I only animated one shot on Ratatouille. I was working on Cars promotional material and WALL-E during most of Rat's production, but I begged them to give me a shot on the film because I knew it was so special (and I wanted to work with Brad Bird again). I figured they'd give me a simple acting shot or some little gag, but instead they gave me a full-body shot of humans on rollerskates! It was pretty challenging, and I did most of the work on my own time. I did a lot of research and worked out some ideas with my wife (who used to skate competitively), but I ended up throwing most of that out and going from my imagination, because the shot was so short and needed to be broad. The only direction I had was that Colette is a bad skater, Linguini is a good skater, and they need to exit frame right. How this happened was pretty much up to me. I'm happy with how Colette's spin and fall worked out, but I think the weight of Linguini lifting her still needs work. Ah well, animation is never finished, only abandoned.
I liked that scene, I'm glad it didn't end up on the cutting room floor. How much of the animation did you do? Just Colette and Luingini, or did you do the background mimi/characters and Skinner as well?
ReplyDeleteso does anyone else recognize the mime, Bonvoyage! so great! Great work Victor...also I was wondering if you were going to be teaching any upper level classes at AM, I'm going to be going to class 3 next quarter, I was hoping to have you as a mentor. :)
ReplyDeleteI like the spin very much, but the animation before the spin is awesome.
ReplyDeleteGreat work man, hope I can animate like that someday.
Wow, thats an awesome shot, Victor. The physics is just perfect. You made it looks so easy!! Truly inspiring work...
ReplyDeleteAles
AWESOME Victor !!
ReplyDeleteI was shocked to hear that you had only one shot, but it's a SUPER sweet one - and it feels right ON !! :-)
HONK -
Lluís
wonderful animation! that spin and how she bends her body... i enjoyed so much Ratatouille, i think it is up there with Toy Story!
ReplyDeleteHey Victor, that's a great shot!
ReplyDeleteYour description of the direction you were given sheds some light on our debate over on your other thread about Beowulf. I think I understand why you would be so reticent to have mocap thrown at you when you have so much creative freedom to design the shot you are working on. . . I'm not backing off on my previous statement that movies like Beowulf, Monster House etc ARE animation, however, it definitely sounds like Pixar lets their animators have a lot more creative control and I for one am very jealous!! ;)
Once again good on ya for that shot it's a nice moment in the development of Lingini and Collette's relationship. :)
That's one sweet shot Victor (and a very very memorable one)! Congrats on a job well done, as always! That twist is just so fun to frame by frame! Can't wait to see your work on WALL-E...looking forward to it!
ReplyDelete(yes the mime is Bonvoyage...but there is also another cameo...Ego in his younger years I believe is in there as well)
Awesome shot!!! I've watched Ratatouille six times now since I got the DVD... so good.
ReplyDeletei still love this shot... you did a fabulous job.
ReplyDeleteThe link is dead!
ReplyDeleteAh... Only had to woenlad it.
ReplyDeleteGreat shot! Love the timing of it.
Nice one Victor! Into the inspiration folder it goes. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteGrate shot ! I love your work with body mechanics ... Good luck in the other projects!
ReplyDeletethat is amazing!
ReplyDeletecould you tell us about the facial rig in Pixar?How animators in Pixar control the face!?
thank you!
Apart from the somewhat obvious fact that "Bomb Voyage" is right there, being a normal mime guy, what's with the small kid looking up at him?
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the movie several times, I must say it looks like it's the kid version of Anton Ego. Am I right?
Oh, and in "Lifted", the abductee is Linguini.. isn't it? :P
I remember the skaters on that bridge crossing to the front of Notre Dame. The road and church square was closed to car traffic on those few days. It's a good setting to place some skaters on old-school 4 wheelers. Nice research. Everyone above have commented on the excellent animation, so I won't make another big echo. Just wanted to comment on the setting and hope you and your wife enjoy(ed) Paris. It's nice.
ReplyDeleteManitou, I can't really describe our facial rigs here, other than to say they contain hundreds of controls to shape every little part of the face. We don't rely on blend-shapes or pre-determined libraries.
ReplyDeleteAlan, yes that's probably young Ego. The fact is that we don't have a lot of money to spend on background characters, so we end up using the same models in different places. Hence Linguini appearing in "Lifted".
Hi victor,
ReplyDeleteI shouldn't have been worried about the weight matter. I did it very well. To be clear, weaken the potential weight and make it flexibility is the key you made the romantic sense straight-forward, which means sometimes we "lose gravity" since our mind is as free as affection.
Nice to view your blog and excellent job. Dreaming of be counted in Pixar,I am majoring in Animation of Sheridan.
I guess you are Chinese as well, aren't you?
Some letter mistake,sorry
ReplyDeleteHi victor,
You shouldn't have been worried about the weight matter. You did it very well. To be clear, weaken the potential weight and make it flexibility is the key you made the romantic sense straight-forward, which means sometimes we "lose gravity" since our mind is as free as affection.
Nice to view your blog and excellent job. Dreaming of be counted in Pixar,I am majoring in Animation of Sheridan.
I guess you are Chinese as well, aren't you?
12:51 PM
As I have said, the shot of both spinning and lifting is genius ones without any argument. However, the only flaw is that the characters overlap with the background people while Colette is spinning ,and thus, makes the focal point obscure a little bit.
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