BLENDING 3D & 2D
Pour lire la version française de cette entrevue, cliquez ici.
How can we mix 3D and 2D techniques and stretch the limits of animation?
The next generation of blockbuster animated films, like Across The Spider Verse and TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, are answering this question. We love this approach, and we want to be part of the revolution!
Recently we kicked off an R&D project called JUMP to unite our 3D and 2D teams and take a creative leap into a new blended pipeline. We’re still hush hush about the details for JUMP, but we asked the working team, what’s your hot take on why bringing 3D and 2D together is so exciting?
With 2D animation, there's a lot of freedom for expression in the textures and the drawing style. And with 3D you never have to worry about keeping your character on model or maintaining volumes. This kind of feels like it can be the best of both worlds.
– Malcolm Sutherland, Director
What I'm excited about is figuring out ways to cheat 3D in a 2D way. I want to see how we can get out of these super technical complicated discussions to create effects in 3D, and just doodle it in 2D and make it fit with a 3D world. It’s faster… and looks better!
– Kim Fredette, 3D Animation Supervisor
I'm excited that our 3D and 2D teams enjoy working together. We usually work a lot in parallel and now we're blending. Neither is dominant, and I think that gives us a more creative approach.
– Frédérique Parentau, Producer
What I like about 2D/3D growing in popularity is that it really shows that 3D animation is an art form. For so long, people have thought of CGI as a replacement for 2D or else as generic VFX that there’s too much of. But I think the 2D/3D style shows that you can do incredibly artistic work with 3D that just wouldn't be possible in any other medium.
– Stefen Lamontagne, Production Coordinator
One of the more exciting challenges that we could take on is a true blend of traditional 2D hand drawn animation and modern 3D character animation. Not merely 2D effects on top of a 3D image, or 3D objects comp’d into a 2D scene. If we could truly achieve a seamless 50/50 mix, I believe audiences would not be sure how we did it.
– Wiley Townsend, 3D Animator
What fascinates me is bringing to life a world we already created in our minds as a child. It’s like bringing comic books to life or staring at a painting and imagining the story behind it… the world is so stylized and so distant from our reality.
– Marta Grasso, Compositor
We desire the break from realism and physics. The more it breaks with the laws of our world the more fun and engaging it becomes. It's not an ode to accuracy anymore, it's an interpretation of life. It allows me to create trusting my own feelings instead of photo references.
– Lisandre Thériault, 3D Generalist
Screenwriter - Voice Actor - Kung Fu Master
1yThank you for the newsletter. I love the personal statements of your team members. I just came back from the FMX fair in Stuttgart and talked to professionals from various animation studios including Nickelodeon who worked on the mentioned Ninja Turtles or DNEG who worked on Entergalactic. All of them are excited about developing new techniques and blending styles to create something new, so I think it's not only cool but also important that you have your 2D & 3D teams work together. :-) However, no matter the style, at least if it's commercial, most of them agreed that story and emotion come first, and style will then have to complement them.