Jax Lee

CHARLES Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol (with illustrations by John Leech) was first published on Dec 19, 1843. It remains an enduring classic to this day.

When Academy Award-winning director Adrian Zemeckis, with such ground-breaking animated films as The Polar Express and Beowulf under his belt, decided to try his hand at this classic, expectations ran high.

The adaptation, a collaboration between Walt Disney Pictures and ImageMovers Digital (established by Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke), is presented in Disney Digital 3D as well as 2D and 35mm.

The film utilised Performance Capture technology which digitally captures the performances of the actors with computerised cameras in a full 360° radius. The technology allows filmmakers to present a true Dickensian world with no artistic restrictions, transporting the audience to a time and place previously unattainable.

Zemeckis has stuck to Dickens’ dark initial theme and optimistic ending for his retelling of the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy miser who is full of contempt for the holiday spirit despite attempts by his cheery nephew to see the joy of the season.

However, on Christmas Eve, he gets a ghostly visitation from his old business partner, Joseph Marley, who warns him to change his ways.

Next thing you know, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-Come are paying Scrooge a visit and taking him on a wild ride to teach him the error of his ways.

Jim Carrey takes on seven roles, including that of Scrooge and the three ghosts, with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins and Robin Wright Penn lending their voices to the project.

But quietly helping to bring A Christmas Carol to the big screen were two Malaysians who contributed immensely to the making of this movie.

They are animator Lee Jing Yi aka Jax Lee and senior lighting technical director Lee Wei Xi aka Woei Lee, who are employees of ImageMovers Digital (IMD).

In a recent tele-conference interview, Kuala Lumpur-born Jax (his family still lives in Old Klang Road) described his experience working on A Christmas Carol as amazing, more so since he got to work with Zemeckis.

He said: "I personally liked working with Doug Chiang, the production designer. He designed many good movie sets such as Star Wars (the prequel) and also Forrest Gump. Every day was like a dream come true. I love working here."

Jax, 31, earned his diploma in illustration from Dasein Academy in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, and obtained a BFA (Bachelor in Film Animation) in character animation from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He worked for

LucasArts on the Force Unleashed PSP games before joining IMD in 2008.

Jax said: "It is doing what I like. I can make the characters look alive. Jim Carrey is a talented actor and he is very funny. We have a lot of references on him on the computer where we could study his facial expressions and movements and then re-apply them to his CGI character."

Jax explained that Zemeckis would show up once a month (more frequently when they were near completion) to see how the animation work was progressing.

The entire animation process took about a year and if he did not like something, he would sit down and discuss it with the animators. Zemeckis would also give daily comments on the completed work.

Jax said: "I worked mostly on Scrooge, Crachit and Tiny Tim. We got shots based on the scenes and not the characters. Sometimes, I have to work on all the characters."

Jax admitted that initially, he wasn’t familiar with the story of A Christmas Carol but he did his own research and was amazed that there were so many adaptations.

"In the original book, there was some illustrations. The previous movies were based on human actors and cartoons. This version is the closest to the original images in the book. The rendering (illustrations) and textures are very good."

Jax recommends watching the film in 3D for the full effect.

He said the biggest challenge was getting details of the human characters right. "If we exaggerated too much, the humans would look like something else." So the trick was getting the right balance.

Having seen the whole film in its entirety, a proud and happy Jax said: "I am very happy. I could watch it again, and again and again. I will be coming back for a holiday this December. I will bring my family along to watch the film. I think this film is very educational."

Meanwhile, Penang-born Woei (his parents live in Butterworth), who joined IMD this year, was responsible for developing tools to be used by lighters and compositors, to keep the overall look of a scene consistent.

He was working as a graphic artist in Malaysia but decided to do something different during the financial crisis in 1997.

Woei Lee

Woei, 35, went and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of College Arts in San Francisco as well as earned a twinning diploma from the Equator Academy of Arts at de Montfort University, United Kingdom.

He used to work for The Orphanage and Dynacom studios in live action movies such as Superman Returns, Hellboy and The Day After Tomorrow. The scene of a speeding bullet crushing against Superman’s eye was Woei’s handiwork.

Woei explained: "My job is to make all the colouring, lighting and shadows to enhance the image and make it look believable."

Although it was tedious, Woei enjoyed the work on A Christmas Carol. "I had a lot of fun doing the film," he said, adding that it was also his first experience working on a 3D animated film.

"Scrooge begins as a dark and gloomy person, so we used dark colours. As the movie progresses, we used lighter colours to reflect his mood."

Woei, who wasn’t familiar with the story initially, read the book and loved it. "The narrative is very good. The story is about a character who is lonely, has nowhere to go, and then he goes on this series of adventures.

"After that, he starts to understand the meaning of life and the meaning of Christmas, as well as the meaning of love and the meaning of give and take. I think the movie sends out a good message."

A Christmas Carol is now screening in cinemas nationwide.