How to Train your Dragon - Arena Spectacular. My Latest Project.
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Today was the official launch of the blockbuster stage production of How to Train Your Dragon, the project that I've been working on for the past 6 months or so at The Creature Technology Company in collaboration with Dreamworks.
Video here:
http://media.theage.com.au/entertainment/red-carpet/dragon-takes-centre-stage-2543836.html
I helped design the digital rig used to animate the walkcycle for the animatronic Deadly Nadder that you see in the video. Beyond that I've been doing loads of other work designing creatures, components and moulds and preparing parts digitally so that they can be routed from styrofoam and then fibreglassed.
The show is starting touring the world some time in March next year.
Video here:
http://media.theage.com.au/entertainment/red-carpet/dragon-takes-centre-stage-2543836.html
I helped design the digital rig used to animate the walkcycle for the animatronic Deadly Nadder that you see in the video. Beyond that I've been doing loads of other work designing creatures, components and moulds and preparing parts digitally so that they can be routed from styrofoam and then fibreglassed.
The show is starting touring the world some time in March next year.
Replies
you got any idea on where in auz it's showing?
Show would be awesome if you could get multiple dragons to fit..wondering what you're going to do for the 'boss' dragon...
And how did your 3d studies transfer to stuff like this?
Good to see Australian talent involved in something so cool.
i want one! or four!
Amazing stuff however!
That's not me, though I do appear briefly in one of the videos doing the rounds.
The tour is starting in Melbourne. I assume it'll do the capital cities after that and then head to New Zealand. I don't think it's been announced where it'll go after that.
We've got 24 animatronic dragons. Not sure I can say much about the enormous Red Death dragon, save for the fact that he'll make an appearance. And he'll be really, really big.
The work I do here isn't that far removed from games work. It's mostly messing about in Maya and ZBrush, there are just different kinds of constraints when you're working on models that'll eventually find their way into the real world. I got into the job by way of a friend who I worked with on a film effects project a while back.
Walking with Dinosaurs used similar tech to what we're working with here, albeit a little less advanced. We had full sized mechanical dinosaurs in that alongside the raptor suits.
New promo is up featuring a couple more dragons and some concept art.
congrats Jackablade, what a sweet gig!
It's pretty damn sweet. I show my daughters, and they both want to go, if it ever hits Michigan
I should have been clearer on touring - The show will be touring the world, so it'll get to you folks in other countries some time in the next year I imagine.
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The show will get to the UK eventually. No idea what the schedule is after the US where it's touring at the moment, but its a world tour so it'll find its way to somewhere near you at some point.
EDIT: Some audience member with a good quality digital camera shot a bunch of nice sharp shots or the show. You get a really good sense of the detail on each of the dragons.
http://markbooth.zenfolio.com/p856687872/h11370c7f#h1da99b55
They've just started the very early marketing for our next project - King Kong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SrSw3-0bew&feature=player_embedded
Will be something very different to HTTYD but should be an interesting show.
The first time hiccup road toothless, the flying toothless rig, all it did was flap its elbows, not even full extension. and then in mid air, it was completely dead. like, no movement at all. so my g/f and I were thinking they really dropped the ball on that one, since the others looked sooo good. But then after the scene finished, the announcer came on saying they are having technical difficulties. It took about 10 minutes to fix.
But, over all, my girlfriend and I really enjoyed ourselves. Parts were cheesy. Especially some of the acting. But it's a kids show, so that's understandable. The final boss was AMAZING, and I LOOOVED the part where
Be proud, Jackablade. You were apart of something fantastic!
The show has had a few technical hiccups (no pun intended) here and there particularly when it comes to the flight tracks. They're pretty rare now after the crew did some work on them before starting the US leg of the tour, but I guess they still crop up occasionally. Sucks that you had to stop your show.
Toothless is a far more complicated mech than the others, partly because he can fly from the ground so his feet aren't locked to anything. I think it makes it a bit tricky to keep the feet looking like they're planted.