Firstly, congratulations on finishingIce Age 3!
Then after that first shock wears off its still very exciting.
I think that excitement and the anticipation of that never wears off, and never will.
], and that was a very different style of animation that we explored.
It was all about trying to make it feel like the world of Dr Seuss.
The challenge of then going back to theIce Agestyle, we had to adjust.
We all learned and went through a lot as a team.
That sort of thing.
People certainly warmly respond to Scrat.
He captures the spirit of old cartoons really well.
And thats whats fun about Scrat.
The animation is very spontaneous.
Its a very straight-ahead animation style.
Its an active brainstorming session as youre animating the character.
As theres no dialogue, it allows us to do whatever we feel inspired to do.
Computer animation is perceived as an exhaustive, time-consuming process.
I can rough an idea in a couple of hours, or less sometimes.
But so that get an idea in there, we dont necessarily need to put that many images in.
And there are other things you could do.
A lot of animators will draw out and sketch the ideas.
You worked onRobots, which looked a very visually intense film, and on several other projects since.
How has the animation software evolved, and has it ever constrained your ideas in any way?
Have you had to push it to do things that it wasnt designed to do?
The software itself hasnt necessarily changed a whole lot for us in animation.
In regards to character animation that I do specifically, it hasnt changed a lot.
And are the computers fast enough to keep up with you?
It sounds like such a fast flow of ideas you deal with.
For most of us, the computer can be as much a restrictive tool….
Oh, yes!
There is, definitely.
Computers can be restrictive.
So you press the play button and see it in real time, hopefully!
Sometimes, because things are slower than wed like, it requires a little bit more guesswork.
And that can be frustrating.
As well as stability, that sort of thing.
We are not free from computers crashing and not working!
We experience the same amount of problems that anyone would have sitting at home and using their computer.
I bet your Facebook pages load faster than anyone elses, though…
[Laughs] Yeah!
It definitely helps having that team!
With CG movies, theres surely not a sub-genre thats developed so fast visually.
How much of a pressure is that?
You know honestly, that is the reason why we are all in this art form.
Thats the exciting element of it.
Without that aspect, I think a lot of us would lose interest.
And its not a pressure, but something we look forward to, that we want to do.
I would imagine thats exasperated further when the project is the entry in one of Foxs premier franchises?
I think everybody was concerned.
But once it hit animation, we had to work really fast.
We animated I think most of the movie in the last … We really cranked out a lot of footage in the last little bit.
We were working six days a week at the end there for the last several months.
We were averaging at least 60 hours a week, and people were doing 70, 80 hours.
There was a lot of overtime.
A lot of people not seeing their families.
And that was unfortunate: this was one of the hardest productions that most of us have experienced.
And how do you feel now, looking at the final cut?
I think were very proud of it.
We went and saw the film on Monday night, it was our premiere of it.
We all were very excited, and we walked out of there feeling very good about what we saw.
Its an exciting roller coaster road.
I think thats the best way to explain it.
Its just a really exciting movie.
Did you watch it in 3D?
Yes, we did!
Personally, I think the jury is out to an extent on 3D.
What do you feel about putting 3D into anIce Ageproject, and when was the decision made?
So a lot of us were not super-excited about doing it in 3D.
But once we saw the finished product in 3D on Monday, I was really blown away.
This is one of the first times I watched a movie and I forgot I had 3D glasses on.
I just got captured in the film, which says a lot about our stereoscopic team.
I think thats what 3D needs to do.
When did the stereoscopic team come in?
They came into the project right when it was announced that we were going to do stereoscopic.
And they did a great job.
So how long was the production in all?
I think so, maybe.
About two and a half, three years.
You mentionedHorton Hears A Whobefore, a film Im a big fan of.
Because you know you have a goal in sight.
you might see where you want to go.
But then exactly how you get there is really the fun and exciting part of it.
I think they just did a beautiful job.
It was exciting, it really was exciting.
Are there any stories that you personally would love to get the chance to bring to the screen?
I dont know, thats hard to say.
I think that is the most exciting to me.
YourTHX trailerthat you did with theHortoncharacters.
How did that come about?
I dont know who else was involved in it, but I know he was.
It was a fun little idea that we used.
There was actually another trailer that we did, aHortontrailer, that never came out.
Where one would leave the screen, the other would come on the other side of the screen.
And all kinds of funny little things.
That ended up never being released I dont think, at least not in the United States.
So some of those elements we used in the THX trailer.
Is that an area you think that Fox and yourselves would ever head back towards?
I dont see that happening any time soon.
I think that Blue Sky is pretty married right now to digital animation.
Which leads to the obvious question what are you working on next?
Is there a fourthIce Agemovie, or a Scrat spin-off?
Our very next movie that were working on is calledRio, and I know thats been announced!
But the movies after that Im just not sure if Im free to say!
Interview over, Hans then quizzes your interviewer about Simon Pegg.
