I came across a pretty interesting movie trailer this morning, for one of the upcoming feature films from digital animation giant Blue Sky Studios:
I was impressed by the hint of well-executed CGI and enticing story, and then realized half-way through watching it that this looked mighty familiar!
Last year I took at trip to Blue Sky's headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut, for a look at the work environment and to meet its talented staff in advance of our Ice Age to the Digital Age: The 3D Animation Art of Blue Sky Studios exhibition. While there, I saw development sketches and character design for a movie adaptation of the acclaimed children's picture book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by illustrator William Joyce. The designs looked fantastic... great, fantasy-themed artwork, and definitely something I could see Sarah enjoying.
I remember talking to Blue Sky's founder Chris Wedge about the film, and he seemed excited to be directing the project (I guess Joyce has been a collaborator on several of the studio's films). Since then, it looks like they have changed the title of the film to Epic, and it is due to be released in 2013. One thing I notice is that the "style" of the animation looks a little different than what we have come to expect from the studio (i.e. Ice Age, Robots, Rio). It looks like a less caricatured film at times, although I see they still have the sense to avoid the "uncanny valley" effect: trying to make human characters look realistic, but ending up scaring the bejeezus out of viewers.
Well, I haven't read the book yet, but both it and the movie look very promising indeed. Fun to catch the inside look at the development of a feature film... and I thought some of my projects took forever to complete!
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