Since its release in 2011, Minecraft has been popular and ultimately became the best-selling video game ever. The idea for a film has been brewing for several years and wasn’t taking off until the current iteration. A Minecraft Movie was directed by Jared Hess, best known for the classic (and silly) film Napoleon Dynamite. Hess was a natural to direct this tale of four people pulled through a portal into that fantastical world of Minecraft and meeting up with an expert crafter who tells them, “I’m Steve.” Starring perennial favorite Jack Black and Jason Momoa – a dream team in this, among others.
Blending fantasy and real worlds would not work without the expert crafting of the best in the business, with Weta FX, who did much of the visual effects wizardry for this fun film. VFX supervisor Sheldon Stopsack and Animation supervisor Kevin Estey created colorful environments and lots of block-shaped creatures. Stopsack and Estey recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation was edited for clarity and length.]
How did you guys first get involved in this? Is it something you sought out, or do you get assigned things like how does, how does it work over there?
Sheldon Stopsack: We were assigned the project internally, but the criteria were based on who would be the best fit. Minecraft was an interesting project, and I was happy it took place in New Zealand. The overarching question was, how do you combine Minecraft with live action? Our art department engaged fairly early during the pre-production phase, working on the character design. I was on this project for a year and a half after that.
Kevin Estey: I remember many other animation supervisors discussing it. And that same question came up: What’s it gonna look like? I think that can be intimidating to some people, but that sounds like exactly what I’m looking for. I like that creative challenge of hopefully getting this right. It’s actually something that drives you and makes you work harder and give it your best.
Let’s talk for a moment about the director, Jared Hess. It would be impossible to discuss him without mentioning his most famous movie, Napoleon Dynamite. I love Napoleon Dynamite, and he brought that energy to this project. Talk a little about working with him and his unique sense of silliness…
Sheldon Stopsack: Jared is a unique director who is brilliant at what he does. It’s easy to say he is single handedly one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. It’s not just goofy for being silly; it’s an intellectual goofiness, if you want to call it that. Production took place in New Zealand, and we had the pleasure to host him for two weeks after principal photography wrapped to do motion capture on our stage here. Seeing him work during that time was amazing because it gave us much insight into how he worked and what he sought in this project. He is open to ideas, and collaboration is essential to him. We brought a lot of things to the party and pitched ideas.
Kevin Estey: On set, he’d always do an extra take that he’d say was for “shits and giggles.” Oftentimes, those are the ones that would make the cut because it was the freest and loosest take. I wanted to ensure that that message was passed to the animation team so that everyone could have some fun and be silly. Sometimes animators would even do things just to make each other laugh internally, like, “Here’s a bit of a funny outtake I did of an animation,” there were quite a few occasions that they would cut. So, that freedom was liberating and exciting.
Was it terrifying to go into a movie where half of it is animated and half is not?
Sheldon Stopsack: There was a nervousness among all of us about how to combine these two worlds because there’s sensitivity to it. Historically, you’ve seen several movies where it’s attempted to combine life action with computer graphics, which can put the audience off. We wanted to honor the rich universe of the game but also scale it up to the big screen and make it feel real. We had to have realistic grass, detailing dressing, flowers, ambient, and all these technical details that bring things to life. When the trailer came out and the internet reacted, we did some mild teaks but nothing major. Until the day the movie came out, there was still nervousness: Did we hit the sweet spot? I think we did.
Absolutely. Let’s talk a little bit about the approach. These radically distinct environments stand out from the real world.
Sheldon Stopsack: We had a very smart team that created The Blockz Tool. It took input, geometry, and organic shapes for cliffs and mountains. So, we ended up with something stylized and true to the game in many ways. At a distance, you wouldn’t even see the blocks, so we knew aesthetically that’s not exactly what we wanted. We knew we had to break the rules here a little bit. We introduced different block sizes.
Kevin Estey: The expansive environments dictated how we approached not only the characters’ personalities but also filled them with thousands of pigments in the background of the nether. It gives that expansive quality and makes sure that there is life beyond just the immediate foreground. Shots with 2000 pigs throughout the background created that sense of life and an endless environment.
It feels like a very full world. The chicken jockey has become an iconic scene; talk about creating that sequence…
Sheldon Stopsack: We have one side of the story of the chicken jockey. It should be pointed out that our friends executed the final scene in the shots at Sony Pictures, so we weren’t necessarily directly involved in finishing these shots. Our art department was involved in the design of the character and the chicken jockey; some concepts established the tone of this quirky little creature. It’s a game, but it’s iconic and unique here.
Kevin Estey: The chicken jockey sequence was just so damn silly that it really set a tone for us of, like, this is where this film is gonna go. It was exciting, too, to just look at what we were doing. We’re like, are we really doing this even though we won’t be finishing this?
I chuckled at the Tater Gun because there’s a direct line back to Napoleon Dynamite. He loves his taters.
Kevin Estey: It’s such a pivotal film, and it’s just so silly. I remember him talking a lot about where he got those ideas from, which he even echoed when he talked about ideas he was coming up with for Minecraft. It’s just a lot of stupid stuff he and his brothers and friends would do as kids, like jokes they would have or pranks they would pull. It’s part of his DNA, so he uses that as his muse, all the fun he had as a kid, and it just translates into his work.
How many VFX shots are in this movie? It feels like there’s probably a staggering number…
Sheldon Stopsack: I don’t know the total number for the entire movie across all vendors, but I’m pretty sure it’s close to 200 if not more. We ended up delivering just over 600 shots as Weta. We worked on 800 shots; 200 omits didn’t make the movie, but 600 was roughly the number we delivered for the project.
Kevin Estey: In terms of the final animation, I think it was just over 420 shots. Of that 600 or so, we did the 800 internal cuts; we did a fair bit of post for the final battle that Digital Domain helped to finish up. It was a shared sequence, a great experience, piecing that together.
This is a monster hit movie. It’s clearly hit some kind of cultural nerve with pre-teens and teens going into the theater shouting and throwing things. There’s something that’s been channeled there. What’s it like on the other end of this now?
Sheldon Stopsack: Probably relief for me to some extent. There was always an underlying nervousness, and you never know with these things; you can have all kinds of predictions and good scores from test screenings, but you never really know until it hits the cinema. I’m proud of the work that the team has done. It was a huge creative endeavor for us. Seeing it being so well received and recognized is incredibly satisfying, I gotta say.
Kevin Estey: We’re always prepared for both eventualities, but then get excited if it goes how you want it to. Jared was so brilliant in his approach to silliness and randomness that there was confidence in the ship’s captain. You’ve seen him do it before and know it will apply to the same sensibilities. Throughout production, we all felt like it was hilarious, and if we think it’s hilarious, surely a large majority of people out there will think it’s hilarious as well. I think it’s incredibly rewarding to see that fun can translate through.
A Minecraft Movie is still playing at a theater near you, and is available on home video.
