FOR film-goers flocking to the cinemas to catch Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, here's one big reason to feel proud: Major characters in the movie were helmed by a Singaporean.
Mr Melvin Tan, 32, a senior animator at Connecticut's Blue Sky Studios, where the movie was animated, is the guy behind characters like Manny the mammoth and Sid the sloth.
But, most notably, he created the three loveable Tyrannosaurus Rex babies in the blockbuster, which cost US$90 million (S$131 million) to produce.
The Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Academy of Art (San Francisco) graduate told my paper: 'Animating involves knowing your characters from head to toe and understanding the technical aspects of each one. I was also the go-to guy for other animators who had questions about the characters.'
Manny, voiced by comedian Ray Romano, was 'fun' to animate because 'he is so big and his body moves differently from the rest', Mr Tan said.
The movie has made $1.87 million in Singapore since opening last Thursday, and has taken in over US$218 million worldwide.
Mr Tan, who is married to a Taiwanese housewife and with whom he has a one-year-old daughter, Layla, has also worked on movies like Robots (2005) and Horton Hears A Who! (2008).
'Layla's still a bit too young to appreciate my work,' he said with a laugh. 'But when she gets older I'll definitely show her the films,' he added.
While he's keeping future projects under wraps he says that he is concentrating on 'observing the behaviour of things to see what makes them real'.
'That's what I aim to convey to my audience through animation,' he said.
