What's It Like to Work at Pixar?

I can't speak objectively, having only ever worked as an animator at Pixar, but I think it's pretty safe to say that it's the best place in the world for an animator to work. It's a very supportive, nurturing environment. We get to work on great movies that we're proud of, and we have lots of fun, even when we're working hard. There's a spirit of collaboration among the animators that I think is unique to Pixar.

There's a healthy sense of competition, and animators are always offering compliments and critiques on each others' work. Usually the best idea wins, no matter who came up with it, whether it's a note about story, or an acting idea. As for the culture, we've made a really fun place to work. You can take art classes at Pixar University, attend free screenings of current and classic films, and even participate in one of the many rock bands. At last count, I think there are something like 14 bars at Pixar; we work hard, and we play hard! I've never been bored with my job, and being surrounded by so many talented artists, I feel I always having something more to learn. I've been at Pixar for almost 10 years, and it can be easy to get complacent or find thing to complain about, but every once in a while I take a step back and remember just how lucky I am to work there, and I hope I always will!


Guest Blogger Victor Navone

Animating Eyes and Eyebrows

I got a couple great questions regarding eyes from Christopher and Avner.

Christopher asks: Can you share more on the subject of eye darts and your technique to approaching them in relation to the social triangle and eye blinks? And Avner wrote in to ask: How do you animate eyes and eyebrows on giant characters like the ones in Transformers?

Those are both great questions and obviously related. As we all know, your eye animation is probably the most important single aspect of your acting performance outside of the general body language. People generally see the body first, then the eyes, then everything else, so you always want to first sell the emotion in the body, and then really hammer it home with the eyes.

"Eye animation" could include general eye shapes (emotional shapes), eye darts, pupil animation, blinks, and sometimes you might lump eyebrow animation into this category as well. All of these things work together to communicate emotion, thought process, and even unspoken lines of dialogue!

The main thing to keep in mind with eye darts, particularly in regard to blinks, is that you should not think of them as random movements that you throw into your scenes willy-nilly. You can use your eye darts strategically to show a shift in thought process or even to help sell an emotion (such as one person's eyes darting back and forth between the eyes of the person they talking to, searching for the truth).

Other general eye-dart tips:

1. They're fast! The eyes can really move quickly. Study your friends eyes and you'll see a lot of micro-movements as well as larger re-focusing movements. All of these movements will happen very quickly. Generally you're talking about one to two frames, in most cases, unless you're slowing it down for a specific reason.

2. Generally, eye darts are very quick and somewhat linear in motion. You could ease out of the first pose a bit, but you should hit that second pose really hard, almost robotically.

3. Plan your eye darts and use them wisely! Too many eye darts will feel spastic, freaked out, or electrocuted. No eye darts can very quickly feel dead (like doll eyes), but can also be used for effect (drugged, etc).

4. You need to give the eyes time to focus as well. Don't just have the eyes darting all over the place if the idea is that they are really focused on something. If they are focused, then only use VERY subtle eye darts that will help the character feel alive.

5. The further away something is, the less the eyes will dart when they are studying it.

6. If a character is tracking a moving object (such as a car), it's usually good to break up the eye movement with some darting movements that focus for a couple frames before moving on. With a slow-moving object, you can get away with a smoother eye-tracking motion, but as soon as the object has some speed, this will feel robotic and weird.

In regards to tying eye darts in with blinks, obviously the goal should be one cohesive eye performance, so you should really study what your eyes did in your video reference and see how that feels - and more importantly - figure out WHY it feels that way. Smaller darts won't necessarily have any correlating lid movements, but larger darts might, and the largest might want to have a blink happen as the eye shifts focus so far. People will almost always blink on a fast head turn, and the same generally holds true for large eye-shifts, but not always. I'll talk more about blinks next time, this is getting crazy long! :)

As far as animating the eyes of a character that doesn't have flesh and skin (robots, etc), you really should strive to recreate as identifiable performance as possible, no matter what. The design of the character can never be an excuse for you. Sure, some designs will work better than others, but no matter what character you are given, try to find ways to use that character's design to create shapes, movements, and ideas that the audience will recognize and identify with.

For something like Transformers, a huge goal for us is to strategically animate pieces on the face that will best communicate and "read" to the audience, so if you are working with a robot, my advice would be to look for pieces that can work as brows, lids, pupils, iris, etc.

Shawn :)

What Separates the Good Animator from the Bad Animator?

Of course, we don't like to use the term "bad" in reference to animators, though we can all point to badly animated shots. Animation is both a technical and an artistic endeavor, and there are plenty of opportunities to fail in both those areas. The technical stuff is more academic and is based on real physics, and is therefore more easily taught and learned.

I'm relatively confident that you can teach anyone to animate basic physics, assuming they have the will to learn and at least an average intelligence. More complex body mechanics will take a stronger, more analytical mind and good observational skills. Acting and design are much more subjective, and they form the great divide. The artistic side of animation is much harder to teach, because it can be hard to quantify. We know what we like, but how do we arrive there? Where does training end and talent begin? I don't think that everyone has the capacity to be a great animator. You can teach people about design principles, acting theory, storytelling conventions and staging, and they will improve to a degree, but there comes a point where a certain amount of natural ability is required. You have to have good acting instincts, you have to have a natural sense of timing, and you have to know how to entertain and audience.

I think "good" animators have an innate knack for performance and creating appealing poses and actions. A "bad" animator either hasn't learned enough to reach his or her potential yet, or just doesn't have that natural talent to rise above mediocrity.


Guest Blogger Victor Navone

Describe Your Workflow When You Start Animating a Shot. Is There a Right or Wrong Way?

I think most people will tell you that as long as your shot looks good, there’s really no right or wrong way and I completely agree with that. We all want to do great work. For me, I have a very different workflow depending on what type of shot I’m animating. If I’m animating a realistic shot, I’ll work straight ahead but for a character animated show, I’ll work pose to pose.

In the world of realism, I find diving in is the best way to go. Block in some strong poses as quickly as possible and define the most important actions in the shot. You want to make sure you lead the audience’s eye to the focal points, otherwise the shot becomes unclear and muddy. So, for a shot on Spider-Man 2 where Spider-Man and Doc Ock are falling and fighting, I choreographed the shot so it revolved around three or four very specific events. I knew for instance that they were in the midst of a battle to the death and it had to be violent. But if I’m not careful, the punches and kicks could all get lost if I don’t highlight them with clear silhouettes. So step number one was make sure the big moments of the fight were clear. I animated a simple translation as they fell down the building and animated some very clean poses along the way. I made use of contrasting poses as much as possible. So a reverse C shape on Spider-Man rearing back for his punch, then a C curve for the strike. Those shapes were posed to camera to get the most impact.

I also knew the tentacles needed to be active. One would grab and miss the building while others would engage Spider-Man. Finally, one would latch onto the building for a violent slam into the façade. I made sure to layer these elements in between the major fight actions between the characters, otherwise we wouldn’t know where to look. This was one of the most challenging elements of the shot, but it was a great lesson in how to be efficient with the staging of the fight elements. Once these elements were layered in and working in a broad sense, then I would dive into my finessing pass. I would toggle the visibility of the characters and tentacles on or off depending on what I was animating. I did this so my eye would never get distracted. Once Spider-Man and Ock were working, then I’d turn those nasty tentacles back on one at a time. After many, many (many) versions, I’d hopefully have an exciting shot in the can.

Now, what about using video reference for realistic animation? Personally, I try not to use it if I’m animating human characters. Insanity you say? Perhaps. But I prefer to act out what I’m animating and feel what’s happening as opposed to trying to visually match my performance. If you have to animate a character throwing a ball, repeat the action several times and pay careful attention to what your body is doing. You don’t have to look at yourself on film to feel your body and chest leading the action with the arm lagging behind. Then when you sit down to animate, you can apply that knowledge in a much more meaningful way. You’ll understand the full impact of the body mechanics on all sides as opposed to just what you are looking at from the camera’s perspective. Give it a try sometime and if you really get stuck, you can always break out the camera and tripod for troubleshooting.

My workflow for character work is pretty much the opposite. I usually just do a whole bunch of thinking in the beginning. I’ll listen to the dialogue over and over again until some very clear acting choices emerge, then I’ll start locking down some poses. In the beginning, I prefer to go with as few poses as possible on my first pass because that gives me more flexibility to explore new ideas. As soon as I have some poses running with the audio track, my mind starts finding new approaches. I point this out because I don’t worry so much about ensuring the whole shot is thumbnailed or blocked out before I start. It’s a very organic workflow and not for everybody. At the very least, I don’t run into the issue of having too much going on. Sometimes an animator will put so much into that first pass it ends up being hard to assess. This way, my shot builds naturally and I layer the detail on in subsequent passes.

Another technique I make use of is to avoid lipsync and facial animation on my first full pass. The reason is simple. I want to focus 100% on the poses. Do they reflect his mood? Are they strong and clear? A sad face makes a character look sad, but can you achieve that without the face first? If my poses convey the emotions clearly without facial animation, then I know the addition of expressions will only serve to augment my work.

Finally, I will add most the texture and finer detail to the shot at the very end. I guess you can call this the business of the shot. The reason I add it later is because I like to make sure the guts of my shot are successful. If I throw in a bunch of detail early on in my shot while I’m still trying to figure out the broader mechanics, then it can sometimes make it more challenging to troubleshoot. Also, it’s possible that you can put too much business in a shot. Quantity does not always equal quality.

Guest Blogger Chris Williams

Animation Mentor Launches a New eBook and Survey Report Today!

Ideal for people who love animation and are passionate about learning about the art of animation, Animation Mentor has launched the How to Become an Animator series. The eBook, How to Become an Animator, provides advice and information on different types of animation jobs, tips on clarifying your personal goals and what to look for when researching schools and training programs that best suit you.

In addition, Animation Mentor's industry report, Learn What Future Animators Look for in a School, discusses key findings from an animation industry survey that shows what future animators are looking for in a school and what professional animators say are the most important things to look for.

Click here to view the ebook and industry report and let us know what you think!

What Would Be Your Advice to a Graduating Student as They Begin Their Career as an Animator?

I think something that served me well was to dream big, but to also manage my expectations. Coming out of school, we all wanted that feature animation job but there’s only so much to go around. I ended up landing a gig at a smaller studio and worked there for almost four years before arriving at Sony. While I was there, I never lost sight of the type of career I wanted. I was happy doing character design, but my preference was to be animating. So if I had some free time, I‘d grab a pencil and paper and try to improve my reel. When I switched over to their computer animation department, I made the best of the resources there to continue learning and growing as an animator. It’s important to remember that no matter where you work, you can always build on your skill set. And don’t forget about the great contacts you can make. As anyone in this industry will tell you, it’s a small world out there for the animation community. Within a year of working, you’ll have built up a contact list that will include animators working in gaming, television and feature animation.

Good luck!

Guest Blogger Chris Williams

Regarding Timing, Do Professional 3D Animators Use Exposure Sheets? Does the ‘Old School’ 16 Frames Interval Remain?

Hi there, Nicolette!

I know in the newsletter articles I harped on planning darn near every month for a while, so many of you know that I believe strongly that planning is the key to excellent animation, particularly if you're in the first five or six years of animating, but probably for the rest of your career.

Planning, simply put, is the process of studying reference materials (pictures, found video reference, created video reference, observation in the real world, etc) in order to determine what moves in the body in order to create the proper body mechanics and emotion - and more importantly, WHY those things happen within the character.

You want to know exactly WHY the series of movements and events happens in the body before you ever start animating your scene. Ideally, if you're doing it correctly, you should know what key poses and breakdowns are going to be on what frames before you start animating.

In this way, *most* of your animation effort should be spent before you start saving keys on your character. By that point, you're just translating the performance you've already developed and the keys you've already determined and exaggerated into the computer on the frames you've already chosen.

Obviously, a big part of this planning process is determining the timing of these poses, and sure, many professionals still use old-school exposure sheets (sometimes also called x-sheets or dopesheets) as a quick way to clearly break their scene down, but many animators also simply use any piece of paper to do this. I know there are some software tools out there to aid in this as well, but personally I feel like it's easier to just do some thumbnails and jot down the correct frame number beneath the drawn pose.

Using the exposure sheet isn't really what matters, in my opinion. What matters is that you go to the effort to do as much planning as the scene requires within the deadlines you are given, and that you should know your intended timing before you start saving keys.

Sure, you might need to fudge the timing a bit once your poses are in the computer - and in fact, while I recommend exaggerating your poses in the thumbnail stage, I actually recommend (especially to newer animators) that the exaggeration of the timing happen in the computer rather than on the paper. It's easier to see, and easier to work with.

In other words, lets say you film your video reference over and over until you really nail a take that you think truly communicates the ideas and has the real emotion you are looking for. From that reference, you can find your key poses and breakdowns, and draw thumbnails of these poses. Beneath each pose, you can put the actual "real-life" frame that the pose happened on when you initially filmed it.

Now go through your thumbnails again, and work on exaggerating those poses into something even more exciting or emotional or heavy or communicative, but keep the timing frames the same.

This way, once you get those poses in the computer, at least your starting point is "true." This gives you a good foundation to start tweaking your timing (and poses when necessary) into something that matches what is in your head as the artist.

Hope that helps someone - thanks again for writing in!

Shawn :)

How Do You Adjust with the Varied Animation Styles That Imageworks Uses? Do You Get Pigeonholed or Are You Expected to Tackle Any Style?

I personally believe that the more styles of animation you can do the better. If nothing else, it helps with job security. I deliberately request my shows to alternate between character animation and visual effects animation so my mind will stay challenged and sharp. But this isn’t something you are expected to do here. We have lots of animators that prefer one style to another and they become very proficient because they are specialists in that style.

In terms of adjusting between the styles, it can take a shot or two to get back into the rhythm. This is because I use two very different workflows. As I mentioned earlier, for visual effects I tend to work straight ahead with spline curves. For character animation, I work pose to pose with stepped curves. The reason I prefer straight ahead for visual effects is so I can constantly assess my work with respect to how realistic it’s looking. If Spider-Man is swinging in a bank, it’s easier for me to see if his mass and velocity are correct by having him in motion. Character animation tends to have more stylized timing, so I can focus on the poses for longer.

In terms of being pigeonholed, yes it can happen. If you are really good at executing a certain type of shot, it’s very possible the animation director will lean on you in the future to produce something similar. With tight production schedules, you have to use all of your resources to their fullest potential. The same thing applies to a style of animation. If the animation director knows the schedule will be tough, then sometimes the prospect of taking someone with less experience can seem daunting.

Historically, I’ve found that it’s a little harder for a visual effects artist to break into character animation then the other way around. I understand why people prefer to hire animators that excel in the style of the show, but I don’t agree with broadly dismissing a group of talented artists because they are missing something on their reel. Bottom line for me, a good animator is a good animator. If they take direction well, work hard and are enjoyable to work with, then any lack of experience will melt away with the help of strong lead or director. I can turn a very realistic Spider-Man shot into a cartoony version just by shifting my curves around. All you need are some quicker transitions and longer moving holds. The good news is that if the artist is motivated at a studio like Sony, they can absolutely break through that.

Guest Blogger Chris Williams

What Specific Shots Show the Most Knowledge of Animation Principles That You’d Want to See in a Demo Reel?

Hi Paul - thanks for writing in!

This is a great question, and one that I think can't be talked about enough.

Your goal with every single shot on your demo reel should be to show as wide a variety of skills and expertise as possible.

Obviously, that isn't possible with every shot. A fight sequence, for example, may not have an opportunity for a lot of deep character introspection and subtle emotion - it might be more about dynamic camera angles, powerful poses, and exciting body mechanics.

However, the goal SHOULD be to show off as much as you can. If it's a fight scene, then you should be showing off all of the above (camera angles/moves, dynamic body mechanics, etc) as well as showing your deep knowledge of all of the basic animation principles as applied to an action shot. We'll want to see anticipation, squash/stretch (maybe even just subtle squashes in the spine or subtle stretches on the punching arm), nice arcs, great weight & balance, etc.

If you're going to do a dialogue shot, please don't fall into the trap that so many students fall into, which is to animate the classic "guy sitting behind the desk or at a table" shot. The acting may be great, but if you do a shot like that, you better have some other terrific body mechanics shots on your demo reel, or you're missing an important opportunity to show off your skills.

Sometimes I'll see a series of really great acting performances on a demo reel, but the characters are always sitting or standing in place. Sadly, the best acting in the world is not going to catch our attention all on its own. Most studios (probably ALL studios) also need to know without any doubt that you also know how to make that character stand up and walk around!

My advice in these situations is to design your acting shots to show off both acting AND body mechanics. If you want to start an acting scene with seated characters, that's fine, but the shot will be far more impressive if you have that character stand up and DO something as part of their performance.

Any time the feet seem nailed to the floor or their butt is glued to the seat, many recruiters just tune out completely because it simply doesn't show whether or not you truly know how to animate.

And I've said it before, but it bears repeating - for the same reasons listed above, please no more 'floating talking heads disconnected from the body!' Again, the nicest lip-sync ever done is not going to impress us if we can't even see the rest of the body.

Good luck!

Shawn :)

The Animation Mentor Student Showcase Summer 2009 Is Here!

Take a look at what students are creating at AnimationMentor.com! This compilation of animated work features students from around the world demonstrating their skills of bringing characters to life.

We're so happy for the success of our students and are proud to see their names in such films as Transformers 2, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Kung Fu Panda as well as many successful video games such as Halo 3 and Uncharted 2.

In this student showcase, you will see how our students work with body mechanics, weight, contrast and acting techniques.

Check it out at:

http://www.animationmentor.com/showcase09/

Let us know what you think!