Wednesday, March 20, 2002
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Wednesday, March 20, 2002 |
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McIntosh graduate works on 'Ice Age' By MICHAEL
BOYLAN Ever since David Torres saw the Disney film "Aladdin," he has wanted to be an animator. Torres, a 1995 graduate of McIntosh High School, got his chance and is making the most of it. He was one of the computer animators on the recently released film "Ice Age." Torres, a former member of the McIntosh soccer team and President of the National Honor Society, went to the Ringling School of Art and Design after high school. He got his bachelor's degree in computer animation and went to work upon graduation. His first job was at Imagineering in Disney. He worked with animatronics at the Disney theme parks in Florida and California. He did the animatronics on the "Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin" ride. He also did some animatronics with a robot in Epcot Center during the Millenium celebration. Torres went from Disney to Portland, Oregon, where he worked at Will Vinton Studios on the popular M&M commercials. Torres made three of them before heading to Texas to work on the new Metroid game for the Nintendo Game Cube. He only stayed in Texas for a brief period of time before Blue Sky Studios came calling and offered him a job on "Ice Age." The making of "Ice Age" was a three-year process that started with the script and then went to storyboards, which is like a comic book of the film. Torres worked on the film with the other animators for approximately 16 months. After the storyboards are created, models are built and the process of rigging begins. "Rigging" is putting skeletons inside the characters. The animators then get the characters to do what they are supposed to do on the screen. "Animators are very much like actors," said Torres. "We hear the voice track and pose the characters to get the performance we want. Every day we would get notes from our director to make some changes, like to make a character sadder or ove quicker. It was fun because we put a little bit of ourselves in the characters as well." Any style of animation can be time-consuming and though technology is advamcing rapidly, computer animation is stil a long process. "There are 24 frames of film per second," Torres explained. "Each animator may produce five to 10 seconds of film a week." "Ice Age" had 25 full-time animators and between four and five contract animators. The work day varied for Torres and the animators as well. Some days would last from 9 a.m.-10 p.m. while others would be the regular 9 a.m.-5 p.m. It all depends on the deadline. Torres finds there are some misconceptions about what computer animators do. "We do not draw in the computer. We manipulate the characters, like puppets." Torres and the animators didn't get to work with the celebrities who provided the voices either. "We had videoptapes of them to watch, but lots of times we would use our imaginations on how the characters would move." He also is very excited about the rapidly changing technology in computer animation. "The machines are getting faster and are able to do things that couldn't be done before. We have a machine that relects light in the computer." Though there are many changes occurring in the world of computer animation, Torres doesn't see any major jumps in the near future. "The speed is changing and animation may be a little faster, but it is still an art form and depends on the individual and his or her talent." As for now, Torres and Blue Sky Animation have already begun work on their next film, which Torres couldn't divulge anything about. He would like to make more movies and perhaps one day even direct his own features. He is very excited about "Ice Age" and really likes the style of animation in the film. "It is more the Chuck Jones, Tex Avery style of animation, which is a lot of fun." Torres's family is very proud of him and his sister attended the premiere with him at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Torres should do many great things in the future and it won't be another "Ice Age" before they occur. |
