If you watch closely you might see me in animation dailies...
Friday, July 15, 2011
A Day in the Life of John Lasseter
What a life! Check it out:
If you watch closely you might see me in animation dailies...
If you watch closely you might see me in animation dailies...
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Animation Insiders book is back online - for FREE!
Thanks for your generosity, Patrick!
UPDATE: Link seems to be working again!
Friday, July 08, 2011
Some thoughts about my remarks at the CTNX panel...
Hi All,
I made some snide remarks about the Character Riggers at Pixar in this panel, and I want to say that I didn't mean it seriously! Those guys are great and they enable the animators to do what they do. We've developed a great relationship between Animation and Rigging over the years, and I don't want to upset that. To be honest, we had been drinking a bit before the panel, so I was a little more flippant than usual; I know that's not an excuse, but I sincerely respect those guys and hope that no one in the rigging community takes offense at my remarks. Here's to you, Chars TD's!
Monday, June 27, 2011
CTNX panel is back up on Vimeo
This video was marked "private" originally but now it's back up for public consumption. It features Carlos Baena, Aaron Hartline, Michal Makarewicz, and myself, with Adreas Deja (!) as the moderator. We all had a few drinks before the panel, so things are pretty loose...
Tools of the Trade of a Successful Animator Yesterday Today and Beyond from Creative Talent Network on Vimeo.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Local boy makes good
Here's an article on me from hometown new source, SignOn San Diego. Surprisingly accurate journalism, except for the part about me being 40. I'm still 29...
Friday, June 17, 2011
Cars 2!
If you don't already know, Cars 2 opens in the US on June 24th, and I'll be attending the world premiere tomorrow, June 18th, in Los Angeles (my first premiere - yay!). I had the honor of being a Directing Animator on this film which meant, among other things, getting to work closely with John Lasseter again. Once the movie opens I'll talk more about my involvement. Until then, I hope you enjoy it!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Animation Mentor Student Showcase 2011
Just in case you haven't seen this elsewhere:
AM is over 5 years old and still going strong!
AM is over 5 years old and still going strong!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tango for Jansjo
Here's a great little stop-motion animated short from fellow Pixarian Carlo Vogele. He shot this on his spare time in his kitchen, and he makes me sick! For those of you who speak spanish, there's some adult language in here. Otherwise, enjoy!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Rain Town
I just discovered this beautiful short film, written and directed by Hiroyasu Ishida. This is the kind of film you'll want to watch in HD, full-screen, with no distractions. Gorgeous, haunting and bizarre. Make sure to watch past the end credits!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
"Animation Insiders" panel at CTNX
Last October I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual CTNX in Anaheim, and I got to speak on a couple of panels, including the one below. I was in humbling company - Andreas Deja, Tony DeRosa, Eric Goldberg, and Pablo Navarro. I'm the guy whose head is hidden behind the speaker, and I was pretty ragged from a night of heavy drinking, which is why my voice is about an octave lower than usual.
UPDATE - this video has now been marked as "private" for some reason, and even I can't view it. Sorry!
UPDATE - this video has now been marked as "private" for some reason, and even I can't view it. Sorry!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Thursday inspiration
Whoah, how did it get to be April already???
Animation on Cars 2 officially wrapped a couple of weeks ago, and I'm just peeking my head out into the sunlight now. We still have some fixes to cleanup up, but for the most part we're really done, and now the lighting department is holding the bag. It's been a challenging year; we had about 10 weeks to animate half the film, but we were able to do it because a) Pixar animators rock and b) let's face it, animating cars is a lot easier than animating humans! The film looks great and I can't wait to share it with the world. I'm also looking forward to taking a nice long vacation this summer, and then going on to pre-pro on an as-yet-unannounced film. In the meantime, here's something nice:
Animation on Cars 2 officially wrapped a couple of weeks ago, and I'm just peeking my head out into the sunlight now. We still have some fixes to cleanup up, but for the most part we're really done, and now the lighting department is holding the bag. It's been a challenging year; we had about 10 weeks to animate half the film, but we were able to do it because a) Pixar animators rock and b) let's face it, animating cars is a lot easier than animating humans! The film looks great and I can't wait to share it with the world. I'm also looking forward to taking a nice long vacation this summer, and then going on to pre-pro on an as-yet-unannounced film. In the meantime, here's something nice:
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Google Art Project
This is one of the best uses for the internet I've seen in a while. No security guard would ever let you get this close to these works of art in person! Makes me want to start painting again, and I don't mean digital.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Animating Limited Characters
I recently got an email from reader Andy Latham asking me a very good question:
Given the choice between animating a fully-articulated human character with dialog and silent, abstract character with limited articulation and vestigial features, I'll usually choose the latter. I like the freedom that you get from simplified characters; the more stylized or abstract the character is, the less the audience expects it to move in a naturalistic way, and (I think) the more likely the audience is to empathize with the character. I'm not going to get into the whole uncanny valley issue, but suffice to say that a realistic CG human has to work a lot harder than a cartoon blob to win the audience's affection.
Another thing I like about limited characters is the speed at which you can work. Because you have so few controls to work with, you have fewer keys to set, so you can spend more time experimenting. For example, on Cars the characters obviously lack arms, legs, spines, necks, etc. Most of the time I'm just treating the body of the car like a bouncing ball (or bouncing box in this case) and relying on timing and line of action to convey attitude. This means I can do most of my blocking with about 8 controls, which really speeds up my workflow! Sure, I'll also throw in the occasional tire gesture, but that doesn't add a lot more complexity to my shot, and I can keep working fast. My average weekly footage animating cars is almost double what it would be with more complex characters. I find I shoot a lot less reference when I'm planning for a limited character, because reference isn't as useful. I move in ways that a car can't, and vice versa. I can record facial expression reference, and general timing reference from my head movements, but not a lot more. I find that thumbnails are more useful, and I'll also just experiment right in the computer, because I can lay in poses so quickly and try different combinations in a short period of time. With a human character I'm shooting a lot more reference, and I'm likely blocking pose-to-pose, meticulously sculpting the poses for rhythm and balance. With cars I often block in a layered fashion, because the timing is more important to me than the poses (and how much can you really "pose" a car anyway?). This gives me more instantaneous feedback about the timing and texture of my shot.
Finally, I like animating limited characters because they pose unique challenges. It appeals to the part of my brain that likes to solve puzzles. How can I make a robot with no facial controls look sad? How can I make a car moonwalk? How can I tell a complex emotional story with no dialog, no facial expressions, and a legless, elbowless trash-compactor? I think of it like haiku; I have a very strict set of rules I have to adhere to, but within them I have lots of freedom. Limitations are essential to creative thinking and problem solving. As long as I have a clear idea of what the character's personality, mood and intent are, I've never run into a situation where I can't communicate what I want. Of course I don't always get it on the first try!
To expand on Andy's question, I often run into situations where I want to put across a particular gesture or attitude with a car, and I just can't make it read. The solution is often to not try to force human movement into a car (or robot or fish) but to try to find something unique about the limited physiology of your character that can convey the same emotion in a new way. Or in the case of an actual living creature, like a fish, trying to find a natural behavior of that creature that could also suggest a human behavior. Here are some clips to illustrate these points:
Cars - Lightning McQueen and Sally. These shots were animated by Rich Quade and Dave DeVan. Note how McQueen's front wheels are animated to suggest feet (usually they suggest hands) and how the gesture is made more "car-like" by rolling the tire on the ground. Also note the use of Sally's taillights in the three-point turn to communicate thought.
Finding Nemo - Coral. This is a deceptively simple shot of Coral saying "what?" by Shawn Krause. Notice how fish-like it feels. We've all seen fish in an aquarium do this kind of quick turn, and the animator has used this to suggest a take. Also notice that he didn't try to add in a humanistic gesture with the fins.
WALL-E - WALL-E and Eve. I animated all of this myself. There's a lot to see here, but here are some less obvious notes: WALL-E's neck compresses and expands to suggest changes in posture - when the neck compresses down, it's as if his shoulders were coming up. His arm joints suggest shoulders when they are at the top of his cube buddy, and they suggest elbows when they are down low. At around :39 WALL-E's head and body rotate around in opposite directions. Why? Because he can! At :42 I shaped Eve's eyes to look like a standard U.S. electrical socket when she illuminates the light bulb. At :56 WALL-E examines the Rubik's Cube by rotating his hand around 360 degrees. Again, because he can.
Bonus clip: Pocoyo - Pato the duck is a favorite character of mine, and he's extremely limited. Rather than trying repurpose natural duck behavior and physiology, the animators instead have chosen to invent a new vocabulary of motion for him, and use his simple body in unique ways. See how he is able to stack blocks without the use of arms:
In conclusion, I think limited characters have more fun! So if you're trying to flesh out your demo reel, why not try bringing life to a really limited character? It's a good way to develop your storytelling and problem-solving muscles, and it's a fun challenge. Happy Animating, and thanks for the question, Andy!
When animating on Cars, is there anything that you have wanted to animate but haven't been able to due to the limitations of using cars instead of people?The answer is yes (and no), but more importantly, this got me thinking about animation limited characters, such as cars, robots, fish, etc. I realized that this is a subject dear to my heart, hence this article. And yes, I'll expand on my answer to the question below.
Given the choice between animating a fully-articulated human character with dialog and silent, abstract character with limited articulation and vestigial features, I'll usually choose the latter. I like the freedom that you get from simplified characters; the more stylized or abstract the character is, the less the audience expects it to move in a naturalistic way, and (I think) the more likely the audience is to empathize with the character. I'm not going to get into the whole uncanny valley issue, but suffice to say that a realistic CG human has to work a lot harder than a cartoon blob to win the audience's affection.
Another thing I like about limited characters is the speed at which you can work. Because you have so few controls to work with, you have fewer keys to set, so you can spend more time experimenting. For example, on Cars the characters obviously lack arms, legs, spines, necks, etc. Most of the time I'm just treating the body of the car like a bouncing ball (or bouncing box in this case) and relying on timing and line of action to convey attitude. This means I can do most of my blocking with about 8 controls, which really speeds up my workflow! Sure, I'll also throw in the occasional tire gesture, but that doesn't add a lot more complexity to my shot, and I can keep working fast. My average weekly footage animating cars is almost double what it would be with more complex characters. I find I shoot a lot less reference when I'm planning for a limited character, because reference isn't as useful. I move in ways that a car can't, and vice versa. I can record facial expression reference, and general timing reference from my head movements, but not a lot more. I find that thumbnails are more useful, and I'll also just experiment right in the computer, because I can lay in poses so quickly and try different combinations in a short period of time. With a human character I'm shooting a lot more reference, and I'm likely blocking pose-to-pose, meticulously sculpting the poses for rhythm and balance. With cars I often block in a layered fashion, because the timing is more important to me than the poses (and how much can you really "pose" a car anyway?). This gives me more instantaneous feedback about the timing and texture of my shot.
Finally, I like animating limited characters because they pose unique challenges. It appeals to the part of my brain that likes to solve puzzles. How can I make a robot with no facial controls look sad? How can I make a car moonwalk? How can I tell a complex emotional story with no dialog, no facial expressions, and a legless, elbowless trash-compactor? I think of it like haiku; I have a very strict set of rules I have to adhere to, but within them I have lots of freedom. Limitations are essential to creative thinking and problem solving. As long as I have a clear idea of what the character's personality, mood and intent are, I've never run into a situation where I can't communicate what I want. Of course I don't always get it on the first try!
To expand on Andy's question, I often run into situations where I want to put across a particular gesture or attitude with a car, and I just can't make it read. The solution is often to not try to force human movement into a car (or robot or fish) but to try to find something unique about the limited physiology of your character that can convey the same emotion in a new way. Or in the case of an actual living creature, like a fish, trying to find a natural behavior of that creature that could also suggest a human behavior. Here are some clips to illustrate these points:
Cars - Lightning McQueen and Sally. These shots were animated by Rich Quade and Dave DeVan. Note how McQueen's front wheels are animated to suggest feet (usually they suggest hands) and how the gesture is made more "car-like" by rolling the tire on the ground. Also note the use of Sally's taillights in the three-point turn to communicate thought.
Finding Nemo - Coral. This is a deceptively simple shot of Coral saying "what?" by Shawn Krause. Notice how fish-like it feels. We've all seen fish in an aquarium do this kind of quick turn, and the animator has used this to suggest a take. Also notice that he didn't try to add in a humanistic gesture with the fins.
WALL-E - WALL-E and Eve. I animated all of this myself. There's a lot to see here, but here are some less obvious notes: WALL-E's neck compresses and expands to suggest changes in posture - when the neck compresses down, it's as if his shoulders were coming up. His arm joints suggest shoulders when they are at the top of his cube buddy, and they suggest elbows when they are down low. At around :39 WALL-E's head and body rotate around in opposite directions. Why? Because he can! At :42 I shaped Eve's eyes to look like a standard U.S. electrical socket when she illuminates the light bulb. At :56 WALL-E examines the Rubik's Cube by rotating his hand around 360 degrees. Again, because he can.
Bonus clip: Pocoyo - Pato the duck is a favorite character of mine, and he's extremely limited. Rather than trying repurpose natural duck behavior and physiology, the animators instead have chosen to invent a new vocabulary of motion for him, and use his simple body in unique ways. See how he is able to stack blocks without the use of arms:
In conclusion, I think limited characters have more fun! So if you're trying to flesh out your demo reel, why not try bringing life to a really limited character? It's a good way to develop your storytelling and problem-solving muscles, and it's a fun challenge. Happy Animating, and thanks for the question, Andy!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Toy Story 3 Nominated for 5 Academy Awards!
Nominations for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning.
Toy Story 3's nominations include Best Animated Feature, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song and Best Sound Editing. And for only the third time in history, an animated film - Toy Story 3 - was nominated for Best Picture.
Animated Feature Film
• “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
• “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich
Music (Original Song)
• “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas
• “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
• “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
• “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Best Picture
• “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
• “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
• “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
• “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
• “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
• “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
• “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
• “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
• “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers
Sound Editing
• “Inception” Richard King
• “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
• “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
• “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
• “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
• “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
• “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
• “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Day & Night also got a nom:
Short Film (Animated)
• “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
• “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
• “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois
A complete list of nominees can be found here. Congratulations once again to our great crew!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Update
I know there haven't been a lot of quality original posts on the blog in a while; I've been wanting to do more tutorials and articles, but I haven't been able to find the time. I'm currently a Directing Animator on Cars 2, and we're in pretty heavy crunch mode until April, so it's not likely you'll see a lot of updates here until then. See you on the other side!
Saturday, January 08, 2011
A couple of cool animation reference sites
One of my readers, Peter Nagy, turned me on to these two sites with a wealth of reference material. The first is the Walk Cycle Depot, which is a pretty neat idea, in the spirit of the Pencil Test Depot.
The second and larger site is the Living Lines Library, which features loads of model sheets, pencil tests and other art from 2D animated features and shows.
Enjoy!
Friday, January 07, 2011
Free eBook: Animation Insiders
This book has just been made available as a free digital download. It includes interviews with many animators about their workflows, including myself and Jason Schfleifer. Check it out!
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Monday, December 06, 2010
Thought of You
This is a really beautiful piece of animation by Ryan Woodward. It's also a great example of how to use live-action reference for good and not for evil! Rather than copy his reference verbatim, Ryan has stylized not only the character design, but also the motion. He plays with the timing to create emphasis and entertainment, and strips away unnecessary details to imbue a heightened sense of grace and fluidity. And of course he adds in various flourishes and effects that could only be achieved in animation. Very inspiring! More info on his web site, Conte Animated.
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