MMC: Did the success of the Batman: New Times project inspire the
Darktide project, or was it underway before the reaction to New Times came out?Oh definitely. Batman: New Times was an unbelievable success. Warner Brothers even approved it, even though they had no plans of doing anything with it. The film was a huge achievement for the school and it also brought a lot of attention to the Minimates as well. It pushed the toys into the limelight and more into the mainstream. Marvel approached the school after seeing what the school had done with Batman: New Times and was interested in us doing an X-Men Minimate movie. How could we not say yes?
MMC: What made you choose specifically Minimates to base your animations on?
The great thing about Minimates is that it allows the artist to focus mainly on the animation. It pushes the animator to make the timing and motion more believable, to seemingly bring these toys to life. The simple characters make the movements and storytelling crucial. Minimates also have very vibrant colors which look amazing when the shots are finished.
MMC: How did Art Asylum get involved?
The school Director Jeff Sheetz has been friends with Art Asylum for a while now. Because of this the DAVE School has had a long working experience with Art Asylum Toys. The first collaboration project was called Psycho Pump, in which the school based the main character off of some toy concept designs from Art Asylum. Specidemons was another project. And of course, the Minimates are showcased in both Batman: New Times and X-men: Darktide. We believe it comes down to the fact that cool toys will make cool movies.
MMC: Marvel themselves also came on board. Did this put you under a lot of pressure?
Ed M: Our class had about 2 months for this project from start to finish. The biggest cause of pressure was similar to any other production working for any client, waiting for approval. Every little aspect of the movie had to get Marvel's proverbial stamp of approval. Because of this, the movie had to go through a lot of changes throughout the production.
Mike R: Part of the goal of the final term at the DAVE school is to get students used to working with clients. Whether they end up in a large studio, a small one, or even go into business for themselves, those studio-to-client relations are key to success in the industry. Having Marvel on board was exciting, for certain, but yes - it also added pressure to the project. Not only did we have to satisfy one client (our instructors), and another client in Art Asylum, but we then also had to keep Marvel happy. The more clients, the more pressure.
MMC: There are two characters seen in the movie that have not had
Minimate toys to base designs on. How did the look of Beast and Angel come about?
Ed M: We were supplied with some design sheets of the Beast and Archangel Minimates from Art Asylum. We then had to take those design sheets and do the best that we could to portray the character as close to the designs as possible without conflicting with the characters movements. I myself modeled Archangel, which was difficult because the design sheets had some pieces that would just not work with an animated Minimate, even though it did make the toy design look incredible. Another issue with Archangel and Beast was that since there were no previous toys to use as reference the faces were extremely difficult to make. The design sheets had faces, but some of the details were difficult to make out. Therefore I was able to take some artistic freedoms with their faces and luckily Art Asylum approved the models and they made it into the final movie.
Mike R: Some of the issues I experienced while preparing the looks of these characters were related to rigging. While Ed was building the geometry of the characters, I was working on their "rig", or in layman's terms, their "skeletons" - the things that the animators use to make the characters move. Minimates are models that don't deform like humans do because they don't actually possess muscles and skin - just plastic, as you well know. But because Beast had to be very limber, his rig was more complex. And with the added requirement of Angel's wings, we had to overcome another hurdle to get them to look smooth whether he was flying, hovering, or just tucking them behind him to sit down.
MMC: The New Times project had some famous voice actors, why did the Darktide film not go down the same route?
Ed M: We were interested in getting the voice actors from the old X-Men Animated Series that was on the FOX Saturday morning line-up back in the day. This way, long-time X-Men fans would be familiar with the voices for the characters, and instantly feel comfortable with the recognizable characters. We thought that would be really cool. However Art Asylum wanted to handle the voices, and use their connections in Hong Kong to achieve final audio. The only problem that arose however was that there were so many changes in voice actors and dialogue that we received final audio about two weeks from the movie's final deadline.
Mike R: Famous voice actors cost money (usually), and since the DAVE school doesn't receive any financial gain from the projects it does, it's up to the clients to handle major expenses. The voice actors chosen by Art Asylum are supposedly "big names" in Japan. And I understand Marvel wanted States-based voice actors themselves, but weren't ready to shell out the capital necessary to get Famke Jannsen, Halle Berry, and Ian McKellen. In the end, I think the actors we got did a great job.
MMC: Did you have an idea about the storyline from the start, and the principle characters featured? Or was this an outside decision?
Ed M: We had an amazing script from the Writer/Director William Vaughan before the project began. On the first day of production we watched a storyboard animatic of what would soon become X-Men: Darktide. The original story had an amazing entrance of the Phoenix, Archangel had his metallic wings, and a bunch of shots that were either changed or cut from the final edit. The story was slightly changed by Marvel writer Steven A. Roman, in order to correspond with certain comic book continuity and timelines, and stay true to the personalities of the characters. Unfortunately this also meant that we could not use Jean Grey as the Phoenix and Archangel would now have feathered wings. Since the client is always right, we made Marvel's changes, and it is still an amazing movie.
The characters were chosen by Art Asylum for the film. I believe it was a way for them to show off some of the new Minimate characters, as well as, hype some of the lesser known X-Men characters and villains that will be featured in the X3 movie to the mainstream audience. There was a lot of disappointment in the crew though when we realized that Nightcrawler was not going to be in the movie. It would have made for some intense animated scenes.
Mike R: I was one of the animators that worked on the initial animatic of the movie, and I remember working with excitement and trepidation through an incredible scene where Jean Grey as the fiery Phoenix came rising out of the ocean in a fury of hissing steam. That initial script was a whopping 5 minutes in length. The changes Marvel sent over after viewing it made the movie into a 12-minute endeavor. And then, after final edits, changes, and cuts - the movie came out to around 9.5 minutes with credits. So we certainly had an idea of the storyline at the start, but like every other person involved in the project from the top to the bottom, we found the end result was completely different.
MMC: Were there any other characters or sets/vehicles you wanted to add
To the film but couldn't?
Ed M: I would have loved to see a Minimate X-Mansion and Cerebro in the movie. But since we were limited on time, we were also limited to the amount of environments and shots that we could have in the movie. As far as characters, I was very pleased considering Archangel is one of my favorite X-Men characters, but if we could have had Iceman in the movie, I think my heart might have stopped. The special effects alone would have been breathtaking, even if we never had him turn completely to ice, his ice blast, and ice slide would have been breathtaking. If there is ever another X-Men Minimate movie I would definitely want to see the emergence of Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Cable and maybe even Cannonball.
Mike R: I would really have preferred to have Juggernaut modeled at a larger size. In the comics, he's head-and-shoulders taller than everyone else - except maybe the Hulk. We had proposed that initially, but Art Asylum turned down the idea. As for other characters, I was really looking forward to troubleshooting the issues that might arise from having the Phoenix rising out of water. The effects of all the fire, water, and steam would have been incredible if we could have pulled it off. But given the short-term deadline of the project, I'm glad she got nixed. I have to agree with Ed, that Iceman was definitely on my mind while dreaming of characters I'd like to see in the movie.
MMC: Did you have anything to do with the Minimates selection for the 4-pack set? Who would you have wanted to see accompanying the film?
Ed M: The Minimates chosen for the 4-pack set was all Art Asylum. I believe that they chose the two main heroes and the two main villains to be included in the set. It also may be because these four Minimates in the set all have new faces, and some have some other changes in paint from previous Minimate versions as well. I wanted to see (and still do), an Archangel Minimate. The feathered wings would possibly make him one of the best looking Minimate characters yet, but then again after working so long on the model and the facial animation I am slightly biased in the situation.
Mike R: With the excitement over the possible prospect of an Angel Minimate, I'd be surprised if Art Asylum didn't offer one soon. After all, they even offer an 8" "Maximate" of the Sentinels!
MMC: Is there anything you would change about the film?
Ed M: As with any artist, I never feel like something is 100% finished. There is always at least one little thing that needs to be added, one shot that needs a little something extra to make it perfect. I wish that we could have used some of the shots that we started the movie with that we had cut. If you watch the credits the whole way through you will be able to see some random shots that we had to cut, but we kept in the credits because we liked them so much.
Mike R: Of course - there's always "one more thing" to change. After watching a particular scene over a hundred times, anyone could tell you ways to improve upon it. And since everyone has their own opinion about what's "cool" and what's not, the process could literally go on forever. No piece of art - and this movie, like other movies, is a work of art - is ever completely "finished". It's just done as well as it can be by the time the deadline draws to a close.
MMC: Have you been pleased with the response to Darktide?
Ed M: I have been extremely pleased with the response. At first it seemed that the only people who knew about the movie were the crew, Marvel, and Art Asylum. We finished the movie in late September and knew that it would not be released until around March so it was stressful thinking about how the movie would be received by the comic book community, as well as, the mainstream community. Once I found out from Mike Rizzuto that there was a thread on the Art Asylum Forums about the movie I immediately checked it out, and was blown away by all the interest that the Minimate community had in our project. It was inspiring to say the least. I did what I could to stop by every so often and let you all know what was going on and to answer as many questions as I could.
Mike R: I'm very happy with the response of Darktide so far. Granted, I think I'd lose my marbles (in a good way) if Marvel showed it on the big screen before X3 like all those Pixar movies, but I guess I'll take what I can get. The Minimate community has been very supportive and positive in their feedback, though they all (and don't we too?) wish it could be longer. Who knows? With some financial backing, a full-length movie could certainly be considered! But like changes to a piece of art, and never being completely content with one's work, I ask everyone out there to spread the news of this project. No, I don't receive any royalties from it - but the more exposure this gets, the more in-demand the artists who worked on it will be. So get out there and tell your friends about it! Post on message forums, send emails, use that archaic telephone-thingie, or whatever you have to do. But make sure that the Minimate movie "X-men: Darktide" gets seen!
On behalf of the D.A.V.E. School and the X-Men crew we wanted to thank you all for your support, excitement, and interest in X-Men Darktide.