‘Ice Age: Collision Course’ – Filmmakers’ Presentation
Our favorite Saber-toothed Squirrel-Rat ‘Scrat’ is chasing his elusive acorn again, but where will he drive the Ice Age story next?
Blue Sky and 20th Century Fox’s latest installment of the Ice Age franchise Ice Age: Collision Course might lead Manny, Sid, Diego and the rest of their ever-growing herd to extinction when asteroids are sent hurtling towards planet Earth! But who is responsible for this cosmic chaos? Well, it’s Scrat of course – an icon in the animation world and yet a catalyst for certain disaster – unwittingly steering the story and reminding us how even something very small and insignificant can literally transform a world (has there ever been a better or more hilarious analogy for the ‘Butterfly Effect’? I don’t think so!).
The story starts with Scrat looking for somewhere to store his prized acorn. Finding an extruding block of ice, Scrat plants his acorn down only to find it is actually a control panel and finds himself inside a frozen spaceship (remember the Ice Museum scene from the first film?). The acorn activates the spaceship and soon Scrat is flying into space – completely unaware of what is going on. Scrat finds himself fighting with the spaceship, randomly hitting buttons on the control panels in a desperate attempt to retrieve his acorn from the ship’s grasp. Through his actions, Scrat accidentally forms our solar system by accidentally hitting the moon which then collides with the other planets which are arranged uniformly like billiard balls, resulting in the construction of Saturn (by one ball coming to rest in the middle of a ring) the Great Red Spot of Jupiter (when Mars collides with it) and even the formation of star constellations – creating the astrological zodiac signs. In turn, this triggers a chain reaction of events resulting in a series of asteroids heading straight for our planet.
Collision Course sees the return of Buck the one-eyed weasel from Dawn of the Dinosaurs who warns the herd of what is to come. Taking his advice, the herd leave their home to embark on a quest, meeting a host of new and colorful characters along the way.
If by any chance you have not seen the trailer already – be sure to watch it now:
Filmmakers’ Presentation
At this year’s Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Mike Thurmeier and Lori Forte (joined by the festival’s artistic director, Marcel Jean) hosted an Ice Age: Collision Course exploring what they have done new in the their latest installment of the franchise and showcasing a near 20 minutes of scenes from the film!
I can remember in 2004 when I was first learning to animate in Maya, I bought the book Blue Sky: The Art of Computer Animation and I was fascinated by everything illustrated; from the staging of each shot to the modelling of the characters. But what stood out the most was their style and colour palette; consistent in all aspects throughout the book. You could see the angular nature of Manny’s tusks mirrored in the forms of all flora, rock and ice. Each and every character followed a specific colour palette that allowed them to be a feature in their environment while also fitting in so naturally with it. All in all, the Ice Age films are visually beautiful and this unique stylized look that is so important has been carefully carried through with sincerity in each and every film.
But what is really exciting about Collision Course is that Blue Sky have done something that is visually very new that freshens up the franchise very nicely – the introduction of a new environment Geotopia; a large asteroid that has crashed on Earth. Geotopia is a lush, fantastical alien environment featuring a vibrant array of colours, dominated by hues of pink and purple – and crystals, lots of crystals. This new colour palette is adopted by the ‘Geotopians’; a host of new zen characters that live inside the crashed asteroid. During the presentation Mike and Lori showcased some concept art, model sheets and walk cycles of these characters and it’s interesting to see that they all have a dense fur or feathered covering which mirrors the lush fullness of the Geotopia environment. Furthermore the new colour palette can be seen is some other characters outside the giant crashed Geode – Jullian (the new love interest of Manny and Ellie’s daughter Peaches) has a subtle hint of purple in his fur that represents what is new in the film and references the new alien asteroid world.
Marcel Jean, Mike Thurmeier and Lori Forte at Annecy Animation Festival 2016
The colour script was created by Mike Knapp and really brings the whole environment to life when considering the role of lighting and how this will communicate emotively with the audience. From the preview sequences and concept art shown you can clearly see how the new vibrant colour palette of Geotopia has been integrated into all other environments – from the hints of purple infusing with the clouds in the blue sky to the pink highlights caressing the tops of sweeping mountaintops. And again, this is a perfect example of how Blue Sky have carefully executed a visual style to flow seamlessly throughout the film. But there is more to the introduction of these new vibrant hues than aesthetics alone. Mike and Lori displayed some photos of Jupiter, courtesy of NASA that clearly showed a purple aurora surrounding its north pole. Given that space is a new theme in the Ice Age series it seems fitting that their new colour palette has been inspired by photography from space.
Another area where style is consistent through all the Ice Age films is the animation, and what better example than all the sequences featuring Scrat – it’s like watching the works of Tex Avery come to life in glorious 3D, which has always been a string to Blue Sky’s bow, allowing them to stand out from other computer animation powerhouses such as DreamWorks and Pixar. During the presentation we were shown the first few minutes of the film which expands upon the short Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe. It was incredible to see just how far they have pushed animation in this wonderful Scrat sequence (I was trying to get my head around how it was even possible to build a rig to allow Scrat to deform in the many ways he did – considering this was the same rig that they were using in the second movie in 2006!) and used the theme of space to generate some truly ingenious gags, such as ‘what will happen to Scrat if we play with the rules of Gravity?’. We were also shown some other sequences from the film, including the hilarious scene where Sid proposes to his girlfriend (whom he has only known for just one day) and even a scene where the mammoths are playing ice hockey!
At the end of the presentation Mike and Lori invited the audience to ask any questions. A member of the audience asked if there is a research and development department for animation at Blue Sky, to which Mike replied:
Primarily we use Maya and the animation has improved as tech has got better, although as the tech improves we try to be true to the style.
When asked if there would be a sequel, Lori responded:
Maybe, you tell us! It will depend on the audience’s reaction to film five.
Marcel Jean, Mike Thurmeier and Lori Forte at Annecy Animation Festival 2016
During the presentation Lori did assure us that she has lots of ideas for how the story could develop further – let’s hope we get to see them realized – or will Sid, Manny, Diego and the entire herd face annihilation in Ice Age: Collision Course?
To find out, make sure you see the film! The UK release date is Friday 15th July 2016. And to really get the most out of the experience this film offers, be sure to watch it in 3D!
Hear more from filmmakers Mike Thurmeier and Lori Forte in the next episode of the Skwigly Podcast, up tomorrow.