“Pursuit of Awesomeness: The Making of “Kung Fu Panda”” by Stevenson, Zibach, Wagner, Jhun, Knight, et al. …
Conference:
Type:
Title:
- Pursuit of Awesomeness: The Making of "Kung Fu Panda"
Presenter(s)/Author(s):
Project Affiliation:
- DreamWorks Animation
Abstract:
An in-depth round table discussion by the creative team on “Kung Fu Panda,” the 6 June 2008 release from Dreamworks Animation. The session summarizes the film’s creative aspirations and demonstrates how those creative goals were achieved by looking at specific case studies of three episodes: “Tai Lung Breaks Out of Prison,” “Oogway Departs,” and “Rope Bridge Fight.”
The goal of this session is to show how each department contributed to the film’s storytelling, how specific production challenges arose, and how the team overcame them. Specific topics include: the pre-production experience (early test animations to evaluate animation and fighting styles), early-look development and how it progressed to the final look of the film, DreamWorks Animation’s first use of pre-visualization as a storytelling tool, and how the death of a main character forced the production process to become the look-development process.
