A little over a week since I came back home from sigGRAPH 2012 and I recap. I admit I slacked a bit this year. One would think after the few years of attendance that I'd have surpassed being a rookie, but I haven't.
I couldn't escape a day at the pool.
I did get the chance to watch the making of Disney's "Paperman" is the production session. As always the storyline remained flawless and emotionally moving. I can never seem to read if it's the storyline itself-- or the way the the story is told visually. It truly feels like both. This story centers around a restless young man struggling against the monotony of his day to day life and his pursuit for more after he is captured by the interests of woman in passing on his way to work.
It is short scheduled to sequence before "Wreck-It Ralph"which is on release in theatres in November.
With its unmistakable Disney timing as far as its animation, I watched reminiscent of the mop sequence in Fantasia as the paper airplanes embodied minds of their own as they paraded behind the lead character. The spirit and pacing of Disney animation was very clear throughout, as well as camera cuts significant of artists who have carefully studied cinematography deep into the history of the trademark. The look was a true reenactment of Walt's mastered original design, cell animation. It was obvious that a large concentration was placed on lighting. The only thing-- as a Walt was a man who lead the way to utilizing Technicolor in film-- I sat there wondering what was the benefit of choosing to go black and white. But contrary to that, it is obvious how Disney is still honoring his name to date and taking old school animation tactics from the days of Mickey Mouse, to weapon them with the modern day benefits of 3D. Frame by Frame is not so taxing in 3D once the components are built as it is in drawing all of its layers by hand.
They were recreating the antique look which we have all come to know and love. Of course!
One piece of proprietary software created by Disney (software engineer Brian Whited) that was designed specifically for this piece is one called Meander. Meant to be comparable to the overall effect that results from the ToonShader, Meander is a vector based line art program that tracks to movement of 3D animation to give the character (or environment) a 2D appeal. The artist draws directly on top of the surface of the animation while the program is built to interpolate the inbetweens, leaving the artist to work pose to pose and, well, tweak away to match the line art to the animation data. Imagine compositing this vector data on top of a 3D plates. It seemed fairly intuitive if not completely accurate for its purpose-- but it was reinstated that there was also lots of options to undo/redo as well to get the precise look and movements. All in all, it its first introduction at the production session I attended it seemed to offer a lot of potential for honing in on that traditional look and the signature designs that Disney tends to hold onto tightly. The piece was well done and executed brilliantly as a classic looking silent.
One thing I admired for sure is Disney's open arms for personal creative freedom. They do this all of the time between working on features. They allow the artists to breathe between runs, collaborating their ideas and working as a team to develop small independents. Independents owned by Disney, yes, but crafted from a small system of seemingly non-corporate artistic individuals lucky enough to have the honor and privilege to work at Disney to begin with! Tim Burton as well was another fortunate soul to get holed in a room at Disney to just sketch and just create his amazing oddities after his bouts of animation on "The Fox and the Hound". Thus surfaced his first short stop motion film "Vincent". It was implied according to his Bio "Burton on Burton" they loved his work as a individual but just didn't know what to do with him.
Directed by John Kahrs (animation supervisor of 'Tangled'), it is rumored that Paperman may develop into a full feature, which is not the usual route for shorts on release nor something that I would desire, as it was enough just as is. Life truly is a teaser anyways and offers no definitive result to how one should come across contentment in the actual journey of life itself.
Pixar's production session at sigGRAPH last year of Enrico Casarosa's "La Luna" left the same feeling. Any more tacked on to the short would have been too much. The hardest accomplishment that I find with a short that always seems in a nutshell with these two powerhouse companies is summing up all of the emotions offered to the viewer in a short and silent span of time.
It was a pleasure to watch and learn. I left with aspiration that an artist should always try to have.
But as one captivated fan in the audience, I am only one of many that anticipates more of Disney's perseverance as a unbreakable trademark and as a frontrunner in the competition of digital technology in entertainment. For lord knows with the growth of technology today, to make the cut a company would need the best look development team and the best software engineers on hand-- a 24/7 militia of artisans all around. And Disney's definitely still got it!
I couldn't escape a day at the pool.
I did get the chance to watch the making of Disney's "Paperman" is the production session. As always the storyline remained flawless and emotionally moving. I can never seem to read if it's the storyline itself-- or the way the the story is told visually. It truly feels like both. This story centers around a restless young man struggling against the monotony of his day to day life and his pursuit for more after he is captured by the interests of woman in passing on his way to work.
It is short scheduled to sequence before "Wreck-It Ralph"which is on release in theatres in November.
With its unmistakable Disney timing as far as its animation, I watched reminiscent of the mop sequence in Fantasia as the paper airplanes embodied minds of their own as they paraded behind the lead character. The spirit and pacing of Disney animation was very clear throughout, as well as camera cuts significant of artists who have carefully studied cinematography deep into the history of the trademark. The look was a true reenactment of Walt's mastered original design, cell animation. It was obvious that a large concentration was placed on lighting. The only thing-- as a Walt was a man who lead the way to utilizing Technicolor in film-- I sat there wondering what was the benefit of choosing to go black and white. But contrary to that, it is obvious how Disney is still honoring his name to date and taking old school animation tactics from the days of Mickey Mouse, to weapon them with the modern day benefits of 3D. Frame by Frame is not so taxing in 3D once the components are built as it is in drawing all of its layers by hand.
They were recreating the antique look which we have all come to know and love. Of course!
One piece of proprietary software created by Disney (software engineer Brian Whited) that was designed specifically for this piece is one called Meander. Meant to be comparable to the overall effect that results from the ToonShader, Meander is a vector based line art program that tracks to movement of 3D animation to give the character (or environment) a 2D appeal. The artist draws directly on top of the surface of the animation while the program is built to interpolate the inbetweens, leaving the artist to work pose to pose and, well, tweak away to match the line art to the animation data. Imagine compositing this vector data on top of a 3D plates. It seemed fairly intuitive if not completely accurate for its purpose-- but it was reinstated that there was also lots of options to undo/redo as well to get the precise look and movements. All in all, it its first introduction at the production session I attended it seemed to offer a lot of potential for honing in on that traditional look and the signature designs that Disney tends to hold onto tightly. The piece was well done and executed brilliantly as a classic looking silent.
One thing I admired for sure is Disney's open arms for personal creative freedom. They do this all of the time between working on features. They allow the artists to breathe between runs, collaborating their ideas and working as a team to develop small independents. Independents owned by Disney, yes, but crafted from a small system of seemingly non-corporate artistic individuals lucky enough to have the honor and privilege to work at Disney to begin with! Tim Burton as well was another fortunate soul to get holed in a room at Disney to just sketch and just create his amazing oddities after his bouts of animation on "The Fox and the Hound". Thus surfaced his first short stop motion film "Vincent". It was implied according to his Bio "Burton on Burton" they loved his work as a individual but just didn't know what to do with him.
Directed by John Kahrs (animation supervisor of 'Tangled'), it is rumored that Paperman may develop into a full feature, which is not the usual route for shorts on release nor something that I would desire, as it was enough just as is. Life truly is a teaser anyways and offers no definitive result to how one should come across contentment in the actual journey of life itself.
Pixar's production session at sigGRAPH last year of Enrico Casarosa's "La Luna" left the same feeling. Any more tacked on to the short would have been too much. The hardest accomplishment that I find with a short that always seems in a nutshell with these two powerhouse companies is summing up all of the emotions offered to the viewer in a short and silent span of time.
It was a pleasure to watch and learn. I left with aspiration that an artist should always try to have.
But as one captivated fan in the audience, I am only one of many that anticipates more of Disney's perseverance as a unbreakable trademark and as a frontrunner in the competition of digital technology in entertainment. For lord knows with the growth of technology today, to make the cut a company would need the best look development team and the best software engineers on hand-- a 24/7 militia of artisans all around. And Disney's definitely still got it!
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