Ice Age has set itself apart from other animated series thanks to its memorable characters and engaging visuals, and with the third film in the franchise hitting screens this summer we recently caught up with Heath Hollingshead, a Computer Animation graduate who has spent the past year working as a Technical Animator on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs at Blue Sky Studios.

“If you’ve followed the Ice Age films you’re going to be really happy with the new one,” he says. “It sticks very much to what people love about the characters, but the look of the animation has gotten way more sophisticated because we’ve had time to develop and grow and become that much better at what we do. Quality-wise, with technology changing, these films just get more impressive every time.”

As a Technical Animator, Heath was responsible for problem solving and support for the entire animation department during the film’s production. Balancing both the creative and the technical, his work would include everything from animating environmental effects to creating original software applications to assist the rest of the animators with their scenes.

“Each day was its own challenge,” he says. “I did a lot of the background elements that needed to be animated, so a lot of work with the ropes and vines in the environments. Then on the other end I’d also write tools that would make people’s jobs easier. So if the animators needed a specific tool to rig terrain or attach objects to the characters, I’d create those. It was never the same, and that kept the work really interesting.”

Beyond the normal hurdles of developing an animated feature Dawn of the Dinosaurs also had the extra challenge of being produced in both 2D and 3D, which was a first for the studio, as well as Heath. This was a major undertaking for a series known for it’s large scale set pieces, but after seeing the results on screen Heath understands why the 3D format has become such a hot trend in the animation industry.

“It’s definitely become more mainstream and pretty much every animated film is switching over to 3D now,” he says. “It took a little bit of time to get used to and figure out how to get the most out of it, but once we got the trial and error down everything went really smooth. There’s a lot of cool 3D tricks you can do, but what we worked on was enhancing the storytelling without just throwing gimmicks in it, so we were always serving the characters and not just the technology. The results are just amazing, and I think people are really going to respond to what we’ve done.”

We all know the excitement of the summer movie season – waiting in long lines with your friends to catch the next big blockbuster. As his first time on the other side of the screen, you can imagine Heath’s anticipation as Dawn of the Dinosaurs hits screens for the busy 4th of July weekend.

“It’s kind of surreal, and I don’t think it will sink in until I go to a theater and see it with a regular audience,” he says. “I think it’s a great film, but when I can see and hear other people enjoy it, it’ll be nice because I’ll get the satisfaction of knowing that people feel the same way that are just seeing it as moviegoers.”

“And not to mention it’ll be awesome to have my friends and family see it and understand what it is I really do. It’s not always easy to explain when you have a technical job. It makes such a big difference when they can walk into any theater in the country and see your work, and see your name in the credits. That will be a really great moment for me.”

Beyond the excitement of the film’s premiere, Heath’s work on the latest Ice Age has given him another reason to celebrate – as he received a promotion on Blue Sky’s next project, Rio, where he’ll act as Animation Technical Director. The job will see him responsible for the character and rigging work on the closely guarded film, and with his animated debut not even in theaters, he’s already excited to jump on his second feature film.

“Our next project is like nothing we’ve ever done here, and it’s going to be a lot of work,” he says. “But that’s part of what makes this industry so much fun because you constantly have to reinvent what you do, so it keeps your brain and your creativity up. In animation you always have to be on your toes and learning new things and developing your skills and getting better, and I love that.”