Thursday, September 17, 2009

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 1: Designing the Jello Mold and Ice Cream Town

THE JELLO MOLD EXTERIOR




Designing Jello Mold was a totally fun task since right from the very start I knew it's going to be iconic for the film. The challenge: since we haven't seen a giant jello before, I have to check real kids' jello and observe how light reacts to its texture. The last image above, though, didn't make it to the movie due to story change. In the first version, Flint stuck himself inside the "deflated" rotten jello mold he originally built for Sam. The revised version was inside a garbage can instead which ended up in the film. Below are more jello designs.



THE JELLO MOLD INTERIOR





To cap the fun on the Jello Mold is the interior design. I haven't been inside a jello before. So to imagine what it's like in there is as challenging to me as to both the animators, who had to imagine jello's behavior when it's that big, and sound designers, who had to come up with how jello sounds in that scale.

THE ICE CREAM TOWN


The before and after approved versions of the ice cream sequence. Old houses and buildings around Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles and Culver City came in very handy for me in designing the neighborhood architecture. The ice cream covered version was kinda tricky. The ice cream had to be simple and very recognizable unlike the earlier version where I made them look like giant poop all over the town. Art Director Mike Kurinsky brilliantly added flavors and stripes on the final painted version.




To design the town, I had to come up with a way how to populate the area with the least amount of elements to be built in 3D. So I came up with three different L-shaped "Lego" blocks and interchangeably attached to each one creating different combinations that made up the whole town.

More to come next week...


All images ©Sony Pictures Animation.

22 comments:

A. Riabovitchev said...

Beautiful work Armand!:o)

JP said...

Another upload of awesomeness! Great work to learn from as ever. Bizarrely, in Israel this movie is called 'Raining Felafels'. Sigh.

Anyway, can't wait to see it.

Best

Mariusz Kornatka said...

Great work!

Mark McDonnell said...

Congratulations Armand, it really does look amazing!!!!

WOOOHOOO!!!,

MAC

Joe Kresoja said...

Great stuff Armand, You have the best job.

DAVID WILSON said...

Dude I'm drooling! These are gorgeous, I am amazed at the way all your secondary elements underpin the focal point so well. You are the first Jello Genius!

Jose Ramos said...

Uf , Im crazy with your work ! .It´s Impressive

DAVID WILSON said...

I just saw the movie with my kids. The ice cream scene was their favorite (no coaxing from Dad either). You guys did an amazing job creating a new visual style for animation, solid all the way through!

Hans said...

Wow! great post Armand, thanks for sharing all this amazing artwork. Love the ice cream town!

-Hans

Owen Williams said...

Great post, excellent artwork- thanks for sharing :)

Craig said...

Killer post Armand. I can't wait to see the movie. Congrats as well, I've heard it is a nice film.

P. Alvarado said...

Looking forward to seeing the film with the kids soon.

Awesome work!!!

Hans said...

Is there really a Mickey Jello in the movie???

Philip Dimitriadis said...

Hi Armand,
Fantastic work...Awesome stuff. It is really nice to see. Thanks for sharing it with us.
-phil

Van Pereira said...

simplesmente demais, very cool..

Armand Serrano said...

Thanks guys for the comments and support on the film. I'll be posting more.

Armand Serrano said...

@Hans: No it didn't make it on the film. We made the interior much simpler.

Owen Williams said...

Saw the film last night and my girlfriend and I laughed throughout. A really refreshing film- loved it

Dave Dick said...

Wow! Wonderful work as usual Armand!

Unknown said...

Saw the movie..Loved it!

Tom Scholes said...

God I love these buildings !

Said Omar Eshaq said...

Thanks for sharing all these insights! really inspirational!