17 - Making the animation

At this step, we will take the scene where Ernest is waking up, a scene that you could see at the storyboard step. As a reminder, here is the scene as it was in the Layout

At first, I explain the Lead animator what I want for this scene

He is then giving those informations to the animator who will work on the scene

I sometimes pass so I can give more informations on the scene

The animator will make a rough version of his or her scene, rough version that will gives us an idea of what the scene will look like.

Patrick can see the scene in work in progress and give corrections if necessary

Finally we have the cleaned animation, ready to be colored

This is how the color team will start working. Greg was the lead colorist

They start coloring each moving characters and objects. You will notice that the lines of the drawings are not closed so the volume of the characters is not always defined. The lead colorist has to complete this volume

The colors will complete the volume

After the shadows will be added

So here is the final result at this step

This is how we worked on animation. We were lucky to make all those thing in only one studio in Paris. Our biggest advantage was to work among the animators so we could work precisely on the acting of the characters. Even if I was not really clear all the time...

16 - Making the Backgrounds

Before we start putting colors in the Background, Zazyk who are the Background designer are made a Color Script. The Color Script is composed of rough colored backgrounds that gives us an idea of what will be the main colors of the film.

Those rough paintings are finaly quite close the final background. Here is some example, click on the pictures below if you want to see the differences between the colorscript and the final background:

The Color Script will help the background artists in their work. Let's get back on the Layout right here

First we have to make the inking. For this we used walnut stain and an pen.

Once it is over we make the watercolor painting.

Then it is scanned and inking and watercolor are put together so we can have the final background

This is it! To resume this chapter, here you can see the different steps if you click and the arrows

15 - The Layout

Let's see how we can do the Layout of this scene. It is a scne that takes place early in the film. After she met Ernest, Célestine gets back in her city which lies underground. She waits for her turn to get on the mecanical elevator. Here is the rough version of the film in the storyboard

This scene is taking place in the City of Mice. The first think we have to do is gathering the background references for this City.  Here is some of them.

Once we gathered them, the layout is made.

On the layout we put informations such has what part of the background must be cut so a character can pass behind it. Once we finish this work, we have the Layout for the Background.

We can then start working on the Layout Posing. At this step, we take the Layout background and draw the characters on it. First we must have the model sheet of the characters who will appear on the scene.

So we can draw them modifying their attitude as they are in the storyboard. Some posings are drawn so the animators who will work on the scene can see what the characters must precisely look like.  

Ther it's done, this is how the Layout is complete.

Here you can see the storyboard and below the Layout

14 - The Studio

The team finally got into the studio and we started living with the mice. Of course they were quiet but sometimes they were a little bit invasive

The Studio was called ”La Maison des Canaux”. If ever you come in Paris and you wander in the North East of the city, you will have the chance to see it next to the Canal near the Stalingrad Place. For those who are suspicious about the fact that our owners were mice, here is a video I took when I was working there in Timelapse so you can see the story is true.  

See, I was not lying...