Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda Double Feature: Two 2D sequences that bookend a 3D world.
WE HEAR the stone-skipping sound (with the timbre of stone-plunking). WE SEE a laser-like lynx leapfrog and pad over looking glass, lemongrass and lillies, launching limitlessly to a lunette, to a custom animation of a familiar logo (always fun). WE ENTER a den of Animal Kingdom Savagery by way of your favorite children’s book illustration. The shadow upon this rogues gallery is ours.
“Enough talk.” - Po
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Custom Made Dreams
Art of the Title spoke with Hameed Shaukat, the producer for both the opening dream sequence and custom DreamWorks logo, as well as the 2D animation for the end credits.
“I can’t stress enough, neither the opening Dream Sequence of Kung Fu Panda nor the character animation in the End Credits contain any CG animation. It’s all 2D/traditional/hand-drawn.
The dream sequence was designed and laid-out at DreamWorks Animation under the direction of Jen Yuh Nelson with Production Designer Ramone Zibach and Art Director Tang Heng, who developed the sharp, high-contrast, highly-graphic, anime-influenced style. Once the backgrounds were complete, they were delivered to James Baxter Animation; everything from animation through compositing of the final shots.
James Baxter tackled the animation in unique ways. In one shot he would hand-draw the animation completely from start to finish, and in another he would do just a few drawings that were then digitally manipulated in After Effects. In addition, all effects animation consisted of traditional hand-drawn effects as well as digitally-manipulated elements from the original Photoshop files. Can you tell which is which? Being the master animator that Baxter is, the merging of the two is seamless. It helped keep the James Baxter Animation crew to only 12 people.
Jen, Ramone and Tang also designed the custom DWA logo sequence to perfectly match and lead into the dream sequence of Kung Fu Panda. We used mostly the same crew as on the dream sequence, but this time with animation by Rodolphe Guenoden.”
Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 800×336 | Size: 26.3 MB | Running Time: 2:28 | Year: 2008
720p HD Version | Format: QuickTime H.264, 1280×544 | Size: 56.4 MB | Running Time: 2:28 | Year: 2008
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Collaborative Titling
“The 2D character animation for the Kung Fu Panda end credits was done in-house at DreamWorks and realized in the same extremely detailed and highly graphic style as the film’s opening dream sequence. Several DreamWorks animators were tapped for this sequence, while the clean-up, ink & paint, color styling, and compositing departments were all lead by the same crew who had worked at James Baxter Animation on the dream sequence.
Working hand-in-hand with design and branding studio Shine on this was a real pleasure, with open and frequent communication being the key to the collaboration. Since Shine and our 2D animation crew were working on the sequence simultaneously, we delivered the rough pencil tests as early as possible to be used as reference for their camera moves and the ‘Po-dummy’ animation.
The Po-dummy animation for each scene was indicated by the animators in the roughs but it was only in the clean-ups if the character directly interacted with it (eg. Shifu animation). Otherwise, a full turnaround of the dummy was drawn, finished, and delivered to Shine so that they could easily integrate it into their final sequence using the roughs as a guide (eg. Crane animation).
All hand-drawn animation and clean-up was done on 16-field animation paper, which was then scanned into Animo for ink & paint and color styling, and then exported to After Effects for compositing. The final animated characters were delivered to Shine as TIFF sequences with alpha channel.”
Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 800×336 | Size: 92 MB | Running Time: 8:49 | Year: 2008
720p HD Version | Format: QuickTime H.264, 1280×544 | Size: 188.5 MB | Running Time: 8:49 | Year: 2008
Related Extra: Intense Collaboration on Kung Fu Panda’s End Credits - StudioDaily Article
Related Extra: A Conversation with Michael Riley - ToolFarm article
Credits: Credits List
Created by James Baxter Animation and Shine
Great example of everything that’s wrong with animation industry today. We have stylish and gorgeously animated title and credit sequences sandwiching a bland looking computer animated piece of junk.
I really love this stlye of animation. Similar to “Samurai Jack”, it has that 2D (or 2.5D) look as if it was done using Adobe Flash. Being hand drawn really accentuated the fluidity of the motion and the colors are just phenomenal. I’d love to see more animated films or shorts done using this technique.
Beautiful sequence!
I agree, I’d rather watch 90 minutes in the style of those titles than yet another 3D animated movie. Maybe one day a studio will take a chance on a 2d movie and the suits will think that 2d is cool again and throw money at it.
I disagree; it’s meant to look plainly 2D so that when Po wakes up in “3D”, it’s pretty jarring. The 3D movie itself is great! How can you guys not appreciate 3D animation, but you’re fine with 2D?
The slideshow style of the text in the end credits is awful for anything you’d want to do with the names, like *read them* or search for someone. Since you can’t tell when the slide is about to change, you can’t figure out how fast to scan each slide.
This could have been solved with any visual cue that showed how long a slide had left on screen, or with a traditional scroll.
Great work, looks fantastic. Hameed has always been know for creating real quality. Great job!
Discussing if you want to see an 2D rather than a 3D movie is a silly discussion about personal preferences.
I respect both styles and love it when I see 2D and 3D interact and merge.
Great work. Can’t wait for the sequel or the television series.
Simply perfect, cool motion-design, cool movie! Perfect entertainment package
I am going to agree with Xander Smalbil that 2D vs 3D is silly. There are just as many good and bad 3d and 2d films.
I myself really enjoyed this film in it’s entirety. The style of the opener and credits reminded me of the contrast in colors you see in the 300 ending credits and more recently the Mummy Credits. Lots of rich warm colors torn apart by rich blacks. These pieces though far surpassed the 300 ending credit logos. There is a great attention to detail. I love the hand drawn look for each character, the clear ink splatters from calligraphy brushes, and transition from scene to scene.
Great opening to the movie. Wonderful animation! Too bad the movie didn’t live up to the first few moments.
Geez, why are you old crows ragging on the feature? I thought it was a leap forward in terms of showing how organic and artful CG movies can be. You sound like religious zealots preaching your 2D dogma.
It looks gorgeous in 720p but for some reason the audio lags for me.
The data rate for the HD files is very high and requires a powerful processor to decode. That might be why you’re experiencing delays.
I don’t have anything against 3D per se. I just think that the style of the 2D is much more interesting and creative than the 3D feature that follows it. 3D in general tends to be boringly naturalistic, whereas the title sequences here are way more surreal.
I just think it’s disappointing that 2D animation is relegated to credit sequences. 2d and 3d animation are fundamentally different mediums, and it’s too bad that a few flops caused producers to think that their cartoons have to be 3d in order to sell. So, no one makes 2d features and the form dies out.
If a studio were around that was regularly producing 2d features, I don’t think I’d complain about this particular example. But instead the pickin’s are slim.
the clips bring tears to my eyes. I love it.
I may be young, but it definitely brings some inspiration. I love some visual homages (possibly?) of Ninja Scroll and Ryu from Street Fighter.
@Owen
It would be interesting if a new Pixar of 2d animation popped up. I know Disney re-opened it’s interest in 2D but I don’t think they are taking the right approach with creating prequels or sequels to older franchises that don’t appeal to a newer generation. I thought they were going in a great direction when they introduced lilo and stitch in 2002 but was disappointed to hear shortly after they wanted to explore 3d over 2d.
One thing that I’ve always liked about 3d though is the little additions to environments that makes a scene come to life. Blades of grass moving, specs in the lighting, trees swaying. I do know what you mean about oringly naturalistic. Sometimes it takes a lot for me to fall into the universe Im being shown.
Beautiful, just beautiful work! And ofcourse the movie lived upto it!
I’m an artist & a professional musician & in my humble opinion, the movie was better than I’d previously assumed. I have no complaints about it, visually or sonically. I was surprised by the Dream Sequence though, I’ve always wanted to see that type of animation,(fluid & on the verge of 3d), for many years. I got the concept back when I was watching Samurai Jack fighting the Anubis warriors.
I was never a Jack Black fan but I really liked his performance in KFP… well, I… uh…either liked his performance or the performance the voice-over coach got out of him, either way, it was great.
Kung Fu Panda is my favorite movie of 2008 by a huge margin, nothing comes even close. I loved every second of it!
That opening sequence was, well, AWESOME! I hope to see an entire movie done in that style someday. Incredible work that deserves more exposure by itself.
It’s kinda like the opening sequence in Hellboy: The Golden Army, where the origin of the Golden Army is told via puppets, seeing a whole feature made with those puppets would be great!
To the badmouth at the top: Dis-agreed. These two sequences were indeed the highest level of awesomeness. But that does not mean the rest of the film was not also awesome. The CG was awesome, but its awesomeness was nowhere near the purity of these two’s pure awesomeness. I just wish there were many hours more! Awesome.
The films really inspiring visually, as i want to work in animation also,the style is great 2D and 3D. Also can i make a correction, the production designer is “Raymond Zibach” not “Ramone Zibach”