Andrew Ford. (submitted photo)

By Sheena Roszell/CKOM News Staff

Saskatchewan man played a part in getting Frozen 2 to the big screen

Nov 22, 2019 | 10:08 AM

There is a local connection to Frozen 2.

Andrew Ford from Humboldt did animation for the movie.

“Just to be a part of it and to be able to animate those iconic characters…I have to pinch myself sometimes.”

Ford worked on a lot of the singing shots for the movie.

“I primarily got to animate Anna, although I did get to animate all of the characters, including Olaf as well, which was really fun.”

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Ford said the animators receive instruction from the directors about what the scenes are supposed to look like and what emotions the characters need to display and it’s the job of the animator to make the cartoon characters “act.”

“We are responsible for all of the motion, so if Olaf is dancing and his nose falls off, those are the decisions we as animators make.”

Ford, 40, now calls Burbank, California home. Earlier this year he married Jackie Koehler. The Calgary-raised animator worked on the Frozen sequel alongside Ford.

The making of Frozen 2 was about a four year process, according to Ford, with about 800 people working on it. The animation part took place during the last eight to 10 months and approximately 80 animators worked to create what we see on the movie screen.

Ford said eight months of work behind the scenes amounted to about two minutes of screen-time for that effort.

“There are 24 frames per second and we have to make sure that every one of those 24 frames looks good,” he said. “We are lucky to get four seconds of work done a week, then over the course of a week, some shots might get cut or changed, or rearranged.”

He said on average, most animators get about a minute-and-a-half to two minutes that makes it to the screen.

Ford has seen the movie in its entirety and calls it “visually spectacular.”

The movie is in theatres now and is expected to have a record-breaking weekend.

“For the people who do go see the movie, I just want to say a big thanks, and thank you to all my friends, family and people in Saskatchewan that support these things, because they are definitely made by a group of people, it’s not just the factory that makes these movies, and we really appreciate any support.”

Ford also did animation work for Disney’s Zootopia which won an Oscar for best animated film in 2017.