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Acclaimed Canadian animator Michel Gagné has been working on his solo feature effort The Saga of Rex since 2017. Gagné, whose recent credits include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Teen Titans GO! To the Movies, My Little Pony: The Movie and short film Synesthesia was kind enough to share some early footage with us and talk to us about his beautiful 2D-animated labor of love
Animation Magazine: Congrats on your animated movie progress. It truly looks like one of those wonderful 2D animated features we all grew up loving. Can you tell us a bit about the origins of this project?
Michel Gagné: I can trace the origin of the project all the way back to 1997, when I worked at Warner Bros. Feature Animation as head of 2D FX animation. My production assistant at the time, Scott Grieder, enjoyed my art and suggested that I do a children’s book. The thought of illustrating a storybook sounded cool, so I told Scott, “I’ll draw it and you write it.” I quickly scribbled a drawing of a cute little fox facing a strange creature and gave it to Scott. “This is your starting point, write something about that,” I said to him.
Two weeks later, before Scott had a chance to begin writing, I had completed 20 more illustrations. “Here’s more inspiration for your story,” I said while handing him a stack of photocopies. Another 15 to 20 days later, I called Scott to tell him that the book was finished and that I’d written the whole thing. I couldn’t stop myself — I was on a roll. I was glad to hear that Scott was relieved to have the burden off his shoulders.
A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex was finished in December 1997 and published in July 1998 as an oversized hardcover book, signed and numbered edition of 1,000. The book sold out and was reprinted in 2002, this time in full color.
In 2004, I was signing books at the Long Beach Comic Con [then Wizard World] when Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet, Daisy Kutter) came to my table. He showed me a binder containing the artwork for a comics anthology he was editing called FLIGHT. I was very impressed with it. Kazu was familiar with my work and hoped I’d be a part of future volumes, so when I suggested using my Rex character, he was very jazzed. One of Kazu’s goals with FLIGHT was to help artists build their own graphic novels in manageable chunks. I saw a golden opportunity.
From 2005 to 2010, I did a new chapter every year and progressively built the story over six volumes of FLIGHT. Once the story was completed, I repackaged the whole thing, added a few pages, and submitted the manuscript to Image Comics for consideration. The proposal was accepted, and The Saga of Rex was published by Image Comics in the fall of 2010.The movie became the next logical step.
When did you begin initial work on it and why did you decide to take everything in your own hands?
The thought of doing a feature from my graphic novel really took form in 2012, when I launched a Kickstarter campaign called The Saga of Rex: The Animated Film Project. The campaign was successful and as a result, I did three minutes of footage, which I posted on YouTube.
The project caught the eye of a Belgium company, called Grid Animation, and the film became optioned on a yearly basis. During that time, I worked on the score, the story, I refined my ideas and brainstormed with Jesper Møller, who wrote the screenplay adaptation. The work at that point was performed on weekends. During the week, I did FX/concept work for movies and video games so I could continue to make a living.
Another aspect I became more and more obsessed with was the idea of making the film by myself. The task seemed enormous, almost unsurmountable, but I was continuously trying to convince myself I could do it.
In 2016 I was invited to Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI). At the event, filmmaker Nick Diliberto was premiering his feature film, Nova Seed. Seeing this masterpiece and hearing Nick talk about how he singlehandedly animated the whole feature himself was the kick in the butt I needed at the time. I was so inspired. I said to myself, what am I waiting for? I understood that I first had to finish the FX work I had committed to on both Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the My Little Pony movie, but once that was completed, I would start on the Rex movie full time with the thought of animating the entire film myself, just like Nick did.
In July 2017, I informed Grid Animation that I was going to be working full time on The Saga of Rex, and they agreed to give me a budget for a year. I used that time to build an entire animatic of the film, which was 68 minutes at the time. In 2018, with no bad faith on either side, the property reverted to me, and I decided to pursue making the movie on my own dime from this point on. Rex would remain, first and foremost, a passion project; a spiritual journey; a haven for me to seek refuge in.
Every day, I get up and go to work religiously. I get in the zone and have an incredible experience through my characters and my effects. I see the film evolving in front of my eyes as I go. Art is about the process, and I’m happy I found a project that keeps me fulfilled and joyous every weekday from dusk to dawn.
What stage is the movie at right now and when do you think you will be able to complete it?
The entire film is done in animatic form. Seventy-five percent of the film is animated, cleaned-up, all FX completed, and is fully composited in black and white gray scale. About 20 percent is in color. I’m waiting until the end to do a big art direction pass over the whole film. That’s when I’ll refine the final compositing and do the entire color palette for the movie. Everything is set up already. All I need to do is replace the gray palette with the proper colors. I’ll put in all the final touches to the backgrounds at that time as well.
I estimate I have between two to three years of full-time work (40-50 hours a week) left to reach the finish line. Every time I take on freelance or movie work, it pushes that finish line forward. It’s a real balance, but I’m also good at not wasting time. I have strong work ethics.
Can you tell us a bit about the animation tools you are using?
I’m animating the film on a 21” Cintiq using Toon Boom Harmony. I also use Photoshop for some of the art. I’m editing the film using Premiere Pro. The frame rate is 24 frames per second and the resolution of the final film is 2048 x 1080 (I work at half resolution for the work-in-progress). I find 2048 x 1080 to be a pleasing resolution for 2D animation. I don’t like 4K because I need to use blurs everywhere, otherwise everything looks too sharp — lines look like they are drawn with an X-Acto blade. It literally hurts my eye. There are times I even think 2K is too sharp and I end up putting littles blurs on various layers to soften the image a bit. More resolution is not necessarily better. I’m adding 35mm grain to my movie to give it texture. I’m building imperfections. I think that stuff adds life. Many of the big studios are removing grain from their old movies, remastering them. I’m doing the opposite.
When I did the animation for the Kickstarter, I started doing it all hand drawn, frame by frame. Then, I realized it would take me forever to do the film if I had to do all the inbetweens by hand, so I started experimenting with automatic tweening, and character rigging. The results were sort of mechanical, but I felt I had no choice. So, in the original three minutes I did for the Kickstarter, about a 1/3 or so of the character animation uses digital techniques for the inbetweens.
A few years later, after completing the animatic for the film, I showed the movie in its then current state to my dependable assistant Seung Kim, whom I’d been working with for years. We watched the film together (remotely on our computers) and I saw that towards the end of the film, Seung had tears in his eyes. He then told me he wanted to help. I told him that this was a different kind of project, and I had no budget to pay for an assistant. Still, he insisted that I use him as a helper. I told him I was on a spiritual journey with this film and if he wanted to join me, it would be for spiritual reasons, not monetary ones.
You see, at this point I had convinced myself I would do the entire film single-handedly, but having Seung willing to help inbetween the animation could be a real game-changer for the film. A paradigm shift, so to speak.
After agreeing to bring Seung on board (in a part-time capacity, since he has other jobs and must make a living), I immediately discarded the idea of having digital tweening or character rigging. Now, I had a proper inbetweener, and I could go back to my idea of doing true 2D classical animation. In fact, I’m hoping at some point to replace the animation I did for the Kickstarter, that uses the digital tweening techniques, and make it consistent with the rest of the film’s fully hand drawn animation style.
Seung has been a blessing in my life. He even trained his two daughters, Angelina and Christina, to inbetween as well, so that they could help him when the load became overwhelming. Without Seung, I would have had to resort to various cheats and shortcuts to complete the animation. That’s why on top of his assistant credit in the end scroll, I gave him the title of Executive Producer in the opening credit, for going above and beyond the call of duty.
Are you still on board Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn feature?
I was on Ray Gunn for a few weeks in 2020, and as always, it was a pleasure working with Brad. I plan to be on the film as soon as I’m needed again.
What is your take on the state of the animation business these days?
It’s going through big changes. So many people are working remotely now. You can live anywhere and be part of the animation industry. I started working remotely in 2002. At the time, none of my friends did. Now, most of them are working from home. It’s crazy.
There’s the AI issue. I’ve thought a lot about the subject. One thing that’s for sure is that it’s coming, whether we like it or not. How the artists will adapt to this situation is still unresolved. After I finish Rex, I’m completely open to experiment with AI. Combining AI with my own art might allow me to do a film in two years instead of 15. Who knows? I like that prospect. Having said that, AI could very well turn into a bad thing. We must listen to all sides, have discussions, but knowing that AI is here to stay. The genie is out of the bottle, how we handle it is up to us.
On a different note, you look at all the big streaming services, Netflix, Apple+, Disney+, Hulu, MAX, Prime etc., and they all feature animation in a big way, for both kids and adults. There are impressive feats of animation on the big screen on a regular basis as well.
There are more ways for animators to market and sell their projects than ever before. From what I can see, the industry looks healthy and exciting at the same time.
What were your biggest challenges in producing The Saga of Rex and what is the biggest lesson you have learned on this journey?
A major challenge is to stay motivated. There’s also the reality of making a living. My wife and I have had to tighten our belts considerably so that I could pursue this madness. There’s a lot of sacrifice involved. Like I said earlier, the task at hand is enormous and often appears unsurmountable, but like a body builder training to be Mr. Universe, I persevere. To help me do that, I focus on the pleasure of the process rather than the anticipation of completion.
You’ve had an amazing career, working on a long list of beloved animated features and TV series. What kind of advice would you give young students or recent graduates as they work on making their way in the animation business?
I have a hard time giving advice because everyone has a different path. Mine was certainly unusual and the result of my obsessive nature. I don’t think the path I took would necessarily work for many artists. Each path reflects an artist’s personality. Still, here are some tips I’ll give: don’t close any doors; look at all opportunities; stay positive; work hard; be dedicated to your craft; put your ego aside and always listen to the director or supervisor without arguing; deliver your work on time; be truthful; be eager to learn and never stop learning. When you stop learning and think you know it all, that’s when you start falling towards obsolescence.
Watch the exclusive work-in-progress clip below. See more of Gagné’s work and follow The Saga of Rex at gagneint.com.
