Some absolutely fantastic concept art for Monsters University by the talented Chris Sasaki. I'm a big fan of the vehicles in particular, love the slight monsterisms of each. Check out more on his blog.
Showing posts with label pixar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pixar. Show all posts
Lee Unkrich
A couple of weeks ago I went to one of the best animation talks that I have been lucky enough to attend. As a part of the annual GRAPHIC Festival, Lee Unkrich (Director of Toy Story 3) came to Sydney on behalf of Pixar to give the audience a rough overview of their process in the making of an animated feature film. In what ended up being closer to 2 hours than the original 90 minutes he managed to do just that in brief (yet thorough) detail.
I was blown away by how much he covered and the fantastic approach to how he presented - little-to-no technical jargon, even when going into detail on topics such as their latest technology Wonder Moss (developed to enrich the landscapes of Brave) were explained in such real world terms that I don't think anyone in the audience would have walked away without an understanding of the what the technology offered. We had inside glimpses of rarely seen and unseen material that is usually only seen internally at Pixar. Such as voice actor 'auditions' where they took audio from a film their potential actor featured in and animating to that as an example of whether or not they voice will fit the character. As examples we watched Tom Hank's audition (Turner &Hooch audio) and Billy Crystal's (When Harry Met Sally audio). Although Crystal did turn them down (which he later regretted) he did ultimately voice Mike in Monsters Inc - so it all worked out! These and some hilarious animation reference footage;
Which was their reference for this scene from Toy Story 3 (sorry you've got to scrub through a bit.);
Some in depth explanations of the audio editing process revealed that one single line of dialogue was taken from about 10 takes, a single word ('Andy') in said example was comprised of 4 different takes!Some other cool bits and pieces included the explanation of their color scripts and the evolution of their story boarding technique when Brad Bird came on board for The Incredibles. We were also lucky enough to meet the man (briefly) as he signed our books which had been hurriedly purchased 10 minutes prior.
Excellent day which was followed up by lunch in the rocks and a trip to check out the Little Black Jacket exhibit down in an old warehouse on the pier in Welsh Bay.
Brave Trailer.
Whilst short and a wonderfully teasing 'teaser trailer', it simply shows us what we've been missing out on the past couple of years - an original Pixar film. Toy Story 3 was great, Cars 2 looks like an absolute joke - but they are still not what Pixar excels at. Creating exciting and interesting characters and stories. The jungles put those feature in The Incredibles to shame very easily in the minute of screen time that they are given. Here's hoping the characters and stories hold up to the long-standing Pixar standard (ignoring Cars & Cars 2 ).
Brave.
Cannot wait for it. Cars 2 looks to be such a let down (just like the original Cars) but at least it will make way for Brave - a story of firsts;
- First Pixar fairy tale.
- First female lead character.
- First female directed (co-directed) Pixar feature.
Tim Burton - The Exhibition
I found this article today online;
http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/articles/the-tim-burton-show-is-coming-to-melbourne.aspx
From the 24th June - 10th October 2010 the exhibition will be hosted by the ACMI in Melbourne, which i went to a very enjoyable (and cheap!) exhibition of the History of Pixar back in 2007. So I am rather psyched for this coming attraction. Apparently the exhibition will have both professional and personal works of his on display including artwork, sketches, storyboards and most awesomely puppets!!!!! It is also going to include works from the upcoming Alice in Wonderland which is fantastic. So expect me to attend at some point next year whilst its here.
Luxo Lawsuit
Reposted from over at the Pixar Blog;
" Lampmaker Luxo ASA, creators of the original Luxo desk lamp, unexpectedly filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Pixar in U.S. federal court* on Friday, ending some twenty-three years of amicable relations between the two companies.
The lawsuit stems from Luxo's discontent at the soon-to-be-released Luxo Jr. Premium Combo Pack of the Up Blu-ray, which will include a working replica Luxo Jr. lamp and also the giant audio-animatronic Luxo Jr. at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.
Pixar's c. 1986 agreement with the Norway-based lamp manufacturer has long allowed the studio to use the Luxo name in connection with the character from Pixar's first short film Luxo Jr. and to use the character in its logo. But Luxo holds that the making of actual goods, especially functioning lamps, with the name is an infringement on their trademark not covered by the agreement.
While Luxo's statement in their complaint that the Luxo Jr. replicas will "cause devastating damage to Luxo and dilute the goodwill which Luxo has built up" is utter nonsense, someone at Disney's legal department really should have checked with the company as to whether they had any objection to the expanded uses for the character.
Interested to see how this will play out in court...
(via Bloomberg)
*For the legally inclined, the case is officially Luxo ASA vs. Walt Disney Co., 09-cv-7689, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)"
*For the legally inclined, the case is officially Luxo ASA vs. Walt Disney Co., 09-cv-7689, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)"
A Beautiful Week Awaits
\ This week hold so many fun things for me to do;
I still have Episode 2 of Tales of Monkey Island to finish as well as the Special Ed of the Secret of Monkey Island. So far this episode of Tales of Monkey Island is feeling a little repetitive and not as polished as the first episode – some poor animation in parts involving Elaine just sliding across the screen.
Adrian’s purchase of the Ghostbusters game (PS3) at some point this week means that I will be paying him a visit and we shall bust ghosts together – it will be beautiful, proton beams flying everywhere in glory. As will the release of Batman Arkham Asylum on Thursday although I noticed a copy of the Batarang in EB today and it looked like arse. Obviously a mass-produced moulded plastic thing.. I’ll get a closer look on Thursday so I’ll let you know how the Collector’s Edition goes.
I’m also heading home for the weekend so that will be a nice getaway from Wagga. Never thought I would say that about Young =p
Oh and the recent news of Disney buying Marvel has given birth to rumours/hopes for Pixar to do a Marvel movie or an Incredibles sequel that involves Marvel characters.. My thoughts?
WORST IDEA EVER!
Which idea am I talking about? Both. Pixar makes original films – that is what they have always had going for them, I am certainly hoping Disney keeps their meddling hands out of that one, they have already done enough by demanding sequels to a few Pixar films that could do without.
Oh and some videos I watched today included Halo 3 ODST footage, see Halo like you’ve never seen it before;
Into the Blizzard
A recent article on ign.com provided an insight into what Blizzard Entertainment Headquarters looks like from the inside and the studio looks awesome. I would really like to work somewhere like this one day but the only downside to working for such a company is that unless you are a number in a corporation – not making a comment on Blizzard, but rather on large successful corporations. I noticed that the entrance sign to the studio is very reminiscent of the entrance sign for Pixar Studios.
The halls of the studio are adorned by artworks by the Blizzard team, which has always been of a majestic quality and look amazing on such a scale. Just the very hallways are so very inspirational just imagine what it’s like to be wandering those halls every day and be constantly inspired, especially in this case because they would be seeing work related to what they are working on. Another bonus is of course the beach volleyball setup that they have, all these things are very superficial of course when compared to the need for those people that you are working for and with to be decent human beings and involve you in at least their working lives. Hopefully I can find a very nice job at the end of the year, whatever the job may be.
nb. all images are obviously sourced and the property of ign.com
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