Finding out a lot more about Nemo

So initially when starting this film assignment, not going to lie, I was a bit of a downer thinking "oh shoot, I forgot to rent a really 'intriguing or thoughtful' movie of my choice so I'm stuck with my own movie collection which doesn't consist of many 'quality' movies." However, after watching Finding Nemo (one of three movies I own on the list of top 100) and viewing the special features I realized how crazy tough and really intense animation is!

Finding Nemo, written and directed by Andrew Stanton, is a Pixar/Disney film about a clown fish (Nemo) who gets taken away by a SCUBA diver from his overprotective father (Marlin). The story follows Marlin's journey to find Nemo and Nemo's attempts at escaping aquarium life.

The whole inspiration came from writer and director Andrew Stanton, who wrote the story based on his experiences living near the ocean and looking at the aquarium in his dentist's office. He completely wrote the story (which was eventually tweaked and whatnot by everyone working on it) with many challenges facing him and his team.

Their first struggle was getting the look of the ocean. I know, it seems general, but there was actually a LOT of trouble getting the water to look just right. The animation artists had to understand the physics behind water, and how that would play a role in the look they were going for. The light sources, the density of the water, the swells and currents of the water, and the visibility within the ocean all played huge roles in how the film would end up looking. With the ocean looking just right they then had another rather important task. Fish.

All members of the film making team were SCUBA certified and went on dives in the coral reefs around Australia to observe fish in their natural habitats. They also used dead fish from aquariums in the local area to observe exactly how their bodies look and how the appendages move and are shaped. There was a sculptor on the animation team that would literally sculpt every character that was developed by the artists; the sculptures were then used by the animators to get a full sense of how the character could be digitally produced. There were several scientists that helped the crew make sure all the fish in the movie were accurately (minus the talking and emotions) depicted and very realistic.

The lighting was one of the most difficult aspects of the film that they had to face. Dory, one of the main characters, is a blue fish... swimming in a blue ocean. Having Dory and contrastingly orange Marlin swimming in the same frame together for the majority of the movie was a struggle for the animators in regards to being able to see everything clear enough continuing to have a blue ocean as the setting. Also, the light reflections and refrations through and about the water were very difficult to show realistically, but amazingly, they did it!

Through a long (3.5 year) process, the team of writers, producers, art directors, animators, and computer specialists, all produced an awe-strikingly spectacular animated film.

Interesting Interview
Pixar Site w/ behind the scenes info
ocean website