《少年派的奇幻漂流》動畫特效團隊專訪

This is by far the longest I’ve ever been on a production. And uh… it started in August of 20… 2009, when Ang came over, and he… he asked uh… whether a digital character looks better or worse in stereo. And, we all kind of said, “We don’t know. So why don’t we give it a shot?”

這是目前爲止我所參與過最長的製作。而嗯…它從20…2009年八月開始，當時李安過來拜訪，然後他…他問我…數字化的角色在三維效果下看起來會更好還是更差。然後，我們都大概是說：「我們不知道。所以爲何不試試看呢？」

So the… you know, the challenges for us were how to portray an ocean that’s as much a character as possible. And you know this is the first film in a while that’s really… right there in the ocean, non-stop for over 3/5 of the running time.

所以…你知道的，我們的挑戰就是如何儘可能地將海洋擬人化。你知道這是近期的第一部電影，有連續不斷，超過五分之三的流程，真的…就在海洋之中進行拍攝。

So we had to find the way to deal with the ocean and then the animals. Hmm… Even we did… even though we did use some practical tigers, there was no ways we’re putting… hmm… even the trained tiger on the life raft with the actual actor. Hmm… even on the tank, put it among this 26-foot boat would have uh… never flown with the insurance adjusters. So we had to make a digital tiger and make sure that it looked as real as the uh… back to back with the real thing.

所以我們必須找出方法來處理海洋，接着是動物。嗯…我們甚至…雖然我們的確有使用一些真正的老虎，我們不可能有辦法將…嗯…甚至是經過訓練的老虎和真正的演員一起放在救生筏上。嗯..甚至是在儲水池中拍攝，放在這26英呎長的船上也嗯…過不了保險專員那關。所以我們得做出一隻數字老虎，並確保牠看起來像真的…依照實物繪製出來的。

The whale breach — it has a slightly overcranked feel, a slight motion feel. And again to get that weight into that animal is… is tricky, and I think it works well. You know, for me, it was just really important that we could feel an animal weighing… tons of pounds. And that it was powerful enough to breach out of the water to that height, just to fit the drama and to make it spectacular.

鯨魚衝擊–有些許高速攝影的感覺，慢動作的感覺。再次強調，將那樣的重量感加在動物身上…是很需要技巧的，而我覺得它效果很好。你知道，對我而言，我們能夠感受到動物重達…數千磅(1噸爲2000磅)是非常重要的。而這力量強大，足以高高的破水而出，以使它符合戲劇性及壯觀。

We just pushed the height of the jump, and the whale comes out of the water completely, and it looks cool.

我們只是提高跳躍的高度，讓鯨魚完全跳出水面，這看起來很酷。