Nugget of Awesome

[tealin]

opening 2D scene - now in Quicktime!

WARNING: You may go blind from sheer awesomeness. (My eyes! It's too awesome!)

I was extremely lucky that I got to see this come together (though I didn't work on it myself). It's astonishing how much it looks like the original concept artwork, but moving. Those flags at the beginning, for example, were gestural paint strokes, but they animate like flags and still look the same! And if anyone needs a lesson in arcs they just have to look at the swooshy kung fu bits because they are perfect. All the 2D character animation and, I think, most of the effects, were done by James Baxter; the rest is AfterEffects which was animated by a very small group of likewise very talented people. I am in deepest awe.

There's also the closing credits animation (in lovely big Quicktime which you can stopframe) which I think was done after they all moved to Dreamworks.

I have to wait till next weekend to see the rest of the movie, though...

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I figure they were just trying to bank on Dreamworks' reputation and precedent of box office success -- as juvenile as most of their movies have been, you can't deny they've made money, so making KFP look like one of them is essentially the marketing department saying 'Hey all your people who bought tickets for Shark Tale and Shrek 3! Come buy tickets for this!' Making it look new and different might more likely have a negative effect on that audience than it would a positive effect on the minority who sneer at Dreamworks' potty humour.

As for the 'animation is just for kids' mindset, changing that would require a massive societal change which animators have been wishing for since at least the 50s. I'd love it, but I keep my hopes low.