Movie #2: How to Train Your Dragon: Set, Scenery, and Location (Animation)

I saw a thread for sound effects but not one for visual effects so I guess it fits into this one since it is about animation.

I was amazed at the fire in this movie. I have never seen animated fire look so realistic before. And the way they made it look so fluid and they way it could stick to anything made it seem so alive. It is almost like another character. I was watching the special features and they were talking about animating the fire, and while they talked about it they showed some clips of real fire they used as inspiration. You almost couldn't tell the difference between the real fire and the animated.

I completley agree about the fire. The animation and detail that was put into it was incredible; it really did look completley realistic, especially in the opening scene where the dragon battle took place.

I also thought that the way the water was animated was the most realistic animated water I'd ever seen, espcially in the scenes out on the ocean. It honestly looked like they put a cartoon ship on a real ocean background, the way the waves rolled, and the wake of the ship and just the coloring too. The way the water looked in all the other scenes was amazing too, such as in the cove where Hiccup first meets Toothless and when they're doing the test run for his flying. It was breathtaking to watch Toothless swerve through the waterfalls and rocks, it was just that realistic.

Another nature shot that I thought was very impressive was when Hiccup takes Astrid on the ride through the clouds. The way they spin through those gorgeous pink clouds and she just can't help but reach out and touch them...that's exactly what I felt like when I watched it, I just wanted to reach out with her. And even when Toothless just grows smaller and smaller against this amazing design of clouds had me wishing I was up there flying with them.

I was also impressed by the amount of detail that went into every scene. In the scene where Astrid is hanging from the branch after finding out about Toothless, I noticed that everytime Toothless blinks his pupils would contrast and expand. I was just amazed that someone would even think to include that. And on the boats, you could see barnacles sticking to the bottom of the ships which I thought was pretty cool.

Finally, after the dragon battle when it's just a wall of mist and dust that Stoick comes into focus in was a really cool piece of animation. It looked realistic and I thought it really added to the scene; it looked like something you'd fine in a non-animated movie.