While in L.A. I had the chance to go to the Disney Animation Building and get a behind the scenes look at what was involved in making Wreck-It Ralph (available on DVD on 3/5). As you can see from the pic above, the building looks fun but that doesn’t even compare to what it looks like on the inside. As soon as you walk in there was Wreck-It Ralph stuff on the wall and while you aren’t technically allowed to take pics they let us (I guess they liked us…lol).
Even as you walk along some of the offices they are surrounded by all things Wreck-It Ralph! Unless of course they are working on another film and then the decor matches that movie. So fun!
They surprised us with an 8 bit image of ourselves on a press pass…This is what we would look like if we were Nicelanders in the Fix It Felix Jr. game from Wreck-It Ralph (isn’t this adorable??). What do you think, does it look like me?
Here’s a behind the scenes look at the various parts of creating an animated film…in this case, Wreck-It Ralph.
Story
In this process they look at the story and develop on it, deciding what they think works and what needs to be changed or deleted. When the sequences work, they then get put into the animation phase.
Fun Fact: As the story changes the actors are called back many times.
Deleted Scenes:
Wreck-It Ralph ends up in Jail and finds out about another game called Extreme Living 2 and ultimately ends up there. They ended up taking it out because it added a whole new world and it was better for Wreck-It Ralph to go home and see the damage he had done.
Fix‑It Felix & Ralph met Vanellope at the same time, she takes the to her cave and Fix‑It Felix fixes it up. They later realized that it was important for it to be about Wreck-It Ralph & Vanellope and that Wreck-It Ralph be her father figure so they rearranged the story. By doing so, it also gave Fix‑It Felix more time with Sergeant Calhoun.
Visual Development
When they start this process they are given some ideas and they go with it, creating their own thing. That being the case, Ralph could have been anything, so it was cool to see the early concepts of Wreck-It Ralph and how his character evolved and changed throughout the process (check out the slide show below).
* It’s helpful for them to know who is playing that part so they can add some of their characteristics in their character
Fun Facts:
- Vanellope was black and white for a long time
- They studied tattered jeans to make it look real
- They went to gaming conventions and spoke with video designers to get it just right.
- The final concept of Ralph took about 1.5 – 2 years
Rigging
I won’t get to techy on this portion because I wouldn’t even know where to begin, all I truly understood is that there are 4 parts i creating a character
- Design
- Modeling
- Rigging: Process of letting the animated character move; like animated joints
- Final
What I enjoyed most about this was getting to use the software to get Wreck-It Ralph to move on screen. At the end of our movements we were able to put the movements all together (like a video), so I basically made Wreck-It Ralph dance. Check out the images and the video of Wreck-It Ralph dancing…it looks pretty cool if I do say so myself (and I do).
[slideshow id=17]
Camera Capture
You can check out what I wrote about the cool Camera Capture experience last week by clicking HERE. There is also a video you can watch.
Animation
In this process they really bring the characters to life with facial expressions and body movements. What’s cool is that the animators record themselves acting out and saying the lines and later watch the videos so they know how the character would look in that scene. They’ll then look through everyone’s videos and figure out what they like and incorporate it. Being that the break into teams, the hard part is keeping their facial expressions and body movements consistent but they make it happen! A series of poses are created for the director to choose from.
Fun Facts:
- It takes about 5 or 6 weeks to work on 3 scenes
- It will take them roughly about 8 months of animating and about 2 minutes of it will be used in the final movie.
- There was about 60 – 70 character animators working on this film.
Digital Copy Demonstration
I knew the DVD Home Releases came with a digital download option but to be honest I have never used it and after seeing a demonstration of how easy it is to do, I don’t understand why I have been missing out on this. Here’s what I learned:
- You download it once and you can out in on your various devices because it is in your account
- Bonus Features are included
The whole experience was so interesting! Putting together an animated film is ALOT of work but you can tell they all love what they do and why wouldn’t they? They make families happy with their films and they work for Disney.
Synopsis:
“Wreck-It Ralph,” is a hilarious, arcade-game-hopping adventure. For decades, Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) has been overshadowed by Fix-It Felix, Jr. (voice of Jack McBrayer), the good-guy star of their game who always gets to save the day. Tired of playing the role of a bad guy, Ralph takes matters into his own massive hands and sets off on a journey across the arcade through multiple generations of video games to prove he’s got what it takes to be a hero.
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Disclosure: This post was facilitated as a result of a press trip. As always, ALL opinions are my own.
