Have you ever been to a meet two people that blinded you with their awesomeness? Meeting John Stevenson and Mark Osborne the directors of the smackingly funny Kung Fu animated movie had that side effect on me. These two gifted guys were kind enough to join us at the Spark Animation 08 to share a truly honest insight on the making of Kung Fu Panda. They started their speech with the predictable “how it all started” but as the speech went on it turned into a truly engaging dialogue between them and the audience. They first shared their inspirations that ranged from studying Chinese topography to hiring kung fu experts. The interesting part was even though they had true martial arts expert they keyframed all the animations and avoided any sort of motion capture. That decision was made since the characters had to move like animals therefore their movements would have to depend on the actual bone structure of the corresponding animal. The speech continued with a focus on the interpersonal aspect in working in such a big production. We once again heard the importance of communication, something the our program really is emphasized on. We were told of the passionate creative discussions that ended up in mutual compromise and understanding of what was better for the end product. One thing that both of them shared with us was the importance of story and how visuals should be used in a  complimentary manner. They were also repulsed on how people were trying to make animated features that had pop culture references while at the same time the characters lived in their own imaginary worlds. In Kung Fu Panda the creators made sure they immersed you into a “believable” world were animals lived and knew Kung-Fu. The speech concluded with a showing of the movie and a standing applause in the end.