I’m sure I have mentioned a time or two the fact that I was heading to California for the Monsters University Premiere. Well not only did we get to experience and have an amazing time at MU, we also got to preview Disney’s Planes!!
After the MU premiere, we moved on to learning about all things Disney’s PLANES! We spent an entire day at Disney Toon Studios, where all of the artists, filmmakers and production teams work together to create the amazing Disney animated movies.
Disney’s PLANES Animation
Our first stop was a meeting with Ethan Hurd, the Assistant Animation Director of PLANES. Ethan was nice enough to answer a few questions about his job and the role he played in creating personalities for the PLANES characters and doing the Planes Animation.
After meeting with the directors of the movie to find out what the characters should be thinking, it was time to create those emotions through images. Ethan uses the Maya 3D Animation Software to lip sync the characters’ mouths, eyes and to fill in any gaps. He poses out every single frame, just as they would in hand drawn images. It is similar to stop motion.
To achieve realism in the movie, they met with consultants that included pilots and the CARS animators.
Ethan has 15 – 20 years of experience and was trained traditionally. Additionally, he worked on the movies Toy Story 2 and Disney’s Bolt.
Each of us got a chance to try out the software. I was able to play around a little and move Dusty’s wings and wheels.
That was a lot of fun! I got home and was showing the pictures to my family…my husband wanted to know right away what program they use. It’s really an awesome program. There were so many ways you could move and animate. I was so amazed and impressed with what goes into animating these awesome movies!
We had such a great time and I was so thankful for everyone taking time out of their day to speak with us and demonstrate their role in the movie making process!
Stay tuned for the rest of my journey at Disney Toon Studios and my experiences with Disney’s Planes. Coming soon!
