My name is Glen McIntosh. I'm a 2D and 3D animator
as well as a concept artist and storyboard artist.
I'm in one of the coolest places in the world,
the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology,
one of the places that inspired me to do what I do for a living,
doing 3D animation and doing concept studies for movies.
I've had the opportunity to work on a number of Jurassic films
including being the Animation Supervisor for Jurassic World,
and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and doing the storyboard work
for Battle at Big Rock, as well as in the new Jurassic film.
All of that work comes from doing a lot of research and a lot of studying,
and a lot of that research and studying is done
at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
I'm very lucky to have been born in Calgary and to have had such a
supportive mom and dad. They always not only supported my interest
in art and drawing, but my interest in dinosaurs.
I've been coming here ever since I was a little boy, and I always loved
the old style dinosaur sculptures that are dotted around Drumheller,
because of the rich history here and the amount of fossils that
have been found in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley.
This whole area 70 million years ago was on the edge of an inland sea,
which is why you find so many of the incredible fossils that are in
the Royal Tyrrell Museum in these areas, because a lot of them were
buried very quickly in the sand and preserved so perfectly.
Especially the Borealopelta ankylosaur that is on display.
One really exciting aspect of the Jurassic films and the
evolution of dinosaurs in general, is that the movies have incorporated
what palaeontologists have been learning over the years.
It's so much fun to see that in the 30 years since the first movie came out,
we now have raptors with feathers on them, dinosaurs that are
brightly coloured, things that palaeontologists have always
speculated, and the more we learn about these animals, the more we try
to make them a part of the Jurassic style.
One other aspect that I think holds a special distinction with the
Jurassic films, is that in our minds we're always held to a higher standard
than say, a fantasy film, something like the Lord of the Rings films,
just because they are more rooted in fantasy.
The Jurassic films are obviously rooted in science fiction, but as far as
the presentation of the animals, the goal as much as possible is to
make them as scientifically accurate as possible, as well as
making them terrifying, and cute when they can be. As well as the
variety of dinosaurs that we've discovered, just by looking at
the ceratopsians and comparing them to modern deer, or elk, or caribou,
or reindeer, or moose. You have ceratopsians with various
horny frills, sizes of their frills, whether the head ornamentation, or the
horns were on their noses, or over their eyes.
All of these varieties, with all of these recent discoveries, we can see the
complexity and diversity of these animals.
Then imparting that knowledge onto the animators and working with them
and the incredibly talented artists that make the live action dinosaur
sculptures that the actors interact with and then we will combine
elements and aspects of both the animatronics and the CG animation,
hopefully to a point where that line is blurred and you just feel like you
are looking at a real animal, because in your mind it feels real,
that's always the goal.
The idea of having my artwork featured in the Perspectives gallery is
such an honour, because I've always been endlessly inspired by
the fossils, and the palaeontologists, and the artists that I've seen
when I've been here. So it means an awful lot to me to be able to
show my work and sort of how I've imagined these animals looking,
and acting, and living their daily lives. It's so important and so much fun to see
the next evolution of where these designs are going.
When you realize that you're just looking at the bones, you're not even
seeing the skin covering the bones, which is also why I love the
entrance area where you see the family of Albertosauruses.
To give you an impression of just how gigantic and majestic these animals were.
I hope you all enjoy the Museum and everything it has to offer,
because it inspired me so much to do what I do for a living and
hopefully it inspires you, whether it's a passion you might have for
art, or palaeontology, or film, or all three.