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

[michechan.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's so beautiful! Why couldn't they just make the whole film look like that? I miss 2-D so much. :[

I must admit, the trailers made me think that this movie looked horrible, but it's getting such positive feedback that now I wanna see it. :/

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

It's really good, I recommend it :) I thought it was going to be a stupid fartfest, but there is nary a toot.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

So I hear. I'd have liked to have seen it already but work has been all-consuming.

[jolly-kraken.livejournal.com]

Agreed 100%! I'd be WAY more excited to see this movie if the entire thing was animated like that. In fact, I'd probably see it about five times just to absorb all the awesomeness. Then I'd buy the DVD and watch it another 700 times until the images were burned into my eyes. And then I'd suddenly want to become an animator.

I thought the same thing about the trailers, too. They made it look absolutely juvenile and pointless, despite the impressive animation (and that was before seeing the 2-D parts, which impressed me far more than the 3-D). But then again it's aimed towards a younger audience, so I guess I should stop whining. Still, it wouldn't kill them to mature it even a little bit so that us "old folks" (read: everyone above the age of 10) would want to see it, y'know, WITHOUT bringing children along to justify the fact that they're going to see a "kid's movie."

[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.

[isaluna.livejournal.com]

I thought it would be juvenile based on the previews, as well. I was dragged to the theater by a 20-year-old animation obsessee who was certain it'd be better than it looked, and he was right.
And the opening animation was spectacular.
Really, I think the previews needed to better reflect the movie. We were the only couple who didn't have children in tow. Because of the "animation is for kids" mindset, I'm sure.
I was really hoping more of the movie would be in 2-D.