Surf's Up Animation Test #1

I think we did this in 2004 or 2005. This was the first large scale piece ( we call them sizzle pieces ) that the 3D Visual Development group had assembled.

We try to answer as many questions as possible if we'll be spending lots of time on a test. For this piece, no one had done a crashing ocean wave before, there were lots of rolling swells done at that time, but nothing that had a tube and crashed. We were also experimenting with sports-like cinematography.

The wave rig was a prototype that we handed to Imageworks, who in turn built a rig that suited their needs for the film. With only two of us animating on a handful of shots, we can make a very specific rig rather than having to make something very robust for scores of animators working on hundreds of shots. We're free to try things you'd never dare try to support in production.

It was suggested to us that we simulate the waves. As in: make a giant body of water, make a sloping ocean bottom, put 1000 fans and blow them over the surface thereby creating waves. We knew immediately that would be the most expensive, time consuming and inflexible method possible, so we set out to rig the wave as if it was just another character.

Since all of us have a production background we could put ourselves in the future animator's shoes. "I bet the director will ask to change the shape on the top of the wave." -or- "It would be great if we could see the wake and trail as we animated." -or- "The animator and director should see texture flowing over the wave to get a sense of how fast or slow the wave is moving." We could cobble together a lot of ideas very late in the process, sometimes days before delivery.

The directors brought the test and their outline to the executives. They showed the test first and the execs green-lit the film in that meeting.

There were five artists working for about 16 weeks ( including the wave rig prototype ) for the entire piece. Takao Noguchi modeled and textured Cody, Shawn McInerney animated and helped with the wave prototype, Ernie Rinard and James Battersby textured and lit the waves. I supervised, rigged Cody, made the wave rig and animated. The boards were done by Richie Chavez and Marcelo Vignali.