theyre not sold out.

Michael Sinterniklaas (left), voice of Mikey Simon on Kappa Mikey signs autographs at the Nick booth while Eric Calderon, vp of creative affairs, Studio Gonzo helped present his studio sneak peak of Afro Samurai.

Michael Sinterniklaas (left), voice of Mikey Simon on Kappa Mikey signs autographs at the Nick booth while Eric Calderon, vp of creative affairs, Studio Gonzo helped present his studio sneak peak of Afro Samurai.

Loc: I am in to the history of animation. There were not as many pirated DVDs since last years crack down. I am all for copyright protection in a big was, but have a problem when studios lock up our history in their vaults and refuse to bring it out or let anyone else do so. I think there needs to be a change to the copyright law that puts hoarded content into public domain if it falls inactive for too many years. As it is now, the pirate scum are the only sources for hoarded history. I wish it wasnt so.

Atoms: Yeah. I had no time to buy anything. It saved me a bundle.

AWN: Any additional observations?

McHugh: Klingon Ascension Ceremony A must attend event!

Loc: It is always sad to walk through artist alley and see genius unrecognized. I think that maybe it is about time to think about splitting Comic-Con into two venues with all the Hollywood studio film stuff in one and the comics and art in another. It is just too unwieldy and the small things of importance are being pushed aside.

Mika: The invasion of other media to the Comic-Con is welcome. I loved the Snakes on a Plane display, and the large displays from toy companies like Gentle Giant and Hasbro. Probably the most exciting thing for me, and my co-workers will strangle me since I talked so much about it, was the announcement that Mattel would be re-releasing Sizzlers, a toy car line I absolutely loved as a kid.

Marmel: Yes. To you people in the costumes, who I love and enjoy seeing there... remember: The first day you wear your costume its clean. Then it becomes NOT clean. By Friday, that Obi-Wan Kenobi robe is pretty funked out. Im not saying you have to scrub the sweat out of your Storm Trooper outfit EVERY day, or was the tunic every morning but if youre there for four days, one trip to the dry cleaner, or laundromat would do all of us a world of good.

I only know this from the year I went as Spider-Man.

Atoms: Just my own armpit smell. For those who missed it, I hope to bring it back in increased strength next year.

In the end, Comic-Con is always about the fans. Photo courtesy of Sarah Baisley.

In the end, Comic-Con is always about the fans. Photo courtesy of Sarah Baisley.

Moon: Only that its such an experience and you havent seen everything till you attend a Comic-Con. Every year its become bigger and more intricate, which just goes to show how important animation and comicbooks and everything else associated with the genre has become in our everyday lives.

Copplola: Just a very heart felt thanks to our convention team which is lead by Evelyn Dubocq and Jane Lui they manage to top themselves every year!

Evanier: Didnt buy a thing. If Id gotten started on getting everything there I wanted, Id have had to include the purchase of a new house in which to store it all.

Sarah Baisley is editor of Animation World Network and Bill Desowitz is editor of VFXWorld.

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