Taste Visualization for Pixars Ratatouille (Synesthesia) - Michel Gagné - 1080P Michel Gagne 2010-04-22 | In the Fall of 2006, I was contacted by Brad Bird to create a series of animated vignettes for his movie Ratatouille. The concept was to design and animate abstract representations of what the character was tasting. Once we had agreed on a general direction for the visuals, a music score was composed. The dialogue and music was mixed and I was provided with the soundtracks.Using my spreadsheets as guideline, I moved on to the next phase: Hand drawings the animation. Around 1400 drawings were created for the animation. Each one was scanned, painted and composited using two softwares: Animo and Photoshop.Once all the drawings were scanned, I started compositing everything in Animo Director, adding blurs, shimering effects, and various digital filters. Each of the animation clips were sent to Brad Bird for comments and approval.Once the pieces were done and approved, they were rendered as a set of Tiffs (with alpha channel) and sent to Pixar for final compositing with the characters.
Michel Gagnés Raw 2D FX Animation for “My Little Pony: The Movie Michel Gagne 2022-04-24 | FX Concepts and RAW 2D FX “My Little Pony: The Movie” In 2016-2017, I was Effects Designer/Lead Animator on "My Little Pony: The Movie". Here are a few examples of raw (uncomposited) and experimental 2D FX I designed and animated for the film.
Michel Gagnés Raw 2D FX Animation for “SPACE JAM 2” Michel Gagne 2022-03-26 | In September 2020, I was invited by Warner Brothers to design the 2D effects for “Space Jam: A New Legacy”. As well as providing FX and Tone designs for the various sequences, I personally animated the 2D Effects (fire, water, smoke, lava, glints, sparks, etc) in the scenes featured in this video. - Michel Gagné
Orgasmic Synesthesia Michel Gagne 2022-03-23 | In November 2021, Director/Actor Jack Howard, invited me to design and animate on a Comedy Central sketch that paid tribute to the “taste visualization” I created for the film Ratatouille (2007). These are the scenes where my animation was involved. The full sketch can be viewed on the Comedy Central channel at this link: youtu.be/OI1E3A2pzes- Michel Gagné
How to Animate 2D Fire Tutorial Michel Gagne 2022-02-01 | This is a tutorial video I did for Taught by a Pro a few years ago. I am offering it here free of charge on my YouTube channel. I'm demonstrating a method using old school pencil and paper, but the same principles can be applied to a digital pipeline.
The Saga of Rex Excerpt: Line Animation vs Final Composite Michel Gagne 2019-07-24 | Here's another little nugget from The Saga of Rex Feature Film showing Rex waking up. Line art animation vs final composite.
The Saga of Rex Feature Film - First Teaser - 2019 Michel Gagne 2019-07-22 | For the past 2 years, I’ve been devoting 100% of my working hours, storyboarding, art directing and animating, “The Saga of Rex” Feature Film. Soon, I’ll be taking a little break from Rex, to design and animate magical effects for the upcoming Netflix series, “Magic: The Gathering”. I haven’t shown any footage from Rex since the original Kickstarter, and today, I thought it would be a good time to release a short teaser showing people what I’ve been working on.Since starting full time on “The Saga of Rex” on September 4th, 2017, I have created an articulated animatic of the 68-minute film which contains rough layouts, rough poses, rough animation breakdown, rough FX and camera moves, all synchronized to the score. I’ve managed to complete over 10 minutes of finished color footage (including reworking and upgrading 3 minutes from the Kickstarter). Aside from the adapted screenplay, by my friend, Jesper Moller, and some help on the in-betweens by my pal, Seung Kim, the film has been and remains up to this point, a solo effort. Last year, we didn’t renew the option with Grid Animation (the Belgian company which held the movie rights for the past 5 years), so everything reverted back to me. Now, all options are open. Let’s see where the future takes it.
MLP Movie — Fireworks — Michel Gagné FX Michel Gagne 2017-12-30 | For the end of the movie, I was asked to create Tempest's magical fireworks. Up until that point, Tempest's magic is disorganized and chaotic. The fireworks is a turning point. Her magic has now turned into something beautiful rather than chaotic. I used a small amount of particles to complement the FX but the vast majority of the FX animation is drawn frame by frame.
MLP Movie — Spell Call — Michel Gagné FX Michel Gagne 2017-12-30 | When I first approached the Spell Call, I designed the area where the Storm King appears as a sort of circular television created and surrounded by caustic looking energy rather than smoke.However, when I received the completed character animation of the king, I quickly realized that his actions were much too broad to confine within the small circular area of the initial design.I then shifted my approach to a more smoky aspect using the whole column as the display area. I also made sure to accentuate the movements of the king by creating reactions within the mystical smoke. This was a tight rope to navigate as too much reaction made it appear as if he was actually in the smoke. I needed to convey a hologram, not a physical presence in the smoke.I animated the FX frame by frame and my assistant Nik Gipe did some of the inbetweens.
MLP Movie — Deleted Prologue — Michel Gagné FX Michel Gagne 2017-12-30 | On any production, there's always work that end up on the cutting floor, and the My Little Pony Movie was no exception. Four months before its release, it was decided by the "Powers that be" that the film should be trimmed by 3 minutes to fit the distributor's wishes. Some stuff was cut from the middle, which was fine because it helped the flow of the film. The most disturbing decision, however, was the removal of the prologue. This part was featured right before the title appeared and set up the protagonists of the story in a stylized manner.I learned of the demise of the scene shortly before the release and was deeply saddened by the news. I won't hide the fact that I completely disagreed with its removal, but take comfort in knowing that Hasbro has released the scene so that people can at least have a peek at what might have been.The stain glass windows were beautifully designed by Alexia Tryfon, while Marc Fortin and Hein Schlebusch did an excellent job on the compositing. I handled the effects.Michel GagnéDecember 2017
Demolition Man - FX Animation by Michel Gagné and James Mansfield Michel Gagne 2016-04-07 | In 1993, while working as FX Supervisor on The Swan Princess, I started moonlighting on my first live action movie at effects house, Available Light in Burbank California. This is the sequence that was given to me and my FX buddy James Mansfield, to animate. I have no memory of who did what but I reckon we equally did 50% of the FX in the sequence. This was before the digital era. All the FX were inked on paper and then, composited on the film with an optical printer by Jon Van Vliet, who was our supervisor on that project. These effects got me my first mention in Cinefex, a magazine that inspired me while I was in college!
Horton Hear a Who - Michel Gagné FX Animation Michel Gagne 2016-04-03 | Here's a few small bits of animation I did for the "Horton Hears a Who" Anime Sequence. I was brought in at the last minute to create the stylized FX animation in one week (Christmas week 2006).
Battleborn - Michel Gagnés Hand Drawn FX Animation - 1080P Michel Gagne 2016-03-25 | The hand drawn effects animation in 2K/Gearbox Software’s video game Battleborn was designed and animated by VFX Director Michel Gagné using Toon Boom Harmony software.For a period of two and a half year (2013-2016), working in close collaboration with Gearbox’s VFX Team, Gagné animated over ten thousand sequential effects images.Gagné’s animation was integrated in the game by Gearbox’s VFX Team using proprietary Software.For more details about Michel's work on Battleborn, read this interview: toonboom.com/community/success-stories/michel-gagne
Land Before Time - Michel Gagnés Early Character Animation - Linda Miller Directing Animator Michel Gagne 2015-11-26 | Land Before Time was the first feature where I received credit as an animator. This video showcases some of the work I've done on the film. Linda Miller was my directing animator at the time and her fingerprints are all over this as well.
Ratatouille - Synesthesia - HD - FX Animation by Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2015-11-26 | In the Fall of 2006, I was contacted by Brad Bird to create a series of animated vignettes for his movie Ratatouille. The concept was to design and animate abstract representations of what the character was tasting. Once we had agreed on a general direction for the visuals, a music score was composed. The dialogue and music was mixed and I was provided with the soundtracks.Using my spreadsheets as guideline, I moved on to the next phase: Hand drawings the animation. Around 1400 drawings were created for the animation. Each one was scanned, painted and composited using two softwares: Animo and Photoshop.Once all the drawings were scanned, I started compositing everything in Animo Director, adding blurs, shimering effects, and various digital filters. Each of the animation clips were sent to Brad Bird for comments and approval.Once the pieces were done and approved, they were rendered as a set of Tiffs (with alpha channel) and sent to Pixar for final compositing with the characters.You can see the Synesthesia animation without the character (pre-compositing) here: youtu.be/xizttM_Cbuc
Osmosis Jones - Molecular Fire - HD - FX Animation by Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2015-11-24 | More of my Effects Animation from Osmosis Jones. It was a really fun animating and supervising the special effects for that film.
Osmosis Jones - DNA Apocalypse - HD - FX Animation by Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2015-11-22 | Some of my effects animation from the film Osmosis Jones.In the video, I did the 2D FX animation (fire, electricity, force field, explosions, glasses hitting the ground, bracelet absorbing orb, etc). Essentially all the hand drawn animation except for the characters, which were done by the character animation department.
Osmosis Jones - Title Sequence - HD - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2015-11-21 | During the production of Osmosis Jones, I came up with an idea to do the opening titles and setting them up in a microscopic world.I pitched the idea to one of the producer and was told that most likely the Farelly brothers' team would be handling that part of the movie (They were filming the live action part of the film). Undeterred, I decided to go ahead on my own time and produce the sequence without permission. I storyboarded and created the animation on paper. Then, I recruited Ryan Woodward to digitally composite the elements, add the camera moves and apply the various filters to produce the final look of the piece.Needless to say, it didn't take long for the folks at Warners to warm up to my idea and the sequence was quickly integrated in the film.
The Saga of Rex - Work in Progress Demo - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2015-11-09 | When I did the blog for the The Saga of Rex Kickstarter a couple of years ago, I documented the process of making the film with many videos. I thought it would be fun to put some of them together with music. This will give you a little glimpse into my filmmaking/animation process.Completed Saga of Rex Part 1 video can be viewed here: youtu.be/5urtUMjsel0
The Iron Giant - Michel Gagne Animation - Dream Sequence FX Pre-Compositing 1080P Michel Gagne 2015-10-15 | This is the raw FX Animation I did for The Iron Giant Dream Sequence from the Signature Edition. The assets were later composited at Duncan Studios, which handled the production of the Signature Edition additional scenes.I waited 15+ years to animate the FX in this sequence. It was nice to finally have closure.
SYNESTHESIA - Animation by Michel Gagné / Music by Gheorghe Costinescu Michel Gagne 2014-11-12 | In the summer of 2013, composer Gheorghe Costinescu commissioned artist Michel Gagné to create an animated abstract visualization based on his 1973 work, "Dots, Lines, and Patches for recorded electronic sounds". This film is the result.
Pencil Test for The Saga of Rex - Michel Gagne Michel Gagne 2013-08-14 | Here's a character pencil test (missing a few inbetween drawings) for The Saga of Rex. The eye blinks are added later at the color stage. Missing from the scene are the ground shadow, special effects and animated background elements.See completed video here: http://youtu.be/5urtUMjsel0
The Saga of Rex: The Animated Film Project Pt. 1 - Abduction (Michel Gagné 2013) Michel Gagne 2013-07-15 | A little fox named Rex is plucked from his home world by a mysterious spaceship and transported to the arcane world of Edernia, where he meets Aven, an enigmatic biomorph."The Saga of Rex: The Animated Film Project Pt. One: Abduction" is based on Michel Gagné's graphic novel, The Saga of Rex, published by Image Comics. It was made possible by pledges made through Kickstarter.com by 880 backers.For more, go to http://www.sagaofrex.comAnimation Technology: Toon Boom Harmony - http://www.toonboom.com/harmony
Elemental Groove - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2013-07-12 | The animation here was created in the fall of 2012 for a game called, Monster Match, produced by Ngmoco:). The video game is a sort of melange of Pokemon and Bejeweled. I was commissioned to design and animate the various effects contained in the game. Once the task was completed, I created this sizzle reel of the work I did on the project. Hope you like.~ Michel Gagné
ZED: A Cosmic Tale Preview - Image Comics - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2013-01-25 | When a cute little alien named ZED demonstrates his invention to the Hierarchy of the Galaxy, something goes wrong—terribly wrong! Before long, ZED's universe is thrown into complete turmoil and our little hero must face nearly insurmountable odds trying to survive and save the very fate of his home world.Imbued with a dark edge, peppered with pure silliness, and wrapped up in a childlike sense of wonder, ZED's adventures will keep readers tickled and captivated from start to finish.Originally published in comic book form over a period of eleven years, ZED has been completely revised and remastered for this definitive edition. Introduction by Brad Bird.7" x 10", B&W, 280 Pageshttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607066688/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1607066688&linkCode=as2&tag=gagneinternat-20------------------------------------------------January 25th, 2013I received my comps from Image Comics and I'm very pleased. The grayscale really came through and it makes the art look very lavish for a black and white book. I have to say that I'm a bit nervous about what the reception will be. ZED is such a deeply uncompromised vision. A lot of people might be shocked when they read ZED. What appears to be a little children's tale (based on the art and writing style) is in fact an edgy dark sci fi comedy adventure.ZED is dark, there's no denying that, but it is also a tale about overcoming obstacles and evolving from being victimized to empowerment and ultimate triumph of will. ZED very much echoes my own life in some ways. My childhood was filled with extreme hardships (growing up in a broken family with an abusive father; constantly being sick and in the hospital—coming very close to death quite a few times; being shot in the head at the age of twelve and loosing half my vision, etc). But like ZED, I came though and made a great life for myself. In many ways, ZED was my therapy. I almost took a sadistic pleasure at traumatizing him, because I knew that like myself, he could take it and that his triumph over adversity would be that much more remarkable.When I created ZED, I never concerned myself with the commercial viability. I wanted to stick to my vision undiluted by public expectation. Like an underground comix, ZED is pure in its artistic integrity—for better or for worse. Who will enjoy ZED? I don't know. I know that I would have loved ZED as a kid, but then I'm hearing all over the place that ZED is not for kids. People who expect a cute little story might be disappointed but if they keep an open mind, they might discover that under all the trauma is a story, like mine, that is full of hope and wonder.I applaud Image Comics for respecting the integrity of my work and feel very blessed to have them as a publisher. Here's a little video showing some of the inside pages of the book.
Early Unused Boss Prototype - Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Michel Gagne 2012-08-29 | When creating ITSP, a lot of our early prototypes ended up on the cutting floor, as you can see from our 2007 trailer ( http://youtu.be/kx_qAzX1DyU ) This was one of my favorite prototype that got cut, and I wish we could have worked it out in the final game. Although the prototype played very smoothly, the video capture is a bit choppy, but unfortunately, that is all that remains from this.
Brave - Michel Gagnés Effects Tests Michel Gagne 2012-08-20 | Here's a compilation of FX tests I did for Pixar's Brave. More info can be found here: http://www.gagneint.com/Final%20site/Animation/Brave/Brave_main.html
Early Effects Test for Pixars Brave - Castle Frost Michel Gagne 2012-08-07 | While doing development for Pixar's Brave, production designer, Steve Pilcher, asked me to create a series of short animation tests. These were usually done over Steve's own pre-production paintings or color keys. The assignment on this one was to animate frost magically covering the landscape using Celtic patterns. This particular test was all animated in Adobe Photoshop.
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Wins BAFTA 2012 Best Debut Game! Michel Gagne 2012-03-17 | Joe Olson and I (Michel Gagné) were so sad that we couldn't attend the BAFTA ceremony, but we made sure to have our eyes glued to the live streaming version of the show. We anxiously awaited with sweaty palms as the "Best Debut Game" category was announced. Then, our minds were blown... pure and simple.
A Touch of Deceit - Michel Gagnés Student Film from 1986 Michel Gagne 2012-03-02 | This is the film I did while attending Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, way back in 1985/86. The whole thing was animated on paper, inked and painted on cel, and shot on 16mm film. http://www.gagneint.com
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - Cinematics - Shadow Planet Productions Michel Gagne 2011-10-24 | Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a side-scrolling adventure that is a fusion of art, classical animation, and captivating gameplay, created by artist, Michel Gagné, and game industry veteran, Joe Olson. It is developed by Shadow Planet Productions. Visit the official website at http://www.InsanelyTwistedShadowPlanet.com
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - Game Play Montage - Shadow Planet Productions Michel Gagne 2011-10-20 | Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a side-scrolling adventure that is a fusion of art, classical animation, and captivating gameplay, created by artist, Michel Gagné, and game industry veteran, Joe Olson. It is developed by Shadow Planet Productions. Visit the official website at http://www.InsanelyTwistedShadowPlanet.com
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - Shadow Hunters DLC - 720P - Shadow Planet Productions Michel Gagne 2011-10-06 | Copyright Shadow Planet Productions ITSP's 1st DLC, Shadow Hunters, expand upon the narrative of the ITSP main campaign, as well as give an opportunity to tackle new challenges alone, or team up with your friends locally or over Xbox LIVE on your quest to eradicate the remnants of the invasive shadow virus. This new mode begins with a cinematic that picks up exactly where the final scene of the main campaign left off. In a nearby asteroid belt, the Shadow Entity still thrives, and the player must clear these asteroids of the nefarious presence before it begins to spread again. For more info, visit http://www.InsanelyTwistedShadowPlanet.com
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - Animated End Credits - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2011-07-27 | I always enjoy seeing movies with animated credits. I even got to do the opening credits for the movie, Osmosis Jones, during my tenure as head of 2D special effects at Warner Brothers Feature Animation. Joe and I decided that ITSP needed it's own set of animated credits, so I surprised the team when I turned this out at the last minute.
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - HD 720P - Final Trailer June 2011 Michel Gagne 2011-05-25 | Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a side-scrolling adventure that is a fusion of art, classical animation, and captivating gameplay, created by artist, Michel Gagné, and game industry veteran, Joe Olson. It is developed by Shadow Planet Productions and available on XBLA and PC. For more info, visit the official website at http://www.InsanelyTwistedShadowPlanet.com
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - PAX East Gameplay Footage - March 2011 - HD 720P Michel Gagne 2011-03-10 | For more info, visit http://www.insanelytwistedshadowplanet.com
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - Pax Teaser March 2011 - 720P Michel Gagne 2011-03-09 | For more info, visit http://www.InsanelyTwistedShadowPlanet.com
Prelude To Eden (1995) - HD 1080P - Michel Gagne Michel Gagne 2011-02-08 | In April 2010, I managed to retrieve Prelude to Eden's original digital files on Exabyte tapes. The tapes had been missing for several years, stored in a warehouse in Cambridge, UK. I was hoping that from those, I'd be able to create an HD master. Unfortunately, the tapes were corrupted and no data could be extracted from them. Determined to create an HD master of the film, I located the original 35mm Interpositive that was created by Kodak Cinesite in London for the theatrical release, back in 1995. Then, I had the IP scanned at 1920x1080 resolution by Alpha Cine, in Seattle.Once the film was turned into an uncompressed HD Quicktime, I color-corrected each scene, digitally removed specs and dust, and stabilized the film through After Effects' Motion Stabilizer. Prelude to Eden was animated on paper the old fashion way. This film was part of the first generation of hand drawn animation digitally painted and composited. It was used to develop Animo which subsequently became the primary 2D animation software at Dreamworks and Warner Bros Feature animation (where I was head of special effects at the time). Animo was instrumental in the creation of films such as The Iron Giant, The Prince of Egypt, Eldorado, Space Jam, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Osmosis Jones, and many others.Prelude to Eden was nominated for an Annie Award for best animated short Subject in 1996.
The Iron Giant - Tidal Wave Splash - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2010-08-06 | Effects Animation by Michel Gagné
The Iron Giant - Dome of Doom - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2010-08-06 | Effects animation by Michel Gagné
Sensology by Michel Gagné - HD 720P - Music by Paul Plimley and Barry Guy Michel Gagne 2010-08-03 | Back in June 2006, I was invited to the Vancouver International Jazz Festival by Coastal Jazz's manager of artistic programming, the amazing Rainbow Robert. That's where I heard piano improvisor, Paul Plimley for the first time. As Paul played, I closed my eyes and had an intense synesthetic experience. When the show ended, I immediately started feeling a compulsion to express in animation what I had just experienced. I shared my thoughts with Rainbow and to my delight, she said to me, "That's why I brought you here, I was hoping you'd say that!"I've wanted to do an abstract animated film ever since I discovered the work of Oscar Fischinger, Norman Mclaren, Kandinsky, Yves Tanguy and many others. I knew that Paul's music, was the perfect catalyst to get started on such a project.Upon returning to my studio, I immediately got a hold of several musical pieces by Paul and started experimenting with animation. After a few weeks of trial and error, I started animating a musical triptych from the album, "Sensology": a brilliant duo with bassist Bary Guy, which was recorded on November 9th, 1995, at the Western Front in Vancouver, CanadaThe creation of this film was a true spiritual and artistic journey. Sometimes, I felt like I was channeling the images. I did no storyboards and virtually no preliminary work. I animated in a stream of consciousness, one frame at a time at a rate of 30 frames per second. The shapes revealed themselves as I listened to the music over and over again. The process was intensely focused and required large amount of concentration. I was becoming part of the music and expressing my creativity at its rawest and most primal. Like Kandinski tought us, every shape and sound has a equal vibration in the soul. When Paul Plimley saw a portion of the film for the first time, he said to me with tears in his eyes, "It's like you read my soul."Sensology was handdrawn (painted) with a Wacon tablet at first, and later, a Cintiq, using Adobe Photoshop. The drawings and frames were then composited and manipulated in a 2D software called Animo. There is no vector animation at any point in the film.Because a film needs to be 24 FPS for theatrical projection, I had to create a new master which took quite a bit of creativity and effort in order to preserve as much of the animation as possible. Fortunately, the 24 FPS version looks good and nobody but me will ever see the difference. The version posted on YouTube is 30 FPS. A 9-second teaser of Sensology was posted on line in the Fall of 2006 and resulted in Pixar contacting me to do the abstract taste visualization for the film Ratatouille.Sensology was completed in July, 2010. It premiered in Los Angeles at the Laemmle's Fallbrook 7 in West Hills, CA on July 30th, 2010, where it was shown for three consecutive days.
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Prototype Trailer - 720P - Michel Gagné Michel Gagne 2010-04-23 | Copyright Shadow Planet Productions
Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppets - Michel Gagné - 1080P Michel Gagne 2010-04-23 | Here's a series of short interstitials I created back in 2005. They aired on the Nickelodeon channel on Halloween 2005.
