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Interview with Simon Pickard
Character Animator Simon Pickard talks about animating penguins for Happy Feet, working at Animal Logic, the animation industry and XSI.
December, 5th, 2006, by Raffael Dickreuter, Bernard Lebel
 |  | Simon Pickard, Character Animator at
Animal Logic on "Happy Feet".
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How did get started in the cg industry and why did you want to become an animator?
I’ve been interested in arty things since a young age, but also computers. After playing around with a free cover disk 3D app on my Amiga years ago I was hooked, once I worked out you could make things move inside these apps I was certain that’s what I wanted to do and worked towards this.
Upon leaving uni I started developing my reel at home, the uni (Teesside, UK) was good in the sense they sent out emails from companies looking for graduates. I applied to the first one I received (my bank statements made this a must!), and two weeks later I started work at Bizarre Creations in Liverpool working on a really fun character game Fur Fighters (thanks for the opportunity Jeff L!!) as a junior animator.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
All the normal things I guess, reading, watching films, good food, the gym when I can - due to all the good food, and I have been known to responsibly enjoy the odd beer. ;)
I do however spent a lot of spare time working on personal projects, and although I know this classes me as a total geek I do find it an amazing way to unwind and remove the frustrations that naturally build taking direction from someone else. I’ve been very lucky so far with the projects I’ve worked on and the creative vision passed down has always been good, but having total freedom to explore your own ideas, and just to practice your art is something I feel should be encouraged.
People watching is also a great pastime for an animator, you see so much you can use if you train yourself to study peoples quirks, most of the stuff you can’t use is usually damn funny anyhow!
Tell us about the production process of Happy Feet at Animal Logic and your involvement.
The process was an ever evolving thing, new tools and workflows came online all the time to help things move faster. There was of course a company structure in place at Animal with all the different departments working together to create what was in fact an amazingly complex film. I worked in animation as the lead character animator of Memphis, the father of Mumble, our hero. In terms of animation workflow a very simple version of it would go something like.. Mocap capture from the amazing dancers and actors -> the very talented MoEdit team where body movement was cleaned and corrected -> Animation, where keyframe animation, any final body animation changes or redo’s, and facial animation was performed. We also had a fix up team for anything that slipped through.
Explain to us the animation tasks, how animation was split up between animators etc
Animation tasks were very varied but almost all involved an extremely high level of facial performance I honestly believe the level of acting shown through our characters goes beyond anything yet seen in an animated feature, I still get goose bumps watching the depth and subtly of the acting. In terms of teams we had one or more leads per character and then groups of animators assigned to these characters. Having an extended period of time with one character really helped the quality, personally I felt I really knew my character inside out by the end of the project, I’d read that they almost become like a real living identity and I found this to be totally true!
What references were used to create funny dancing penguins and other characters in the movie?
Extensive footage was obtained from a team sent to the Antarctic, Brett Feeney talks a little more about this in another xsibase interview (http://www.xsibase.com/articles.php?detail=36). 100’s of animation cycles were created based on this footage for the crowds you see in HappyFeet which is why the level of realism is so high. Very complex behaviors were constructed to give a very natural feel. When you look at the crowds in Happyfeet you feel you could be watching a nature documentary. The main characters were quite tricky in terms of motion as they had to fuse dance while still maintaining the penguin feel, the dancers did an amazing job of bringing these two elements together, with the performances then being enhanced through the processes described above.
Happy Feet Animation Crew on the day of the production wrap with Director George Miller.
As an animator, what challenges did you have to solve for Happy Feet? What skills did you have to get or improve?
It’s weird in the film industry how you basically have no idea what you’re going to be working on until after you start work, all I knew when I accepted the contract was that it was a animated feature about dancing penguins. I was totally blown away on my first day when I saw the level of acting George Miller was trying to get. George himself was also very impressed with the quality coming from animation which in turn resulted in more extreme close-ups. It was in this area I really wanted to focus, acting. I was extremely lucky after a few months of soaking up as much as I could from the other amazing animators I was working along side to land the lead of Memphis who has many deep moments during the film. Being pushed by our animation director Daniel Jeannette and getting feedback from as many of my workmates as I could I feel proud of how much we’ve gotten from his Performance. In turn I personally feel I’ve come a long way during the production of this film as an animator.
Any production anecdote that makes you still laugh when looking back now?
There’s a key scene in the film where Memphis gives Mumble some really bad news, a really tricky scene to animate to get the maximum impact. The lead animator of Mumble, Tim Gibson, and I were feeling the pressure to deliver on that one but we had a great idea of a little joke- so at the height of the scene where Mumble needed to show deep emotions Tim quickly animated him just going stiff and fainting. We cut this into the film and showed the director who thought it was hilarious! GM was great like this. I’ve never met anyone so tuned into what they are doing. His live action experience is something that really shows throughout the film. He made the animation dailies a joy to attended, everyday was like a film master class and I don’t know anyone who worked with him that didn’t benefit from his experience. He had an amazing talent for making everyone on the film feel vital and he also managed to make the whole thing really fun!
How was XSI used in this production?
XSI was the main tool used for animation during the production of HappyFeet at Animal Logic. All facial and keyframe animation was done inside XSI.
Which features of the software did you find very useful?
I’ve used xsi for years now and have grown to love it as a program. Of course I yell as much as the next person when something goes bad but all in all I find animating inside of xsi a fast process. A lot of the tools I found useful were custom Animal Logic add-ons however, the TD team did a great job in writing very powerful animation and workflow tools. It’s great to see xsi’s SDK being opened up more and more as the versions press on. Having good TD’s around you can make all the difference (just don’t tell them I said that heh). The mixer was a vital tool used by many for chop and changing data between characters, etc. An advanced control panel was made possible due to the netview which was great for people coming from maya as it provided a simple standard interface. There was so much stuff going on under the hood though through custom scripting to aid data flow down the pipeline.
As an animator I guess what you want most is a fast, no mess workflow, you shouldn’t be thinking about the software, it should be as transparent as possible so you can focus on the animation Xsi gives you this and I find it a joy to animate with.
Which areas that should be improved?
I spend most of my time in the animation editor so guess ;) Although reading about XSI 6.0 I’m very interested in just how much this area has been opened up to allow custom tools. It would be great to start seeing all manor of scripts and tools to aid the animator in his / her job. If you look at another 3D package out there beginning with M it really is amazing to see just how many cool tools you can code. I really hope we start seeing the same in xsi soon.
Playback speed is also an ongoing thorn in the animators side. After reading about tech demos from the new XSI though I’m very optimistic. The animation layering also sounds like a great addition but I need to have play with it to really get my head around this new way of working.
If I could have one thing though it would be real time playback for all but the most complex characters, give an animator that and watch the level of productivity jump through the roof.
Happy Feet Director George Miller.
What work did you do at Bizarre Creations?
As I said before I started work out of Uni on a character game called Fur Fighters, a fun game for the Dreamcast console, I then worked on the Disney tie in for Treasure planet as the lead animator. I also did the intro to the first Project Gothem Xbox game before leaving for London in search for TV / Film based projects.
Although I always knew I wanted to work in film, I have no regrets about starting in games. The limitations the coders place on the artists (a constant battle!) really trains you to get the maximum out of every bone. Of course with the power of the new gen of consoles the amount of freedom is greater but I still think a base in games animation is no bad thing. It focuses you to be very efficient, and to push everything, everywhere! Sometimes having too many controls, secondary simulations, etc, can cause the performance to get lost within itself.
MoCap Session.
Any other projects or work you would like to highlight that you worked on in the past?
I’m still a newbie really when it comes to film. I had a great 18 months at Peerless Camera Co in London working on the Brothers Grimm and then making Zebra’s talk in Racing Stripes. Peerless was a great place to start work in film they have a very cool concept when it comes to shot ownership which is you basically get a shot and do everything. Although it was tough to come at first it was a great way of learning about so many areas of the filmmaking process. I kept asking question after question to all the great artists there and tried to learn as much as I could. One thing I do remember is how damn scary it is moving from 640x480 games res to 2k being reviewed on a huge projector. Gulp.
As my contract with Animal Logic is now over I’m coming back to the London where I start work at Framestore Feature Animation in the new year. I’m really excited by the projects they have coming up and can’t wait to start work there!
How is working in Australia different from the UK in terms of work mentality?
Working in Australia is great fun! If you work at a good fun company it makes all the difference. I found Animal Logic to be a great place to work, they really care about people and the projects. I didn’t really see much of a difference between the UK and Australia work wise. It’s the company that matters I guess, not the location of that company. Of course the Sydney weather helps, see below..
How is the way of living, mentality, society different in Australia?
Sydney is the most amazing city I’ve ever lived in. You have amazing beaches on your doorstep, great weather and really friendly people. Everyone just seems to be on a high from all the sun they get! It’s going to be a shock to the system coming back to London where everyone stairs at the floor in the tube and hopes no one talks to them. ;)
Happy Feet Animation Crew.
What would you say to people who want to break into the feature animated film?
I guess the difference with feature or any high end animation is demonstrating good performances. Being able to convince others that your character is alive and then using that gift to entertain. Entertainment opens up so many possibilities. Make your viewer laugh, cry, reflect, but make them do something!
Personally I remind myself of the following whenever I can- keep pushing yourself. No mater what level you’re at you have to keep practicing as there’s always more to learn then you already know. One thing I would say is not to take on too much too soon. It saddens me to hear of Uni’s forcing new animators to tackle a 3min short as a major project. I see so many Reels that have large amounts of so-so animation on there when really the person should have been focusing on tests. Although it seems to be in a bit of bother at the moment the old 10Second Club (www.10secondclub.com) had a great model for creating short focused acting clips that had a good deadline (personal projects can sometimes just roll on and on…) Try to get the most out of those 10secs in a month instead of taking on a huge project that could take you years. I’m not saying animated shorts aren’t a great thing to do but go into them with your eyes open as they are a huge commitment.
Also don’t give up. If it’s what you want to do then make it happen, it might not be easy and you might feel like you’re not getting anywhere but then you’ll playback something and it’ll suddenly come alive! And there’s no bigger buzz in animation than when that happens!
Related Links
Animal Logic
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