“The Croods” is my first feature film after graduating from
CalArts. I came onboard in January 2011 and after a few weeks of training, I
was animating away on a feature film! Some of my first few shots involved Eep
climbing up a cliff-face. I was given a little overview by my supervisor about
the show and the expectations for the show's animation style(cartoony, but grounded with realistic believability) and I was extremely excited after hearing about the family, the world,
and the creatures! From January 2011 until November 2012, I was animating
all kinds of supremely fun shots on the film. I couldn’t feel more
proud of everyone involved in the making of “The Croods.”
Some of my favorite memories involve attending dailies (when animators
show their wip work to the directors), and watching the character’s traits/the
whole family dynamic really develop.
The crew was constantly discovering new ways to push the animal-like
movements on the family members, pushing the physical comedy, and really
tapping into the heart-felt moments between the characters. All of which was
very inspiring and motivating to a newcomer like me (and intimidating, but I
learned so much on every shot)---I’d usually leave dailies very eager to get
back to my desk and animate. Congratulations to all of my co-workers across all
departments, it’s so exciting that the Crood family is now out for the world to
enjoy. I feel very fortunate to have been a member of Team Croods!
I thought it’d be fun to end with some thumbnails. As I plan
a shot, 99.9% of the time I do little planning drawings to figure out a course
of action. I then use these as a starting point for shooting reference,
scouring YouTube for more inspiration, or just diving right into posing the
characters out. This is a collage
from a variety of shots I worked on, some ideas stayed, other changed as the
shot progressed.
