Page 32 - 3D Artist 110 - 2017 UK
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ILLUMINATING ANIMATION
ILLUMINATING ANIMATION
The movie features voice
talent from the likes of
Steve Carell (Gru/Dru),
Kristen Wiig (Lucy) and
Trey Parker (Balthazar)
responsible family man. Complicating matters for we take them to a place that audiences haven’t
gru even further in Despicable Me 3 is a botched seen before? also, we had to integrate new ones
assignment to capture a former child tV such as the villain Balthazar Bratt [trey Parker].”
star-turned-criminal mastermind, which leads to another major cast addition is Dru [Steve Carell],
him being ired as an operative of the anti-Villain the sibling gru never knew he had. “the hardest
league. then there is the matter of gru thing was trying to ind the balance of the
discovering that he has a twin brother. “the scale brothers’ relationship. How do they relate to each
of Despicable Me 3 is much bigger than the other other? How does bringing such a big character
movies,” notes Despicable Me 3 director Kyle Balda. like Dru into gru’s world keep the balance and
“typically, we will have an animation crew of 65 entertainment of it?” Julien Soret, the animation
people but for several months we were up in the director for the project, enjoyed the brotherly
nineties for Despicable Me 3. at certain points, it challenge. “We had the opportunity of playing
felt like the entire animation department for with two characters that look exactly the same
Illumination was working on act 3. that was [gru and Dru] and make them different with their
because we were animating a big city, there are the hardest animation. Sequences like Bratt’s lair heist was
complicated scenes going on, dance ighting and challenging and fun to do as we used their
crowds of people – it was the only way to get it thing was trying to physicality to achieve their mission. You can tell
done. In terms of the overall pipeline or the way how different they are just by watching how they
we attacked the movie, that was on the same ind the balance of the manage to climb up the wall or sneak into the
template as the other ones. brothers’ relationship laboratory; that was deinitely fun to animate.
“the other side of it was the continued “Voices are the essence of the acting of the
development of the characters we have seen Kyle Balda, characters,” remarks Soret. “We are animating on
already, like lucy and gru,” notes Balda. “How do Director the deinitive voices so all the richness, nuances
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