“Surf’s Up: A Practical Guide to Making Waves” by Sony Pictures Imageworks
Conference:
- SIGGRAPH 2007 More animation videos from SIGGRAPH 2007:
![](https://history.siggraph.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/prevOff.png)
![](https://history.siggraph.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/nextOff.png)
Title:
- Surf's Up: A Practical Guide to Making Waves
Director(s):
Company / Institution / Agency:
- Sony Pictures Imageworks
Description:
Ride a wave with Cody and the cast of the animated feature film “Surf’s Up” while getting a glimpse of the techniques used to make the film, which profiles teenage Rockhopper penguin Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf), an up-and-coming surfer, as he enters his first pro competition. Followed by a hand-held camera to document his experiences, Cody travels to Pen Gu Island for the Big Z Memorial Surf Off. But when he unexpectedly comes face-to-face with a washed-up old surfer named Geek (Jeff Bridges), Cody begins to find his own way and discovers that a true winner isn’t always the one who comes in first.
Hardware:
Multiple systems including Dell, IBM, HP,
Apple, and others
Customized camera motion-capture system Rendering farm: thousands of CPUs
Software:
Modeling, animation, rendering, dynamics,
and compositing: a variety of off-the-shelf software, internally developed facility tools, and custom tools developed specifically for the show
Custom software: wave animation tools, wave shading, custom dso’s and other plugins for various effects
OS: various
Additional Contributors:
Surf’s Up: “A Practical Guide to Making Waves”
Director: Rob Bredow
Producer: Lydia Bottegoni
Editor: Mark Yeager
“Surf’s Up” Production Crew
Directors: Ash Brannon, Chris Buck
Producer: Chris Jenkins
Co-Producer: Lydia B
Digital Producer: Chris Juen
VFX Executive Producer: Jenny Fulle