Former DreamWorks artist dressed sets for big hits

Not much is left to chance on the set of a feature film. The way props are positioned can be just as important to a director as the tone of an actor’s voice, so set dressers labor to create the necessary realism.

The same is true for animated films, especially with the development of 3-D technology and the incredible detail provided by sophisticated computer graphics.

But moving computer boulders can be harder than moving the real ones, said Marcie Moura, a former Hollywood visual effects artist who grew up in Mili­lani. It can take months to get it right. A year wouldn’t surprise anyone in the business.

Moura would know. Starting with her first film, the 2002 hit "Ice Age," she’s worked on seven Oscar-nominated animated films. As a layout artist with DreamWorks Animation, she worked on "How to Train Your Dragon" and its sequel, which won a Golden Globe this month and is nominated for an Oscar for best animated feature.

Moura stresses that she isn’t an animator. An animator takes a character and makes it walk and talk. But without Moura, that character wouldn’t have any landscape to walk on or a room to be heard in.

"I create the environment for them to interact in," she said. "It’s creating a world for animators to place the characters."

Much of the first "Dragon" film featured a secluded cove where the main character, a young Viking named Hiccup, spends time with his dragon. As the final layout artist, Moura helped design the cove, moving rocks, trees and anything else that could bring it to life.

"Because I was the main set dresser for that, I lived in that set for over a year, tweaking it, changing it, adding to it," she said. "By the end of the film, I was dreaming of it."

Typically, Moura works with other computer artists who create a collection of individual features they call models.

"The modeling department will build one rock," she said. "And then they will do variations of that. Maybe they will end up with four variations of that. Then they will build four big boulders. And then they will create five or six little pebbles. I have to take all those models and place them on the beach of the cove to make the environment look real."

Moura got her start in the field during college. At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Moura received a degree in American studies. But she minored in art and wound up learning how to use 3-D animation programs.

After graduation, Moura got a job working for Blue Sky Studios in 2000 and moved to New York to work on "Ice Age." It was thrilling, she said.

"To go to a movie theater and see people buying tickets for your movie and see ‘sold out’ — that was a great feeling," she said. "You never know how audiences will take to things. But we were excited."

Over the next 12 years, Moura’s career arc took her to the best studios and a range of projects. First DreamWorks Animation, then Walt Disney Animation Studios and then back to DreamWorks. In addition to the "Dragon" films, she worked on "Shark Tale" (2004), "Flushed Away" (2006), "Bolt" (2008), "Puss in Boots" (2011) and "The Croods" (2013).

But last summer she and her husband — visual effects artist Adam Moura — moved to Hawaii with their children. They wanted to raise their family where they grew up. (Adam Moura is from Kai­lua.)

"We came back for family reasons," she said. "I think that’s the reason why a lot of people move back."

For now Moura is teaching. She just completed a two-week 3-D animation workshop for Mid-Pacific Institute students and is teaching film analysis and storytelling at Kapiolani Community College.

She won’t be going to the Oscars ceremony on Feb. 22, though. Even if she was still with DreamWorks, only the producers attend.

"We’ll watch it on TV, which is probably more fun," she said. "I’m sure if they win they will have a big party."

AND that’s a wrap …

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Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.