June 3, 1999 - Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a landmark in film-making. More so that any other film, animatics and computer graphics played critical roles in making it possible.
In tonite's chat session at Talk City, two of the youngest team members, animatics artists Kevin Baillie (below left) and Ryan Tudhope (below right) discussed what their work is like, how they get into the field, the hype, etc. The session started at around 6:00 PST.
(Before talking with Baillie and Tudhope, chatters got to talk with producer Rick McCallum. There were interesting insights which we will try to post elsewhere.)
Some tidbits from the animatics chat...
McCallum:
Let me meanwhile introduce today's next pair of guests -- two
extraordinary people, Kevin and Ryan, who are talented, young,
animators who helped create all the animatics for the film.
Kevin Baillie: Thanks, Rick. Basically, animatics are a video-game-quality representation of what a final shot will be. It's a blueprint for ILM to follow for their shot.
Ryan Tudhope: In the early stages of our development, it's up to George and the editors to get the timing down.
Baillie: In the end, we have the rough quality together, before any work by ILM has been done.
Audience: Kevin and Ryan, can you please tell us how you both got into animatics? Do you have any advice for future amimatic artists trying to get into the business?
Tudhope: I would say above all, film basics, studying film.
Baillie: Film theory, composition, just taking film courses, the history of film.
Tudhope: The tools will change, but the theories will never change.
Baillie: The computer is just another tool. So the film background is very important. We got into computer graphics as freshmen in high school, on old 486's, and we taught ourselves. Anyone who is inspired enough and has enough willpower to go out and give up aspects of their personal life, and to study anything, will get to where they want to be. So put your heart and mind to it, and you'll get what you want.
Audience: What is the average length of a work day to create one of the animatic characters?
Tudhope: We get in around 8am usually, and if a light day, we might finish by 7 or 8pm. If a crunch, we may be there until midnight...and we spent the night a few times. But we usually work a scene at a time, not just one character, and work the scene until George is happy with it. We re-visit scenes and work on them to add details later. It's a hobby though, so we enjoy it, and it IS "Star Wars" so no complaints.
Audience: Did you make the lightsaber effects?
Baillie: Yes, we did, for a small number of shots, 20 or 30. Our group did a little over 100 final effect shots, including lightsabers, holograms, lasers, 3D puppeteer removal.
Audience: Did you guys even have a demo reel, since you were still in high school? Did you have time to make one?
Tudhope: We did a lot of our own projects, and we would indeed send a reel out, and found out this way what would work and not work, and kept trying. Eventually, someone took notice of us.
Baillie: There are things at school that involve computer graphics, but also that involve school assignments. We used to do five-minute animations for entertainment at school assemblies. Kind of killing two birds with one stone.
Audience: Were you ever tempted to let any of your friends in on secrets about the films before they were released?
Tudhope: No, we had more fun KEEPING the secrets from them!
Baillie: We were threatened with decapitation if we told anyone anything.
Audience: What do you think of all the hype built around this movie?
Tudhope: We're incredibly pleased that the fans are so happy, and being fans ourselves, we understand why everyone is so excited.
Baillie: It was great for us to have to keep silent about this for two years, then have all this hype and the interviews, and be able to hang a Naboo Starfighter from my rear view mirror.
Tudhope: It's weird to see things in aisles of stores that were hidden in the top floor here.
Baillie:
I'd like to add that most of us wish that there had been no hype,
so fans could go in, and see the film with no idea what they would
be seeing. But we've enjoyed every minute of the ride.