Onwards music

The music in Onwards was by my very good friend Dan,

aka Caribou.

Buy his record immediately.

He allowed me to do his sleeve once, The Milk of Human

Kindness, which was a privilege:

Notes from the back of the sofa

Just returned from Hockney's gallery in Salt Mills, nr.

Bradford, and feel thoroughly enthused about drawing again.

Having a rest post-Coldplay has been a good recharge. I've

been spring-cleaning too, which is a huge effort, but very

positive. I've even been backing up. Inconceivable.

Here's some Onwards debrief material I found.

Lots of speculation this "started as drawing, then goes 3D",

"was done in Flash" and so on. In fact it was all 3D, post-

treated to look so much like James' ink drawings that even

his mother couldn't tell them apart.

James is well versed in making technical drawings for his

toys, so he drew up this. I sketched in the joint locations so

this guy would later do exactly what I said.

James is an impressive, competitive runner. The original

plan was to run the marathon in a suit Nike custom made

in Portland. James then proceeded to thoroughly bust up his

leg and that idea evaporated. However some brave chap ran

on his behalf, and here's proof:

#47. Yellow Thing

"What is that thing again?"

From the very start I decided that if this was going to be a film

about running then the movement of the run in question ought

to be actually good - not some 'animation' run cycle. Despite

James' injury, it made perfect sense to base the character's

movements on his. I wanted the character to be James.

I shot footage of James at the gym, running on a treadmill,

then working through his stretches. This was the basis of

all the animation. I didn't use motion capture because Andy

Serkis bought up all the ping-pong balls in the world and

extorts a premium.

Instead I painstakingly scrutinised his movements and got

the character to resemble, as close as I could, James' cadence.

Compared to James' other characters this guy is generally of

human proportions so the movement translated quite

naturally. Most of the problems involved ensuring that his

enlarged hands didn't thump himself in the face.

Later, I filmed reference of myself as well, blowing snot.

Finally, my big break.

Mia appears a little too enthusiastic in her role.

While I built a library of movements I also began to build

the world around him. Cubes stood in for trees while I

blocked in the camera moves. I'd render low-quality

movies of the shots and drop them into the edit, replacing

the animatic.

These work in progress movies show it coming together.

See if you can spot the embarrassing mistake.

I was constantly updating and tweaking to ensure that the

movement flowed from one shot to the next alongside the

music. I also had to making sure his feet fell on the beat in

each shot to maintain the synchronised rhythm.

James would come over and eat all my biscuits in exchange

for pages and pages of drawings. I lost count of how many

trees he drew. Every drawing was then scanned and a matte

made. These dressed the scene.

I had to be careful that James drew everything at te right

scale, so there was consistency to the line thickness. Other-

wise the wizard would do us in.

These were rendered out and the running man was done

separately. That was a job all in itself.

Secret revealed!

Well its all done.

For various reasons, the hardest job we've ever done.



Very happy it is all over but also very happy with the result.
The journey from brain to screen is littered with pitfalls and

rarely does the end resemble the start. But this one worked

out pretty well. There's always things you want to change and

letting go is hard, but it is done and it has flown the nest.

Time to relax.

Went to test-screening in the cinema this week surrounded by

record company people who have appeared from nowhere and

are all wanting to hold the baby. Totally flattered by their

enthusiasm and seduced by seeing our work on the big screen.

If you are going to the Odeon after Monday 20th July then keep

your eyes peeled.