Milimetros Studio’s Feature Animation “The Heart of the Oak” (Production Scheduled, Blender Pipeline)
Milimetros Studio located in Madrid, Spain was founded in 2001 by veteran animators Angel Izquierdo (IMDB.com) and Antonio Zurera (IMDB.com). Angel honed his skills while working for Hanna-Barbera under the direction of Bill Hanna. Working on shows such as The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, Scooby-Doo Where Are You!, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, Top Cat, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Space Ghost, Wacky Races, The Magilla Gorilla Show and The Smurfs.
Angel stated that they have known of Blender for several years but it was around nine months ago that they seriously started to evaluate the software making some early tests. They also followed the development of some of the “excellent Blender features” with interest and realized that it could be fully usable in a big production. “The key is to put very good artists with strong skills and with the right and clear concepts in mind. And this makes the big difference. Some others may wrongly think that if they use the most expensive software [they] will do great things, forgetting the human side.” says Angel
“We [used] 3D right from our first productions. In Dragon Hill (finished in 2003) we did use CGI to enhance animation with some bgs. in movement, some objects, the “Cosmic Ray” a small plane of Elfy, some flying dragons, a sea sequence, special effects, etc. On “The Magic Cube” also, with the sea sequences, and basically the same things. And many more and in “RH+”: almost one third of the film is 3D. But we always tried to use it in the 2D cartoon style, so sometimes is difficult for the public to realize that is 3D.”
Links:
Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Job Openings at Milimetros:
Milimetros has some openings for CG Artists, if you are interested email your resume to Lucia Gómez – Production Manager at info[ a t ]milimetros.com
We prefer a resume in a pdf format, open office or word document attached to the e-mail in which we can read the specialty and experience. No image files attached, please. Just a link to a web site so we are able to see your reels and work examples.
“We are looking for GOOD artists working with any software, but able to easily switch to Blender or already familiar with Blender.”
About the Production:
“The Heart of the Oak” is an adventures feature film of 80 minutes in length, and will be produced in 3D CGI. The target is children from 6 to 9. The producers will be Milimetros Feature animation and Dibulitoon. It will be the third part of Dragon Hill’s successful saga and will be directed by Angel Izquierdo and Ricardo Ramón
Milimetros Feature animation is one of the best production companies in Spain specialised in animation. Milimetros has more than 25 years of experience and we spent 20 of them designing, directing and making films for the Majors (Disney, Hanna-Barbera, MGM, Cartoon Network or Gaumont). For seven years we have been producing our own films, comprising four films and one TV series sold all over the world to the best distributors: “Dragon Hill”, “The Magic Cube”, “RH+ The vampire of Seville” and “The adventures of Don Quixote”.
Dibulitoon is an animation production company with studio in Irun (Basque Countries) who has produced eight films and two series, four of the films in are 3D: “The dream robber”, “Glup”, “Supertramps”, “Christopher Columbus”.
We join forces to get Spanish funds from each local government (Basque and Andalusian) and from the local TV: ETB and Canal Sur.
Creative Content
-Concept and structure
“The Heart of the Oak” is an epic story brought to life with humor and romance. It is inspired in the European mythological traditions, its legends, to create a magical universe full of beauty, a world close to children. But it is also the reflection of our own universe, a story of daily situations with the family.
The adventures occur in Dragon Hill, a marvelous place surrounded by mountains and woods, inhabited by different species of dragons, fairies, elfs and other fantastic creatures. There are also other people and objects which arrive to Dragon Hill from other places and times under unknown circumstances.
Nobody knows how to go out, only “Ethelbert”, the guardian has the key.
This time, in this film, strange events are changing the climate in Dragon Hill and this sudden freeze has plunged it into darkness. On top of Dragon Hill, there is an oak tree as big as a mountain and as old as time. Its heart has always protected the balance of the environment but now it is dying. Robin, the little Elf and guardian of the forest, implores the Gods to help him fight this menacing evil that threatens to destroy all life. When he finally receives help – it is not what he expected.
In the base of the plot there is an ice fortress, a magic sword forged from a star and an order of knights’ dragons, the “Dana-Hin”. On this epic quest, Elfy and his friends will discover that in order to balance the universe, you must put in effort, make sacrifices and ultimately take responsibility.
The Production
We plan to begin production next March with an schedule of around two years and the project will be presented in the next Cartoon Movie.
(First)
cool, I like the materials.
Very interesting, some impressive credentials there!
I’ll be very interested to see how they cope with their goals and deadlines and if they’re going to be able to find the artists they need that will work with Blender. Very intriguing, but a big risk – I like. =D
Hats off to them for giving Blender a real go. I hope they provide plenty of feedback to the community in terms of how Blender fits and performs and areas for improvement – invaluable stuff from hoary heads in the industry.
Oops, didn’t think I was logged in!
Anyway, I hope this is a well manage production that can see the project straight through from start to finish in a realistic time schedule. Way too many ambitious blender-based projects have fallen by the wayside. If they’re smart, they should (financially) keep the Blender Foundation in their pocket!
Hmm…
Perhaps we now know the identity of the mysterious anonymous donor bankrolling a developer to get blender 2.5 stable.
It might be Milimetros, but if I recall correctly Ton stated the anonymous donor was on the west coast of the US.
I wish Milimetros luck in their production. Are they starting March 2010 or March 2011? They said ‘next March’ instead of ‘this coming March’ so that would imply the later. Also staffing up with 1 month notice is a fairly short time frame.
They also mention in the forum that they will need programmers but that it is ‘still early’.
If you are a spanish speaking programmer, perhaps contributing some cool patches and getting involved will improve your odds :)
LetterRip
The still looks very good! Cant wait to see the quality of the final movie. I wish i had enough experience to join the project :(
I love seeing Blender used in professional stuff!
I think this will be great for blender.
With some big names and an established studio taking it publicly onboard, it will get other studios to take a serious look at blender. Their past record shows they have a pretty good chance of finishing this project (even big studios can drop projects before completion for various reasons) They would also have the cash flow to maybe keep a couple of full time developers on blender. (nudge nudge) ;-)
This would be a big turning point for blender. I won’t be surprised if other studios (small and large) come out with similar announcements in the next couple of years. The beginning of the snowball effect.
This does look very good.
I’ve applied for a position so hopefully I’ll get it.
This feature has the benefit of increasing animation production in Europe and of course showing that blender is being taken seriously in the CG industry.
I’m going through the list of past productions like a checklist of what I watched as a kid.
I remember years ago when I told a kid I used Blender and he looked at me disgusted, and asked “That freeware?” He then went on to show me Poser and how amazing it was. I still haven’t used Poser.
this is an awesome news! cmmercial = prefessional in most of the case, so professional means increase of users!
Oh I love the character. Can’t wait to see the movie.
It’s seems the edges aren’t AA’d…
@tom
“Are they starting March 2010 or March 2011?”
I think they mean march 2010 when they say “next march”.
Anyway, looks very promising to me. Good luck to the guys!
I think it is only a matter of time blender to become widely used in animation studios. It just makes sense to use it, especially for new studios.
Man, that image looks beautiful, I wouldn’t have guessed it was done with the internal renderer.
I was watching TVE a few weeks ago and I stumbled upon dragon hill, at first I thought “wow, they did this?!, good going Spain”. Then I checked the tittle and because it is in English I dropped the idea of them having done it, I thought it was British or Australian or something. Didn’t give it much thought, I should have researched.
i already sent my email :D
It says that it’s extremly neccesary specify the economic expectations.. but.. I live out from Europe so I dont have any idea what salary is handled there, so.. Can someone clarify this to me?