Work In Progress (short)
Encyclopedia
Work in Progress is a 2000 ILM computer animated short film directed by Tom Bertino
) working on designing and building a huge gorilla. The conversation between them explains to the user that the pair have created all of the animals on their world, but only with the help of a small girl; except for one, the chihuahuaraffe, a chihuahua body with a giraffe neck and head, which has severe stability issues resulting in it tripping over constantly.
They then 'fire up' the gorilla and bring it to life. The gorilla promptly sits up and smashes through a wooden platform causing the assistant to be flung across the workshop. The gorilla looks very rough with exposed metal and large sewing marks along its chest. It sits there and chews on some of the wood from the platform.
The short then cuts to the small girl working across a beach and through a forest towards the workshop. This scene demonstrates a number of CGI technologies, including: particle simulation (shown with clouds, water and sand) cloth simulation (with the girls clothing), fur/hair simulation (with the girls hair and the fur on a chipmunk) and foliage simulation.
The scene cuts back to the inventor and his assistant who are observing the gorilla repeatedly bang its head against the floor, the small girl arrives behind them and walks up to a platform and onto the gorillas shoulder next to its head. Against the protests of the inventor, who believes that the gorilla is finished and doesn't need improving, the girl taps the gorillas head and causes the top of the head to pop up on a spring. The girl then makes a top hat appear from thin air and then pulls a white rabbit out of it. The girl blows on the rabbit causing it to dissolves into a stream of golden dust which flows into the hole in the gorillas head, the top of the head promptly clamps back onto the rest of he head. The gorilla then starts to glow and whites out the screen. When focus is returned, the inventor, assistant and the girl are standing outside on a grass verge, the gorilla then falls onto this verge, however now is completely lifelike with clean movement and fur. The inventor, in an unimpressed voice, remarks "seem it all before" at which the gorilla now under a spot light and waring a tuxedo jacket begins to sing in an opera styling causing a deer to shed a tear from the beauty of its singing. After another round of ridicule from the inventor and assistant the gorilla pulls two cymbals from behind its chest and bangs them to together like a cymbal monkey
causing them to change their minds and congratulate themselves on how well it works, completely ignoring the girl. They then proceed to walk off together discussing their next animal design while the gorilla walks off with the girl.
Tom Bertino
Tom Bertino is a professional animator, formerly Animation Director and Visual Effects Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic.-Life:He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 1981....
Plot
A tall, thin inventor with a wisp of white smoke for hair (voiced by Richard Wilson) is in a large workshop with his dumpy, cigar smoking assistant (voiced by Tony HaygarthTony Haygarth
Tony Haygarth is an English television, film and theatre actor.-Career:At the age of eighteen, Haygarth worked unsuccessfully as a lifeguard in Torquay, and also tried escapology, equally unsuccessfully...
) working on designing and building a huge gorilla. The conversation between them explains to the user that the pair have created all of the animals on their world, but only with the help of a small girl; except for one, the chihuahuaraffe, a chihuahua body with a giraffe neck and head, which has severe stability issues resulting in it tripping over constantly.
They then 'fire up' the gorilla and bring it to life. The gorilla promptly sits up and smashes through a wooden platform causing the assistant to be flung across the workshop. The gorilla looks very rough with exposed metal and large sewing marks along its chest. It sits there and chews on some of the wood from the platform.
The short then cuts to the small girl working across a beach and through a forest towards the workshop. This scene demonstrates a number of CGI technologies, including: particle simulation (shown with clouds, water and sand) cloth simulation (with the girls clothing), fur/hair simulation (with the girls hair and the fur on a chipmunk) and foliage simulation.
The scene cuts back to the inventor and his assistant who are observing the gorilla repeatedly bang its head against the floor, the small girl arrives behind them and walks up to a platform and onto the gorillas shoulder next to its head. Against the protests of the inventor, who believes that the gorilla is finished and doesn't need improving, the girl taps the gorillas head and causes the top of the head to pop up on a spring. The girl then makes a top hat appear from thin air and then pulls a white rabbit out of it. The girl blows on the rabbit causing it to dissolves into a stream of golden dust which flows into the hole in the gorillas head, the top of the head promptly clamps back onto the rest of he head. The gorilla then starts to glow and whites out the screen. When focus is returned, the inventor, assistant and the girl are standing outside on a grass verge, the gorilla then falls onto this verge, however now is completely lifelike with clean movement and fur. The inventor, in an unimpressed voice, remarks "seem it all before" at which the gorilla now under a spot light and waring a tuxedo jacket begins to sing in an opera styling causing a deer to shed a tear from the beauty of its singing. After another round of ridicule from the inventor and assistant the gorilla pulls two cymbals from behind its chest and bangs them to together like a cymbal monkey
Cymbal-banging monkey toy
A cymbal-banging monkey toy is a mechanical depiction of a monkey holding a cymbal in each hand. When activated it repeatedly bangs its cymbals together and, in some cases, bobs its head, chatters, grins, does flips, and more...
causing them to change their minds and congratulate themselves on how well it works, completely ignoring the girl. They then proceed to walk off together discussing their next animal design while the gorilla walks off with the girl.
Crew
- Directed by Tom Bertino
- Produced by Christian Kubsch
- Co-Producer: Jill Brooks
- Executive Producers: Patricia Blau, Jim Morris
- Music by Jimmie Haskell
- Editor: Steve Bloom
- Story Supervisor: Anthony Stacchi
- Production Designer: Erik Tiemens
- Character Designer: Carlos Huante
- Layout Supervisor: Scott Farrar
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Erik Mattson
- Supervising Animators: Chris Armstrong, Sean Curran, Tim Harrington
- Sound Designer: Tom Myers