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Mickey's twice upon a Christmas preview

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Mickey's twice upon a Christmas preview

heya guys,

Disney just put a short clip for the upcoming DVD 'Mickey's twice upon a Christmas' online. Animated by yours truly :)

You can check it out here

cheers,
~D

Dave's picture
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy [i]-Tom Waits [/i]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy [i]-Tom Waits
[/i]

Oh no... Say it isn't so. 3D Mickey and Donald and Hewey, Dewey and Lewey? Some things just shouldn't be messed with. Oh well.

Great animation though Dave. Nice timing.

Cheers

"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard" - Paul Simon

To be honest...its looks great!....i'm up for abit of that

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I can see where Wade is coming from, but I think it is done tastefully and looks great. The squash and stretch keeps it looking just as cartoony as the original hand drawn characters. Nicely done Dave.

"i love the graph editor"
[ChrisMagovern.com]
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It looks really nice Dave. I did feel they could've played with the staging to spice it up alittle better, but everything worked well. I'm actually really curious to see how you guys are going to handle Mickey's ears in 3D. As most of you probably know, traditionally Mickey's ears are always 2 slightly squashed circles and don't overlap whether his head is in a side profile or a straight on front view. So I'm interested to see if his image still works when his ears are rooted to his skull. Keep up the good work Dave.

The Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

thx for the comments guys,
I'm not too hot about the whole controversy surrounding this project either -too many people determined to hate it no matter what- but it did give me a chance to work together with some of the Disney greats.
Also, as I was just one of many people working on this, I'll refrain from commenting too much, since it's really not my prerogative to do so.

For those that aren't interested in the 3D version, there will be the traditionally animated DTV 'The Three Musketeers', with mostly the same characters. I know I'll be getting both. :D

cheers,
~D

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy [i]-Tom Waits
[/i]

I will certainly see the film, 3D, or 2D. Just took me by surprise to see these animation icons made into CG characters.

Cheers!

"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard" - Paul Simon

Dave,
Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed that clip. I could see the stretch in Donald's limb's and the eye bulge as well. It must be very nice to be able to animate with models that are well done. From my own experience, I know how frustrating it is to be limited by how good your animation can look by the quality of the model you are using. I envy you!

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No prob Wade, sorry if I sounded a bit edgy. Btw looks like I might be heading over to Vancouver to visit a friend of mine at Mainframe in the not too distant future; if you're in the vicinity I'll buy ya a beer ;)

Thanks Bluehickey; I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, rigging is one of the most underestimated parts of CG; we've got some amazing guys here to take care of that for us, and it's a real blessing for the animators. For this we used the CS biped that they heavily modified to do whatever we wanted it to do without it falling apart all over the place. They saved my bacon on more then one occasion :D

cheers,
~D

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy [i]-Tom Waits
[/i]

I'm actually pretty impressed with the translation into 3d of the characters. I like the squash and stretch and the acting. Wish it could snap a little more. Style decision I suppose.

Good job!

Ender

Love it!!

Only feedback: these things are begging for more extremes. The three boys' tugs kinda go under and the wonderful Donald in the air doesn't read as strongly as I feel it could. But I really like this and am happy to see the translation done so well.

D.

Well, Dave...

As much as i LOVE drinking beer... ESPECIALLY FREE ONES (that is my favorite kind of beer), Vancouver is a pretty long way to go for 'em. If your in Montreal though.... Then you can buy me all the beers you want! Hehehe

Cheers

"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard" - Paul Simon

Hey!! I liked it!!

Thought

Maybe there can be some programming embedded into his ears that allow them to be flat-shaded and stick to the orientation of the camera? More advanced things than that have I seen....

It does look great, I agree with everyone, but as a point of learning....after he gets caught by the footrest, if you watch it he begins rolling in mid-air after hitting some invisible wall of force....what's the impetus for that rolling? I'm trying to eye and am thinking there's a valuable motion lesson to be learned in here somewhere

Wade, I thought EA was in Vancouver; my bad. Ah well, all the more brewskis for me then :D

Thx Daniel, I'm glad you liked it. :)

SL, the freezing is just a cartoony thing; like Wile E. stopping mid-air before he falls down the cliff. Then the footrest yanks his feet back, causing the roll. It's your basic cartoon-stuff, not that much real physics envolved in this sorta thing, as long as it looks believable is all that matters.

cheers,
~D

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy [i]-Tom Waits
[/i]

Hey Dave,

I believe that EA IS in fact in Vancouver, although, they just opened a studio here in Montreal as well. But that is not what puzzles me... Where did EA come from? I don't work there? Hehehe.

Cheers

"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard" - Paul Simon

Damn, I coulda sworn you mentioned starting at EA somewhere.

Looks like I gotta lay off the booze a bit :(

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy [i]-Tom Waits
[/i]

Oooh

SL, the freezing is just a cartoony thing; like Wile E. stopping mid-air before he falls down the cliff. Then the footrest yanks his feet back, causing the roll. It's your basic cartoon-stuff, not that much real physics envolved in this sorta thing, as long as it looks believable is all that matters.

With Wile E., though, while it doesn't make sense for him to stop, he did come to a halt, and then the ground-that-doesn't-exist gives way beneath him. The only force for him moving is his legs pushing his body.

With Donald the forward motion was interrupted by the footrest, which then becomes in its springiness an object acting upon him.... It sends him back, back, and then he stops moving back and simply begins a vertical ascent...That's what confused me...However, looking at it again, especially in full motion, it's hardly noticeable and obviously doesn't detract from the experience...

Like you said, strange is it might be, this isn't the business to be in if you're after realism....That whole "do what the camera can't" keeps throwing it's weight around hehe

3D? Well Great!

Really nice work! And it must be awesome to get to work with the "big boys." From the "non-animator's" perspective, I thought the work was stellar. Really.

But what do I know? I'm just a voice-actor. ;)

Congrats, and I hope this project brings you many more.

ab

abvox: Voice and Sound Design Services
abVoices.com

Abvox

Abvox, that Mount Rushmore bit you did is the best greeting card I've ever seen...so funny...

Wow. Thank you!

ab

abvox: Voice and Sound Design Services
abVoices.com

Hi Dave,

Naw... I DID mention that I was starting work at one of the world's largest game studios. Mayeb you assumd it was EA? I am working now at Ubisoft... The other one.

;)

And don't EVER talk that way again!!! I will not have you laying off any booze on my account!

Cheers

"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard" - Paul Simon