![\"Jeremy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Jeremy_Spears.jpg\")
<\/a>Jeremy Spears<\/p>\n\u201cThe germination of this whole thing was when Nathan and I got together \u2014 he\u2019s an animator, I\u2019m a story guy but also a wood carver \u2014 and we were like, okay, between the two of us, we could probably make something,\u201d Spears explains. \u201cI had just been carving all these bears at the time, and we had a tangible kind of example to hold in our hands and look at.\u201d<\/p>\n
That carved bear became the seed of Forevergreen. \u201cWe always joke where it\u2019s like, I brought the tree and he brought the bear,\u201d Engelhardt says. \u201cWe both love stop motion animation as well; we\u2019re big fans of Aardman. I actually wanted to be a stop motion animator before jumping into CG. But that deep love for stop motion and the tactile never left me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That handmade spirit inspired the film\u2019s singular aesthetic; each frame looks as though it were carved out of wood. Spears recalls pitching the idea to their crew: \u201cI think that just stoked everyone\u2019s imagination,\u201d says Spears.<\/p>\n
The key challenge was finding a way to translate wood grain, carving marks, and natural imperfections into digital animation. The team built a process that borrowed from stop motion\u2019s replacement techniques.<\/p>\n
\u201cI basically modeled that bear and then did an open and close roar with that character,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt was essentially an automated face replacement tool, similar to what you would see in stop motion. So totally borrowing ideas from stop motion and then digitizing it in a way that I had never seen before.<\/p>\n The Forevergreen team contrasted the natural, wood-carved world of the bear and the tree with manmade materials that felt intentionally artificial. \u201cThe antithetical material of the vacuum-formed plastic food containers in the campsite and the manmade materials and stuff like that was very intentional,\u201d says Engelhardt. \u201cSo the hope was that you would see the bear and the tree together in this wooden handcrafted world, and you would go, yes, that makes sense. These characters should be together. And then when he interacts with the plastics, we should subliminally feel like he\u2019s not where he should be.\u201d<\/p>\n That visual storytelling similarly extended to the short\u2019s impressive lighting, guided by a crew of industry veterans who donated their time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had an amazing, talented lighting crew on this film, led by Mr. Greg Culp and Stephen Null,\u201d says Spears. \u201cGreg would go in and actually paint into each frame of the film. He not only does the lighting, but he\u2019ll go in and sweeten things up as he\u2019s making it.\u201d<\/p>\n Engelhardt adds that the team took inspiration from \u201cmid-century national parks posters\u201d and even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. \u201cThey actually made sort of the variable frame rate lighting so it has kind of like an old school nostalgic feeling\u2026 dirty it up a little bit so it\u2019s not so CG clean.\u201d<\/p>\n The production was made outside of work hours through Disney\u2019s co-op program. \u201cWe both have four kids. We\u2019d get our kids to bed and kiss our wives goodnight, and we would go to work,\u201d Spears laughs.<\/p>\n Engelhardt sums it up: \u201cWe coined this term, which was we move at the speed of people\u2019s generosity. That is why it took five years.\u201d<\/p>\n For Spears, the heart of Forevergreen is its relatability. \u201cAnyone can watch and go, my goodness, I am that bear character. Like, really, that\u2019s the core of it. We all know what that chip bag means to us. And it\u2019s so great watching it with audiences because we hear the chuckles, we hear the laughter when they see it. Because they know what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n Forevergreen may have been born in the margins of its creators\u2019 schedules, but the film itself is no footnote. It is proof of what can happen when artistry, passion, and community carve out space for something new, frame by handcrafted frame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Disney veterans Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears, both still heavily involved in the studio\u2019s current pipeline, first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-171524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Nathan Engelhardt<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Forest Painting \u2013 Credit: Paul Felix
\n<\/a>Forest Painting \u2013 Credit: Paul Felix<\/p>\n