{"id":8506,"date":"2023-11-30T17:07:21","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T17:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thestar.test\/2023\/11\/30\/from-korumburra-to-the-big-screen\/"},"modified":"2023-12-02T18:30:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T18:30:44","slug":"from-korumburra-to-the-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/blog\/from-korumburra-to-the-big-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"From Korumburra to the big screen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\t\t\t\tTuesday, July 24th, 2012<\/span> | Posted by brad<\/a><\/span> \t\t\t<\/div>\n

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From Korumburra to the big screen<\/h1>\n
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Best of both worlds: as a remote animator, Shaun Freeman can enjoy the country lifestyle Korumburra has to offer, whilst also working in a high profile industry animating Hollywood blockbusters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

IT FEATURES a foul mouthed teddy bear and some of Hollywood\u2019s hottest stars, set records at the American box office and has been a smash hit here in Australia.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to some of the talent behind the movie Ted<\/em>, you need look no further than Korumburra.<\/p>\n

Local man Shaun Freeman worked with a team of animators from the Melbourne based company Iloura to bring the loveable, yet cringe worthy stuffed toy to life.<\/p>\n

In fact, Shaun has helped bring many of our favourite animated characters to the screen, having also worked on films such as Happy Feet, Kung Fu Panda <\/em>and Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas<\/em> – all very impressive for a former science teacher who self-taught his way into the animation industry only eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Around halfway into a 10 year teaching career, Shaun said his interests began to wander.<\/p>\n

\u201cI taught myself to animate just by buying books and picking peoples\u2019 brains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt basically took me three or four years to teach myself to animate to the point where I was able to get work.\u201d<\/p>\n

After also learning how to model and rig characters, Jamster \u2013 who were responsible for the Crazy Frog ringtone – found some of Shaun\u2019s characters and asked to buy them.<\/p>\n

As a result, he began working for the German company, and eventually moved onto Reel FX in Dallas, in the United States, and Iloura, based in Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n

While Shaun usually works remotely from the family home he shares with his wife and two children in Korumburra, he spent around seven months commuting to Melbourne for his role in Ted<\/em>, completing up to 40 shots in the film.<\/p>\n

For those familiar to the movie, a restaurant scene with a disastrous double date, a raging party with actor Ken Jones, and a dramatic chase scene around a baseball park may ring a bell.<\/p>\n

When movie-goers sit back in the cinema and enjoy Shaun\u2019s work however, it\u2019s unlikely they appreciate the hours upon hours required for high quality animation.<\/p>\n

Shaun admits animation is hard work and describes it as a \u201cdark art\u201d, with animators often closed away with just the company of a computer for hours at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re expected to do five or six seconds a week of animation \u2013 the longer you spend on it, the higher quality it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach second is 24 frames and I have to create an image for every one of those frames.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour computer\u2019s a tool. You\u2019ve got your model on the computer and you\u2019ve got to pose the character and pose character and pose the character, and most people think the computer fills in the gaps, but it doesn\u2019t do a very good job.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou basically have to more or less pose the character for every frame and that can be up to 150 frames a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for the devoted family man and hobby farmer, animation is his passion, and Shaun describes his career change into animation as an \u201cepiphany\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested but it never occurred to me I could do it as a career. It was a logical progression \u2013 chemistry teacher to animation!\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of a risk. As far as I knew no one was working as an animator remotely, but I really love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaun said after he finishes a project, there\u2019s no guarantee another one will come along, however he\u2019s already begun working two new films with Iloura.<\/p>\n

Be sure to keep an eye out for his work in I, Frankenstein <\/em>and the Will Smith blockbuster 1000 A.E<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He also hasn\u2019t quite given up his past career, teaching online for Animation Mentor.<\/p>\n

While Shaun can\u2019t hide the excitement around the huge success of his last project Ted, <\/em>he admits animating the crude bear was a vast change from the usual children\u2019s films the animator is accustomed to.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the films I\u2019ve worked on in the past have been G or PG films for kids, so this was a bit of a change but I really enjoyed it,\u201d he said of the MA rated movie, adding, \u201cthe jokes are appalling \u2013 it\u2019s very good!\u201d<\/p>\n

However, unlike his other films, Shaun said his children won\u2019t be seeing this one anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot until they\u2019re at least 18…or 22 if I have my way!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Short URL<\/strong>: \/?p=4040<\/small><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPosted by brad<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton Jul 24 2012. Filed under Community<\/a>. \t\t\t\t\tYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0<\/a>. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYou can leave a response or trackback to this entry\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 | Posted by brad From Korumburra to the big screen Best of both worlds: as a remote animator, Shaun Freeman can enjoy the country lifestyle Korumburra has to offer, whilst also working in a high profile industry animating Hollywood blockbusters. IT FEATURES a foul mouthed teddy bear and some of Hollywood\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15242,"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506\/revisions\/15242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestar.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}