Siggraph

It’s the same general approach, only with very different visual presentations.

Robert Neuman, stereoscopic supervisor at Walt Disney Animation, showed a trailer for the upcoming computer-animated feature Bolt, which is from the talking-animal variety of kids-oriented films. In this movie, John Travolta voices a dog who thinks the popular TV show he stars in is real life. Neuman stressed the importance of using 3D as an aid to storytelling and not as purely a gimmick, something echoed by all the presenters so far today. Having objects flying nonstop at the screen seems to be a William Castle-like relic from the past.

At Disney, they use a tool known as the Depth Script. Before applying the sterescopic intensity to a 3D movie, the animators must first chart the emotional intensity of the film. Neuman talked about using flat compositions and dynamic compositions strategically, depending on what’s right for the story. Two more company mottos:

No Pie-Throwing

No Eye Strain

Henry Selick, the director behind modern stop-motion films The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach is at it again, this time adapting Coraline from Neil Gaiman’s book. Brian Van’t Hul, the visual effects supervisor for Coraline, was on hand to encourage animators to do one thing. “Break the rules whenever you can, ” he says. Van’t Hul, an Oscar winner for Peter Jackson’s King Kong works for Laika, the studio behind the new project and says that the production schedule for a stop-motion animated film is quite different from a computer-animated one.

“We’re currently in week 75, with somewhere between eight and ten to go,” he says.

Coraline has double the crew of Nightmare, and although the shoots for stop motion are long, grueling periods, he says the work itself is actually its own reward. A tactile, visual experience during production will surely rub off on the final product, and shooting with one only camera breeds experimentation. He looks to be right. The footage he previewed from the movie was markedly different from the completely CGI offerings of other studios that preceded his talk. Besides the Harryhausen-like movment (smoothed out these days, but still identifiable) of all the angular characters, the reel featured walking insect chairs, sad ghost children with button eyes, and an acrobatic marching band that hides in the sleeve of a giant circus ringleader.

The combination of new and old techniques is seamless, and Van’t Hul’s call to exploit the flaws inherent in moviemaking has given Coraline an interesting edge.