LogInDreamWorks' Chris Gonzalez showed that even more serious scenes are sometimes born out of amusing references.
We all love it when 3D Animators share self-made animation references starring themselves in all the roles, and it's all the more enjoyable when these references contrast with the final scenes in the finished projects.
A recent such case comes from DreamWorks Animator Chris Gonzalez, a.k.a. Gonzo, who showcased an amusing set of custom references he made for one of the most intense scenes in the acclaimed 2024 film The Wild Robot. The serious moment where Brightbill is being bullied and drowned by three other geese is juxtaposed with Gonzo spinning on an office chair and purposefully overacting to better capture the emotions of the bullies, serving as an entertaining example of the lengths passionate creators will go to achieve the perfect shot.
"When Michael Amos and Cailey Follet casted me these shots I was super excited, because it was a huge emotional moment in the film, plus I could relate because I used to get bullied in in elementary school," commented the artist. "But, as I tell my students. Even though shots like these are always the dream. Now you have to actually do them. Getting the timing and choreography of the bully geese alone was a unique challenge. Plus getting that innocence from Brightbill and transitioning to fear added to the hurdles."
Speaking of The Wild Robot, a couple of weeks ago, DreamWorks Animators Maarten Lemmens and Nideep Varghese also provided an under-the-hood look at the film, comparing the animation pass to the final look:
In the past, we shared more behind-the-scenes content from DreamWorks' films in the past, including a test animation for The Bad Guys, a Kung Fu Panda 4 scene before the final rendering, and a collection of self-made references to produce Puss in Boots:
Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.