Thursday, July 03, 2008

At Imagi

The morning hours found me traipsing through Imagi's Galleria offices in Sherman Oaks. Work on Astroboy (the studio's front-burner project) continues apace. A staffer said:

"Imagi is doing something I think every c.g. studio should do. We're taking character models, and only working with them on paper for maybe a week. Then we get those early, rougher models into the computers and do all the rest of the modeling work there. It really helps getting them into 3-D mode earlier, because that's the world they're going to exist in.

"I only wish Disney had done c.g. modeling this way when I was there. They would spend months rendering with pencil and paper, and we'd only get models into the 3-D world way later. I think the method Imagi is using works like gangbusters ..."

On the Gatchaman front, board artists are visualizing a fresher script, and working with newer directors. I had lunch with an Imagi artist who told me the directors' names, but the information entered my ear lobes and crossed the void between them to exit quickly (which is a rococo way of saying: "I like don't remember their freaking names ..."). The word I got over my steaming plate of chicken and broccoli was

"These guys are competent and good. They'll pull the picture together in ways the earlier directors couldn't."

I'm informed that a number of Yank artists have gone to the Hong Kong Mother Studio to work with the locals on the Imagi feature now in the production pipeline. (It isn't just foreigners coming to the U.S. to work. We also outsource talent to countries across the sea. As always, animation is a global enterprise).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a big fan of Tezuka, and I hope this new Astroboy film is a fitting tribute to such an amazing artist. But there is one thing I must insist on - that the theme music from the original Astroboy TV show be incorporated into the movie in some way. Yes, and with kids singing it. I used to watch Astroboy on Adult Swim, and that theme song blew me away. Can't explain why it did, but, well, it did.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure now that Anonymous has demanded this, Imagi will do everything it can to comply.

Ninjatron said...

Great article. Thanks for sharing. Really looking forward to both of these films, and anything else Imagi does. Very cool to get a glimpse of how the studio works.

Sayonara.

Anonymous said...

"Newer" directors? I thought the "older" director on Gotchaman was booted just a week ago. They've already replaced her? And you don't know who it is?

I also heard several board artists lost jobs as a result of the firings. y/n?

Anonymous said...

*I'm sure now that Anonymous has demanded this, Imagi will do everything it can to comply.*

Oh, good. I have an additional demand: Make the film for the Tezuka fans, not for clueless sourpusses as per the above. "Go go GO Astroboy!!!!" :D

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