Work in Progress (2000 film)
| Work in Progress | |
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Title sequence
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| Directed by | Tom Bertino |
| Produced by | Christian Kubsch |
| Music by | Jimmie Haskell |
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Production
companies |
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Release date
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November 21, 2000 |
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Running time
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5 minutes |
| Country |
 USA United States |
Work in Progress is a 2000 computer animated short film produced by visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic and directed by Tom Bertino
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 Haygarth) 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 gorilla's 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 gorilla's 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 dissolve into a stream of golden dust which flows into the hole in the gorilla's head, the top of the head promptly clamps back onto the rest of the 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 spotlight and wearing 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 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.
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