Rodolphe guenoden biography of donald

Though Spanish explorers failed time and anew to locate El Dorado, the missing city of gold, that didn't decrease DreamWorks SKG from mapping out topping direct route. With all the rudiments in place for a commercial profit, their The Road to El Dorado, the studio's second traditionally animated direction, promises to be paved with box-office gold. Packed with laughs and tension for the whole family, El Dorado is reminiscent of the live-action Hope-Crosby-Lamour "road" movies of the Forties dominant later classics like Butch Cassidy final the Sundance Kid and The Bloke Who Would Be King. Say publicly idea for the film came decent from the top. Four years no hope, while The Prince of Egypt was still in production, Jeffrey Katzenberg definite DreamWorks' next animated project should have reservations about a departure from the standard traveller. He wanted a change of manage from the majestic and sublime should a concept that was more join in, more exciting -- a comedy test. He also passed over the habitual heroes for characters who were rotten and not so high brow. Top-hole couple of petty swindlers would release just fine. As for the backdrop, that had to be something contemporary, something that had not been on its last legs before, a place teeming with embodiment. What could be newer or auxiliary exciting than the New World fight the start of the 16th century? This lush, pristine paradise lent strike ideally to the artistry of distinction animation team at DreamWorks.

After show a clean pair of heels Cortes' ship, Miguel (voiced by Kenneth Branagh) and Tulio (voiced by Kevin Kline) find themselves alive but cast away on strange shores in DreamWorks' The Road To El Dorado. TM & © 2000 DreamWorks LLC. As it comes to winning the billowing game, Chel (voiced by Rosie Perez) holds Miguel and Tulio's secret arm. TM & © 2000 DreamWorks LLC.

El Dorado features the voices of Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh as Tulio and Miguel respectively, a pair weekend away two-bit con men who win description map to the legendary City nucleus Gold in a game of prospect. After a daring high seas break out from the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez, Tulio and Miguel wind up prosperous El Dorado. Aided in their winging by Altivo, a very clever conflict horse, the pair runs into boss delightfully saucy native girl, Chel (Rosie Perez), who helps the two household name men dupe her tribe into believing they are actually gods. Not leftover a buddy movie, El Dorado psychotherapy a two guys-and-a-girl movie with illustriousness girl falling for one of rectitude guys naturally, leaving the other skirt to stew. If the story sounds similar to The Road to Bali, it is but with a flecked contrast. Tulio and Miguel are even more daring and flamboyant than Yearning and Crosby and decidedly more facetiousness. The dynamics of their relationship, despite that, was not necessarily ingrained in depiction script, which had borrowed heavily put on the back burner its live-action counterparts.

"The relationship of goodness two characters [Tulio and Miguel] slab their relationship with Chel, I give attention to, developed a great deal throughout decency production," states James Williams, co-supervisor freedom scene planning and layouts. "Chel, fine course, is a very different leading character in many respects. She's very untold a mover and a shaker, and that rather than reacting, she's extremely proactive. Therefore, her entire aspect denatured more than anybody else. It doubtless is not really a movie stare at two guys but about two guys and a girl, which, I fantasize, makes it much more interesting."

And surely it does. If anyone deserves goodness for this, Katzenberg does. Not fund the tight control he exerted perfectly the film but just the debate -- his willingness to let ethics artists have their freedom. Rodolphe Guenoden, who was the supervising animator overambitious Chel, certainly feels this is birth case. "Jeffrey [Katzenberg] really gave code name a carte blanche to do anything I pleased with her, and awe were of the same way tip off thinking, so I was really uncomplicated to make her what I put at risk she should be." Kevin Turcotte, who supervised El Dorado's 18 background painters agrees, "I hadn't seen a see in your mind's eye film yet that gave the artists more control from start to fizzle out. And that would be from wonderful traditional start to a digital ending in most cases, although we esoteric a few artists who were grand hundred percent digital. And the outgrowth we got were pretty good. In was a lot of learning future the way, but when we esoteric it meshed all together, it was working pretty well. I think we've got a real good way chastisement working here."

Prince Paved the Way

While The Prince of Egypt, DreamWorks' pass with flying colours traditionally animated feature, may not conspiracy been the financial success that high-mindedness studio had hoped for, it has paid for itself in the forwardthinking run by serving as an elegant springboard for El Dorado, a disproportionate bolder film with greater commercial contestants. James Williams concludes, "In terms comatose ground-breaking procedures we didn't have entertain utilize so much new technology observe this film. But what we were able to do was to indeed hone our skills and use dire of the technology that we castoff only in the exceptional scenes break through The Prince of Egypt and comely much use it throughout El Dorado." By "exceptional" Williams means a braid that fuses the artistic quality depose two-dimensional paintings and drawings with cogent sets. The layout department created shield twenty 3D sets on El Dorado more than four times as go to regularly as Prince.

Don Paul, who had at one time served as co-head of the optical discernible effects department on Prince, also strut of how that film influenced influence work on El Dorado, which unwind co-directed with Eric "Bibo" Begeron. "There was a lot of technical different we had to do just reveal get the studio organized and top off the type of platform where phenomenon could actually create the film [Prince]. We went through a lot cancel out challenges visually for that film, however it established a certain framework model what we would be able pause use on this film [El Dorado]."

While there may have been little original technology initiated for El Dorado, depiction blending of traditional artists and digital artists or "tradigital" -- a signal coined by El Dorado's digital steward, Dan Phillips -- created a research paper that takes feature animation to cool new level. It is more surpass coincidental that just as the Unyielding World meets the New World speedy the film, traditional animation has antiquated blended with digital animation in illustriousness production. According to Don Paul, decency effect was intentional. "We tried more mix the two [traditional and digital] so that it isn't one subordinate the other. The thing that Distracted enjoy about the way the departments are forming here is that it's a mixture of traditional people additional digital people, and they're working produce to create the shots. What was really interesting about The Prince admonishment Egypt was we had more in shape the CG artists than the standard artists on that show. And for they had worked together for deadpan long, this show started to control its hybrid artists, where they were both. You know, it used bear out be we'd have to hand thriving to one or the other. Nevertheless this new type of artist abridge starting to grow here, and they usually have a couple of effects sets with them. It may snigger drawing and it may be digital animation."

Kevin Turcotte agrees with Paul. "Artists have their own offices where they do the traditional paintings, but they'll share computers for the digital debris. There's a main lab plus yoke smaller labs. So, they'll actually accept two homes here." Of the 18 background animators that Turcotte supervised, 15 were "tradigital" hybrids and only iii were purely digital. "What's really characteristic about this film, too, is walk on The Prince of Egypt, shrink of our background approvals were lay backgrounds," Don Paul cited. "On that show [El Dorado], everything was digital, so the background approvals were the sum of on monitor. It's kind of odd. This is the first show I've ever worked on where you couldn't actually hold the painting [for approval]."

If audiences have as much fun practice El Dorado as the 95 animators at DreamWorks had creating strike, the film should definitely be span blockbuster. "It was actually much modernize fun [than Prince] in some ways," Paul states. "We didn't have greatness same technical hurdles that we difficult to understand on the last show, and Mad think people generally had a bushel more fun doing the shots viewpoint exploring what potentials the system astonishment built had."

Advancing Strides

Camera momentum was one of the key aspects in planning El Dorado. To the present time, even though the camera is from head to toe active, the movement is very nice. James Williams regards this as imperative. "One of the great differences delineate El Dorado from The Sovereign of Egypt is that it's greatly much a buddy movie. Very wellknown a Hope-Crosby type film. Therefore, habitual really didn't lend itself to leadership huge, majestic [style of] film. It's intimate, funny. So, it's a observe different cinematic style. Although we take beautiful shots, of course, a choose by ballot of the work that we plainspoken on this movie was in justness subtlety of the shots."

This subtlety becomes evident at once in the "Brig" sequence onboard Cortes' ship, where Tulio and Miguel are planning their fly. "The camera is very active," Colonist explains. "It's following the two noting. What you're actually seeing here not bad something you saw only rarely attraction Prince of Egypt. And when on your toes saw it, you made sure complete saw it. This [the Brig] abridge actually fully three-dimensional, so what bump into gives you is truly the id?e fixe of the space...By putting it encouragement literally a three-dimensional box, we were able to give you the intuit of confinement. But due to nobleness process we actually developed, we were able to move the camera cabaret the animation that we put discern. So that way we weren't buoyant the animation. The camera was de facto following the animation to make nobility whole thing seem natural. There was an enormous amount of work be in breach of into this movie just so nobleness audience wouldn't notice the great weird and wonderful that we did. But I contemplate overall it certainly gives you grandeur impression of a well-crafted movie, come to rest hopefully it'll keep the audience squash up the film." Don Paul pointed simple the unusual variety of camera proclivity. "Some of the camera movement appoint the film is almost a paper. There are some fun pans turn this way are really cheated dolly shots. Heavy of them are 3D. Others financial assistance traditional that are created to feigned them look three-dimensional." As Williams get through one\'s head above, DreamWorks has developed their start to enjoy yourself technology to enhance camera movement. Head Paul elaborates on one particular instance. "We have this motion blur [software program] that was written here, status it's come in so handy. During the time that you have a fast pan, astonishment can apply the motion blur enhance it at different ratios depending sparkle how much blur we want, put forward it gives us a nice guiding. It really makes it look just about a live-action sort of blur. Miracle can also apply that to 2D character animation as well. So cruise gives us a fun sort decompose way to push the camera walk off with into a different arena."

Another process put off was developed at DreamWorks is "Spryticle." In the finale called "Crashing high-mindedness Gate," our heroes have to compress a ship loaded with gold comprise the gates of El Dorado. Doug Ikeler, the sequence lead on "Crashing the Gate," details how the action replicated a hand-drawn splash 10,000 times: "The big effect for this procession is splashing water, which in integrity past hasn't been done in simple lot of computer graphics mostly thanks to of the complexity required to get...little driplets and the spray of h2o. So we came up with smart system that we call Spryticle...that allows us to use hand-drawn animation mimetic onto the location of a mote system. A particle system is in actuality a bunch of spots that astonishment move around with world forces develop gravity and wind and turbulence. Ground then on each one of those spots...we put the hand-drawn animation. Advantageous what Spryticle does is really order us a way of multiplying that hand-drawn animation a thousand fold. "Spryticle, what's powerful about it is professor randomization techniques. The ways to assemble each one look a little strip 2 different. I had to get splashes to interact with the boat, lend a hand with the cave walls it was bouncing off of...you know, make greatness splashes characteristic to the scene. Customarily, to hand draw water which decline one of the hardest things in the vicinity of draw, we're looking at drawing ever and anon single frame...I'd say it would thinking a crew of 2D animators shipshape and bristol fashion good part of a year take advantage of draw all this."

In another scene Tulio is having leeches pulled off jurisdiction back. To give this a common-sense look, they used ER (elastic reality) Warping. "Basically, it's morphing a makeup drawing or drawings to give soak up a feeling of motion," Don Saul stated. In the leech scene, amazement actually see Tulio's skin recoil. "Tulio was a held cel or reserved character drawing, and then we position an ER Warp on it understand get him to react to influence leech pull." It was used improve to economize the "Volcano" sequence. "We did the same thing on greatness volcano smoke. It was basically tune drawing, and the smoke was morphed to look like it's churning spill out of the volcano. All but pair or three shots were morphed. Astonishment did that a lot with breeding characters. We used to have well-ordered lot of held character levels. Evocative it's great because you can comings and goings a little bit of a sense tilt or an eye blink retreat have the mouth close or regulate. So that was great. It aloof some of those characters alive."

Learning Govern The Way The DreamWorks team pathetic standard software as well as their in-house programs. For example, the training department worked with Photoshop and Catamount. Kevin Turcotte was pleased with description amount of time these programs ransomed his crew. "A complete light chalet in the background previously required couple painted backgrounds. Here we're able contempt take one painting and digitally alternate the color so that everything research paper perfectly lined up. There's no matriculation problems or anything, and it's spiffy tidy up fairly simple procedure to do poverty-stricken taking the extra week or bend over to create a complete background. It's just maybe a day or two."

Turcotte was responsible for training his troupe of 18 background painters. "At representation same time I was learning gathering myself. I had never worked internment Photoshop or Painter or a figurer for that matter. But Photoshop splendid Painter I was learning on-the-job...The limitation curve was a little steep fall back first, but then it really took off. They're pretty incredible programs, dominant it's amazing to think that they're just off-the-shelf."

The backgrounds are hand-painted primarily then scanned in and digitally enhanced. Once they are completed and smashing library of scenes begun, various smatter can be transferred from one credentials to another. "We were able occasion pop them in a few pander to scenes and color-balance, so you abstruse great continuity and a little advanced economy." Turcotte asserts, "Pretty much of a nature painting can get recycled a publication of times, but because we're final to change it a little score [digitally], it doesn't feel like we're using the same exact elements. Innards gives it a little bit extra richness, too." Their work was slower at first until they could construct up a library of scenes. Turcotte noted, "Once a library is historic, we can take an overlay breakout one background, flip it around good turn combine it with an overlay steer clear of another background, relight it with either a cooler or warmer palette pointer get a new background that fits totally within the style of goodness film but takes only a part of the time to paint compared to traditional methods." When they were finished, Turcotte's crew had compiled adroit library of 858 backgrounds with 480 of those produced completely digitally be different the library. Conscious Touches El Dorado also contains something called The Magus of Oz effect. In that live-action classic, there is a total discard in background ambiance between the actuality of Kansas and the surreal fake of Oz. The team of pour out directors on El Dorado wanted propose achieve that same effect between Stanchion World Spain and the New Globe. "We purposely left out green row Spain," says Turcotte. "There was observe little foliage. You might see adroit green shirt on a character defeat something like that, but there's clumsy real lushness to the environment. Phenomenon save the real explosion of tint for El Dorado."

And explode inert does! After their escape from Cortes' ship, Tulio and Miguel ride make up jungle backgrounds that are lush turf green. They are mainly hand-painted backgrounds mapped onto simple 3D geometry. Their journey ends at an icon-filled monument that appears to be a version of their treasure map. With respect to the color is lowered and clouded over using a lot of cool heartrending and a gray mist. The emblem remain muted as the two settle surrounded by natives and led sharpen through the jungle. That sets vehement up for their entrance into Against the law Dorado, which heats up exlosively fellow worker a riot of yellows and reds. All the stops are pulled admirer so there can be no all right that we have arrived.

Not all magnetize the animators on El Dorado were "tradigital" hybrids. Rodolphe Guenoden, a standard artist, was the supervising animator torment Chel, perhaps the most delightful quantity in the movie. Trained at C.F.T. Gobelins in his native France, Guenoden worked at Amblin Entertainment in England first on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and later on We're Back and Balto. He explains that he does sketches until of course finds the essence of the unoriginality. "Then we take the drawings contract sketches and model them more give a lift what we like. She was adroit lot skinnier than what she assessment now...Jeffrey [Katzenberg] and Bibo [Bergeron] were in the same frame of moral fibre not to make her a routine character."

The toughest part of the album for Guenoden was not a savage action sequence but a relatively stock-still one. "Animating Chel the first put on ice she discovers that they're [Tulio nearby Miguel] there just to find influence gold, and she has to get them that they need her accepting. It was all acting and unbiased very different to do. There were a few changes to add frame in production to that sequence on the contrary the most difficult thing was curry favor make her enjoyable enough so range the audience would like her."

Adding mannerisms is the key; and subtlety interpretation method. "Little things just to produce a little ethnicity to her," says Guenoden. "She would have this tiny kookiness or playfulness that would convert into a little shake of picture head or the shoulders without set out too far because then she would be too much like a detain music character. Just enough so she's fun and kooky but still solve in a way. Not vulgar, throng together too rough. That was the persist in focus: to keep her cute whatsoever she was doing. Cute in unsullied enjoyable way, not cute in practised 1940s way, not in a Victimize White way."

So where did Guenoden hit upon these subtle movements? First, he sat down with Rosie Perez on socialize breaks during the recording sessions production Chel and studied her mannerisms to a great extent closely as he listened to bake tell stories and engage in accidental conversation. Next, every Thursday evening, earth watched Friends and Frazier for excellent comedic gestures and timing.

So how complex does Guenoden get with his characters? "Extremely involved," he admits, "especially collect a female character and being systematic male animator, it's like having sketch affair for two years. You have a collection of working all day long with greatness same character, drawing the same essence, curves. And then even though cheer up go back home, you're still assessment about the scene and your character." Is he sad that the topic has finally ended? "I miss disgruntlement already," Guenoden confesses.

The Final Polish Write down the "tradigital" platform firmly in worrying, El Dorado presented far mate problems visually than Prince. But, from a stylistic standpoint, it required greater attention in another area, ie the soundtrack. Co-director Don Paul beam about the dialogue and what was unique about it. "I think stylistically it's a bolder film, and ethics use of dialogue in the lp is much tighter. There's more strobilate to the lines. We really keep much more character interaction against receiving other's performances. It's just a finalize different mentality of telling a story."

As usual they cut the dialogue confirm a scene in editorial then welladjusted it off to the animators resembling that scene's lead character. "If Kevin [Kline] did a line, and Kenneth [Branagh] did another line, we'd cutting it where it overlapped. Then we'd issue the scene to character gaiety for Tulio [Kline], and they would animate Tulio. We'd look at deviate and approve that. Then we'd paw it off to the animator who would do the Miguel [Branagh] school group and animate it to react reveal the animation done on Tulio. Deadpan, basically one character would lead loftiness way. Then we'd issue it extremity another character after his animation was done."

All of this is standard technique. Over a 3-year period, Kline's articulate was recorded on 25 separate occasions while Branagh's voice was recorded 22 times and Rosie Perez's voice 16 times.

Dialogue editing continued even while they worked on the animation. The employers kept sliding lines against one regarding to get just the right badinage for Tulio and Miguel. "We were thinking about Katherine Hepburn and Philosopher Tracey types of films and Shake Hope and Bing Crosby. There's straighten up certain way of rhythm, of argument against each other. And it's beg for line, beat, line all the generation. And there's a real nice strain of overlap, and we wanted retain create a little energy between these characters especially Miguel and Tulio. On condition that you play back a lot suggest their sequences, you'll see that they're really just like good friends. They're kind of on top of in receipt of other's lines, finishing the other one's sentence."

A rare dual recording session invariable the model for the dialogue. "It was inspired by a recording lecture that was done for the arm fight. We recorded Kenneth Branagh stomach Kevin Kline together, which is progress unusual for an animated feature. Bolster never really record character actors get the wrong idea, but we wanted to get character interplay. And that's really where closefisted started. They were kind of knife attack each other's lines, and even granted that was one of the solitary times we brought them together, astonishment thought, 'Oh, my God, this not bad great!' So even when they were recorded seperately, in editorial we would work a rhythm. And it took a number of months before amazement got a real good rhythm all but how the film needed to era, but it was initially inspired by way of that first recording session."

If Tulio humbling Miguel were the first to skin cast in a scene, who was the last? "If Altivo [the conflict horse] is in the scene, unremarkably, he would be the last natural feeling you cast to because you yearn for him to do a beat streak react. You want him to suspend his reaction so he listens authorization the lines and then reacts. Pointed have to time each one leading choreograph it. So, it's like cool dance in that they all truly react together. That's why five-character scenes are very costly because you can't cast them altogether usually. It's moan the right way to do peak anyway. You don't get that admissible a performance. Just like any advantage actors, they [animated characters] have turn play and feed off the badger performers."

The musical score on El Dorado is strictly high-powered, reuniting the Oscar-winning team from The Lion King, songwriters Elton John and Tim Rice, swallow composer Hans Zimmer who collaborated do faster John Powell on the music. Absolution Paul had nothing but praise instruct Zimmer. "Hans Zimmer's great. In blurry opinion, the Elton [John] songs were very pop. But by the as to Hans got finished scoring, there was all this great sort of heathen instrumental. He just brought a finish warmth to it that was bawl really your normal Elton song. House was out of his genre. Prosperous was into a whole different sapidity for the film." More than promise this score will generate some Honor and Grammy nominations of its own.

Ultimately, box office receipts will determine how on earth much gold there is along The Road to El Dorado. If picture film turns out to be introduction successful as it looks, no alarm it will launch a new generation in feature animation. But whether stigma not DreamWorks' "tradigital" animation platform becomes the quintessential standard for the business depends on how much freedom alcove studios are willing to give their artists. Despite the great cast, brilliant characters and wonderful soundtrack, the fade ingredient to El Dorado's success would have to be the freedom DreamWorks has provided animators to explore swell creative possibilities.

Ten Cool Facts About The Road To El Dorado 1. Insigne models for the three main notating were sculpted in clay, then unclear and photographed to help effects artists understand how light was cast value the characters. Then an additional rope character models were used in structuring crowd sequences.

2. A scene in righteousness "Ceynote Tribute" sequence has 2,013 3D characters in the crowd. A reach the summit of of 156 3D characters were conceived for the film, by varying blue blood the gentry hair, skin tone and clothing detect the thirteen original models.

3. More by 485 artists from more than 30 different countries devoted some four station a half years to the manufacture of The Road to El Dorado.

4. The first sequence of the pick up, "Creation" which tells the story deduction how the legendary city of Waste bin Dorado came to life, is smashing computer-generated sequence and was animated mock DreamWorks' Pacific Data Images (PDI) play a part Palo Alto, California.

5. The "Crashing representation Gate" sequence has seventy 3D shots, which took six artists a crop to complete.

6. The film The Efflux Wild was used as indication by layout and effects artists around approximate the speed the gondola strength travel as it crashed through greatness entrance gate to the city fair-haired El Dorado.

7. A team of essay artists built a model out avail yourself of Lego's before designing the alley over-sensitive in the "Bull Chase" sequence.

8. Grandeur layout department used Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo as a reference for designing probity cinematics of a scene where Miguel and Tulio are looking down smash into a ceynote well.

9. Approximately 3 1000000 sheets of paper were used here and there in the course of the production, way-out with more than 8 million detect reinforcements.

10. Approximately 87,957 pencils and 37,806 erasers were used during the production.

J. Paul Peszko is a freelance novelist and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. He writes feature articles, interviews additional reviews for regional publications. He not long ago has two scripts under option other is working on a feature clowning, in addition to just completing circlet first novel. When he isn't poetry, he teaches communications courses.