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The Art of the Rise of the Guardians-- Excerpt from The Human World; on Jack Frost
Chapter Scans
GUARDIAN OF FUN
The rural town of Burgess is the key setting for Jack and the children characters in the movie. In the film's opening act, we see Burgess in the early 1600s, when Jack rises from the pond and discovers his magical powers. The town is also the present-day home of Jamie, who plays an important role in helping the Guardians win their battle against Pitch in the third act of the movie.
The filmmakers modeled seventeenth-century Burgess on colonial-era coal-mining towns of western Pensylvania, while the modern-day town is meant to evoke your average college town in the United States. Of course, the older Burgess is a greener place, with an airy forest full of trees and plants. In Jamie's era, the forests of the colonial era have been cleared away. However, Jack's original pond is still there and plays a key role in the movie's climax. "We really wanted Jamie's world to be timeless, so you can see a mishmash of influences around town," says art director Max Boas. "We paid an homage to the '70s in the way the cars look on the streets, but we also threw a hybrid electric car in there as well. We were inspired by graphics that range from the early 1900s through the 1940s. We wanted to give the town a sense of history through the signs and graphics of the past."
In a fitting tribute to their own childhood memories, the artists' turned to 1980s films about suburban childhood directed by Steven Spielberg, such as E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, for inspiration. "We liked those movies as well as the work of cinematographer Roger Deakins for the way the characters are lit and often shot in silhouettes," notes Boas. "We wanted the lighting to feel grounded in reality. The goal was to study those films because of the natural way they showed kids interacting with magical elements. So the viewer would feel like the world is all very belivable and tangible. Extraordinary things could happen to everyday suburban families."
JACK
Heroes who can't recall their past have been a fixture of hard-boiled crime dramas for decades. But we've never quite seen an animated character as torn and puzzled by his past as Jack Frost until Rise of the Guardians. in William Joyce's original version of the story, Jack was a much older figure who brings autumn and seasonal change along with him wherever he goes. Since he was not quite as iconic as the other main characters, the filmmakers had more freedom, envisioning Jack as a younger, less knowledgable character, turning him into the perfect audience stand-in in the process.
"We wanted to tell the origin story of the character who would guide us through these fantastic worlds," says producer Christina Steinberg. "We chose to make Jack younger than he originally was conceived and turn him into the story's protagonist. He doesn't know what it means to be a Guardian and has no idea who he is or what he is supposed to do. By the time he meets the other characters, they are already a team, and so we are introduced to them through Jack's eyes."
Adding Jack to the mix also allowed the filmmakers to create an essential emotional core for the story. As head of the story Hamish Grieve explains, they could have told the story about the Guardian's defense of childhood against Pitch with just the four major players. "You can easily have a superhero story with just four major characters, like The Incredibles or The Fantastic Four," he says. "But one of the key aspects of our film was the emotional ingredient. Jack brings that part to the story, because he's a character that needs to discover what it takes to be a Guardian. In a way, he's like Luke Skywalker."
Although Jack is the hero of the story, he is also a supernatural being. He can control the forces of winter--summoning ice, wind, and snow-- and can travel with them. However, just like Pitch, he is deeply bothered by the fact that nobody believes in him. This reinforces one of the major themes of the story: If nobody believes in you, you cease to exist. Pitch tries to lure Jack to his side by manipulating the young man through this common doubt, nearly pulling him into his shadowy underworld.
Initially, the designers thought of Jack as a younger teenager who used to live in a colonial town in Pennsylvania. Then, they added details to this basic form, developing ideas of what he would look like after drowning in a lake and coming back as a supernatural being with major existential problems. "In Jack we had a very complex character to figure out," says Gabe Hardos, head of character animation. "The questions we had to ask were, 'If you realize that you have a superpower, what would you do with it?' and 'What would you do when you find out nobody can see you?'"
Originally designed by Chris Appelhans and Ryan O'Loughlin, Jack is a three-hundred-year-old being caught in the body of a teenager. He's also a sensitive guy who verges on being a bit of a hunk. "You can think of him as similar to James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause," says producer Christina Steinberg. "There's one image of him sitting, holding a staff that really defined the character for us."
Visual effects supervisor David Prescott explains the unique approach to creating skin textures for the characters, particularly Jack and Tooth; "We commissioned Legacy Effects to create a series of silicone skin models in which all the detail lays underneath the surface and affects the way light penetrates the 'skin,' Andy Harbeck, surfacing supervisor, and his team used photos of these models to recreate the look in CG. We used sub-surface light scattering to create a very soft but textural skin. If you could touch it, it would feel very gummy and silicone-like."
Then, the film's effects team put their own original stamp on Jack's ice effects. "What was really important for us was not to go the science fiction route," says Prescott. "The minute you use a certain kind of blue flickering effect, your mind goes back to science fiction, live-action films such as The Golden Compass or Harry Potter," says Prescott. "For Jack, we rode this line between the sci-fi effect of an electric bolt and frost, which has a more magical, elegant effect."
As the years between his death as a young boy in colonial America and the present go by, Jack experiences different types of grief, finally reaching some level of acceptance after three centuries of melancholy. But by the time the film catches up with him, he is still a little troubled, with strong emotions stirring just below the surface. "His movements emphasize his emotional experiences," says Hordos. "He has his hands in his pockets and uses the wind to fly, but he really doesn't have to try very hard. The animators also came up with the concept that when he lands on the ground, there are tiny cushions of air that keep him up so that his feet are a bit off. Something isn't quite right with him, because that's just the way it should be with a complicated figure like Jack!"
JACK DISCOVERS FROST
The first sequence of the movie belongs exclusively to Jack, the mysterious hero with an unknown past. Inspired by Johane Matte's evocative storyboards, the filmmakers took an ambitious chance by starting the film with an image of the still body of a young boy who looks like he might have drowned in a lake. Soon, though, Jack rises from the icy surface of the water and discovers that he can use his staff to create frost and snow. This is the beginning of a new stage in his life, an the animators wanted to impart a sense of the enjoyment Jack feels as he begins to explore his supernatural powers. As Jack runs across the frozen pond and flies along with the winter wind, he is exhilarated by his new abilities. But there is also the flip side to his new status: As he enters the town of Burgess, he realizes that he's invisible to everyone. He's now a ghost-like vision, and his only friend may be the mystical voice of the Moon, which told him his name: Jack Frost. In just a few minutes before the opening credits roll, this enchanting story has cast its spell.
GUARDIAN OF FUN
The rural town of Burgess is the key setting for Jack and the children characters in the movie. In the film's opening act, we see Burgess in the early 1600s, when Jack rises from the pond and discovers his magical powers. The town is also the present-day home of Jamie, who plays an important role in helping the Guardians win their battle against Pitch in the third act of the movie.
The filmmakers modeled seventeenth-century Burgess on colonial-era coal-mining towns of western Pensylvania, while the modern-day town is meant to evoke your average college town in the United States. Of course, the older Burgess is a greener place, with an airy forest full of trees and plants. In Jamie's era, the forests of the colonial era have been cleared away. However, Jack's original pond is still there and plays a key role in the movie's climax. "We really wanted Jamie's world to be timeless, so you can see a mishmash of influences around town," says art director Max Boas. "We paid an homage to the '70s in the way the cars look on the streets, but we also threw a hybrid electric car in there as well. We were inspired by graphics that range from the early 1900s through the 1940s. We wanted to give the town a sense of history through the signs and graphics of the past."
In a fitting tribute to their own childhood memories, the artists' turned to 1980s films about suburban childhood directed by Steven Spielberg, such as E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, for inspiration. "We liked those movies as well as the work of cinematographer Roger Deakins for the way the characters are lit and often shot in silhouettes," notes Boas. "We wanted the lighting to feel grounded in reality. The goal was to study those films because of the natural way they showed kids interacting with magical elements. So the viewer would feel like the world is all very belivable and tangible. Extraordinary things could happen to everyday suburban families."
JACK
Heroes who can't recall their past have been a fixture of hard-boiled crime dramas for decades. But we've never quite seen an animated character as torn and puzzled by his past as Jack Frost until Rise of the Guardians. in William Joyce's original version of the story, Jack was a much older figure who brings autumn and seasonal change along with him wherever he goes. Since he was not quite as iconic as the other main characters, the filmmakers had more freedom, envisioning Jack as a younger, less knowledgable character, turning him into the perfect audience stand-in in the process.
"We wanted to tell the origin story of the character who would guide us through these fantastic worlds," says producer Christina Steinberg. "We chose to make Jack younger than he originally was conceived and turn him into the story's protagonist. He doesn't know what it means to be a Guardian and has no idea who he is or what he is supposed to do. By the time he meets the other characters, they are already a team, and so we are introduced to them through Jack's eyes."
Adding Jack to the mix also allowed the filmmakers to create an essential emotional core for the story. As head of the story Hamish Grieve explains, they could have told the story about the Guardian's defense of childhood against Pitch with just the four major players. "You can easily have a superhero story with just four major characters, like The Incredibles or The Fantastic Four," he says. "But one of the key aspects of our film was the emotional ingredient. Jack brings that part to the story, because he's a character that needs to discover what it takes to be a Guardian. In a way, he's like Luke Skywalker."
Although Jack is the hero of the story, he is also a supernatural being. He can control the forces of winter--summoning ice, wind, and snow-- and can travel with them. However, just like Pitch, he is deeply bothered by the fact that nobody believes in him. This reinforces one of the major themes of the story: If nobody believes in you, you cease to exist. Pitch tries to lure Jack to his side by manipulating the young man through this common doubt, nearly pulling him into his shadowy underworld.
Initially, the designers thought of Jack as a younger teenager who used to live in a colonial town in Pennsylvania. Then, they added details to this basic form, developing ideas of what he would look like after drowning in a lake and coming back as a supernatural being with major existential problems. "In Jack we had a very complex character to figure out," says Gabe Hardos, head of character animation. "The questions we had to ask were, 'If you realize that you have a superpower, what would you do with it?' and 'What would you do when you find out nobody can see you?'"
Originally designed by Chris Appelhans and Ryan O'Loughlin, Jack is a three-hundred-year-old being caught in the body of a teenager. He's also a sensitive guy who verges on being a bit of a hunk. "You can think of him as similar to James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause," says producer Christina Steinberg. "There's one image of him sitting, holding a staff that really defined the character for us."
Visual effects supervisor David Prescott explains the unique approach to creating skin textures for the characters, particularly Jack and Tooth; "We commissioned Legacy Effects to create a series of silicone skin models in which all the detail lays underneath the surface and affects the way light penetrates the 'skin,' Andy Harbeck, surfacing supervisor, and his team used photos of these models to recreate the look in CG. We used sub-surface light scattering to create a very soft but textural skin. If you could touch it, it would feel very gummy and silicone-like."
Then, the film's effects team put their own original stamp on Jack's ice effects. "What was really important for us was not to go the science fiction route," says Prescott. "The minute you use a certain kind of blue flickering effect, your mind goes back to science fiction, live-action films such as The Golden Compass or Harry Potter," says Prescott. "For Jack, we rode this line between the sci-fi effect of an electric bolt and frost, which has a more magical, elegant effect."
As the years between his death as a young boy in colonial America and the present go by, Jack experiences different types of grief, finally reaching some level of acceptance after three centuries of melancholy. But by the time the film catches up with him, he is still a little troubled, with strong emotions stirring just below the surface. "His movements emphasize his emotional experiences," says Hordos. "He has his hands in his pockets and uses the wind to fly, but he really doesn't have to try very hard. The animators also came up with the concept that when he lands on the ground, there are tiny cushions of air that keep him up so that his feet are a bit off. Something isn't quite right with him, because that's just the way it should be with a complicated figure like Jack!"
"We needed Jack to be our guide into the world of the Guardians, so he became our protagonist-- a boy who doesn't know his place in the world. The story focuses on how he acquires this knowledge and gets his memory back, and we see the world through his eyes."
-- CHRISTINA STEINBERG, producer.
JACK DISCOVERS FROST
The first sequence of the movie belongs exclusively to Jack, the mysterious hero with an unknown past. Inspired by Johane Matte's evocative storyboards, the filmmakers took an ambitious chance by starting the film with an image of the still body of a young boy who looks like he might have drowned in a lake. Soon, though, Jack rises from the icy surface of the water and discovers that he can use his staff to create frost and snow. This is the beginning of a new stage in his life, an the animators wanted to impart a sense of the enjoyment Jack feels as he begins to explore his supernatural powers. As Jack runs across the frozen pond and flies along with the winter wind, he is exhilarated by his new abilities. But there is also the flip side to his new status: As he enters the town of Burgess, he realizes that he's invisible to everyone. He's now a ghost-like vision, and his only friend may be the mystical voice of the Moon, which told him his name: Jack Frost. In just a few minutes before the opening credits roll, this enchanting story has cast its spell.
