How were the dragons of How to Train Your Dragon really trained? There's no one better to ask than Dane Stogner, supervising animator for Toothless! He is a preeminent Night Fury expert who worked on all three Dragon films and Gift of the Night Fury, in addition to his extensive work on many other feature films!
Do you have questions about Toothless, animating dragons and dragon flight, working on the Dragon films, character animation, or anything else else?
Submit your questions for Dane Stogner below, and the best questions will be asked in our discussion with him on Dragon Academy Dropouts!
You can also submit your questions in the comments below, or upvote questions you want to hear!
Want more background about Dane Stogner and dragon animation? Check out this early video about animation work and reference footage for the first film:
And a collection of iconic moments he animated from from Dragons and other films:
Posted on Saturday, April 13, 2019 by IcelandicEel
This video of over a hundred dragon fans from Berk's Grapevine and beyond saying "dragons" is dedicated to the Dragon creators who contributed to the world of How to Train Your Dragon.
Thank you for all of your creativity, hard work, and for the many years of dragons!
We dragon fans are a diverse bunch!
We're from all around the world and speak dozens of langauges.
We all kinds of amazing character and dragon outfits.
Some of us have seen The Hidden World more times than we can count!
We read the books, watch the films and shows, have posters, graphic novels, action figures, stuffed dragons, and more,
And we all love and appreciate How to Train Your Dragon!
Did you participate in the video?
Can you spot your friends?
The amount of work everyone put into their submissions is crazy!
Don't forget to rewatch and pause to spot the subtle details!
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2019 by IcelandicEel
It's exchange day! If you are participating in Secret Odin this year and want to share your gift on Berk's Grapevine, post it in the comments for this page. But this page isn't just for Secret Odin participants: if you have kind words or gifts you want to share with another dragon fan who you've met on this site site, you're welcome to share them on this page as well!
Thanks for participating in Secret Odin, we look forward to seeing your gifts!
Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 by IcelandicEel
UPDATE: There is no reason to believe that this is related to the episode "Snoggletog - Pt. 2" or Rescue Riders in general. As far as we know, both the script below and Rescue Riders are still intended for release on Neflix and do not necessarily involve voice work from Jay. However, this is still a fun moment showing how Jay records for the films and TV show!
Snoggletog has come early! It looks like we might be getting another dragons holiday short or episode, based on an Instagram story shared by Jay Baruchel. In the story, we hear Jay recording two lines:
"That why we want to bring back the Snoggletog pageant!"
"So we were thinking we would like the bring back the Snoggletog pageant!"
While most people are speculating that this may be a Snoggletog short, it may also be an episode of the upcoming Netflix show DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders.
In October, Brennley Brown, a cast member of Rescue Riders shared two scripts on her Instagram story, one of which had a title "Snoggletog - Pt. 2."
Left of the title may be an episode number, though it's unclear at the resolution of the image.
Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2019 by IcelandicEel
If you're a lucky fan living outside the United States, you may already have downloaded DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders by Outright Games and developed by Climax Studios. If not, then here's an early look at the new dragons game released alongside The Hidden World! Check out more about Dawn of New Riders on its Steam Page and on Outright Games' website!
Dawn of New Riders, which we first heard about in October features two new character: the scholar Scribbler and his future dragon companion, Patch. Amusingly, both are named accidentally by Hiccup. Scribbler who magically pops up on a new island called Havenholme without any memory of how or why. Havenholme, an Edge-like outpost constructed by Hiccup and the others, is in ruins after being attacked. Playing as Scribbler, we start by investigating the destruction on Havenholme. As well as raise and bond with Patch, a "chimeradragon" with a unique set of powers.
Check out the first part of our exploration of Havenholme, where we meet Scribbler and get to know a little bit about Patch! Thanks to Outright Games for sharing a copy of the game with us!
Here's the description of the game shared by Outright Games:
A new heroic dragon and rider are taking to the skies and only you can help them defeat the evil villains who destroyed a dragon sanctuary created by Hiccup, Toothless, and his dragon riders.
When the island of Havenholme is found in ruins, mysterious survivors emerge as unlikely future heroes. Scribbler is a scholar who cannot remember his past while Patch is a unique breed of dragon, a “chimeragon,” with new, unexpected powers they discover along the way. Together they must explore new islands, battle fierce enemies and recover the memories that reveal Patch’s true origin in this fun and fiery new action adventure.
One especially fun part of the gameplay is being able to switch between Patch and Scribbler to accomplish different in-game tasks as a human-dragon team. This includes using Patch's "elemental abilities" by freezing a sheet of ice across a river for Scribbler to cross, or by carefully positioning the pair to step on switches on the ground to open doors for each other.
Sometimes, however, the inactive character gets distracted with some other task, like throwing ice at enemies. So you have to be careful in keeping control of your dragon! And sometimes, it's possible to accidentally get separated from your dragon. Which may or may not be intentional, which makes it even more fun to try to make it happen. See if you can separate Scribbler from Patch and play through an entire scene with only the dragon character!
(My experiments suggest that only Scribbler can take damage from enemies, but Scribbler is also the only one who is able to open crates and collect goods. Patch, on the other hand, is too small to be struck by arrows or attacked... use this knowledge wisely!)
Escaping dungeons is important enough to have a dedicated button: Y.
Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, and Stormfly also play minor roles in this game, which suggests that Dawn of New Riders is set sometime between Dragon 2 and The Hidden World. Hiccup and Toothless tend to swoop in when things are going well, and leave you helpless when things are getting tricky and you could most use their help. Astrid, on the other hand, is a reliable source of tonics if you can offer up herbs or ore.
Spoiler alert: Although you meet Patch when he is just an egg and bond with him while he's only a baby dragon, he doesn't stay small forever! He grows very quickly (just like your love for him).
Probably the cutest part of the entire game.
Is Dawn of New Riders available for you yet? If you want a behind-the-scenes look at Patch, Scribbler, and the other characters and locations developed for the game, check out Richard Hamilton on Twitter! In addition to writing the Dragons graphic novels and working on the TV show, he also helped with the game and has someinterestingcomments on developing its characters!
Posted on Sunday, February 03, 2019 by IcelandicEel
Have you seen The Hidden World yet? If you're from one of a couple lucky locations around the world — or if you're in the United States and were able to attend the early screening on February 2 — you probably have seen the film already and want to discuss the story and spoilers!
What do you think of the film? What were your favorite parts? Did you prefer Drago or Grimmel as a villain? Do you think the Light Fury is the right dragon for Toothless? What is your opinion on dragon mind control? Did you enjoy the Jónsi music? What do you think about the new dragons introduced in the film? And how would you rank The Hidden World compared to the rest of the Dragon films?
Tell us in the comments below! (No spoilers tags required — we assume everyone reading below this article has already seen the film and wants to see spoilers!)
Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2019 by IcelandicEel
Five years ago, inspired by the "dragons, dragons dragons!" promo videos for Riders of Berk, we dragon fans edited together a video of all of us saying "dragons" to show how much we care about and appreciate the Dragons films, shows, and shorts, and to say thanks to the hundreds of people at DreamWorks who have contributed to the amazing universe of How to Train Your Dragon!
The video was so much more popular than we expected, with dozens of fans joining in to say "dragons" on their own or with friends, in multiple languages, and from locations all around the world! Even DreamWorks shared our dragon video on Twitter and on Facebook!
Want to participate? First, read the submission guidelines. Then, record and submit a 2-3 second video clip of yourself or a group of your friends saying dragons. The crazier your clip, the better! We encourage filming in cool locations, while doing weird things, and weearing dragon-related outfits. Also, feel free to say "dragons" in English or in any other language that you speak!
(UPDATED Submission Deadline: February 15 March 4)
If you have any questions or want to share some cool ideas for videos, leave a comment below!
What are you thinking about submitting for the dragons video?
