Nemo Lighting

Alex Mustard · Issue 21, Oct/Nov 2004 · pp. 50–54

Products mentioned: Nikon D100, Subal housing, Nikonos V, EBX 100

Nemo Lighting by Alexander Mustard “We might as well give up underwater photography and all take up animation,” was the reaction of Steve Warren, owner of Ocean Optics, on leaving the cinema at the end of the PIXARʼs film Finding Nemo. Steveʼs cheeky quip succinctly summarises just how believable the superb underwater animation was in the film. As divers we should have been the hardest to convince because we are so familiar with the reality, but it was the divers that I know, and the photographers in particular, who were most enthusiastic about the filmʼs watery world. The result was no fluke; it was the product of more than three years of hard work by PIXAR. “In the end, the animation has to be believable,” comments supervising animator Dylan Brown. “You have to get into this fantasy world, forget about the technology and get sucked into the story.” Andrew Stanton, the filmʼs director, …