Lasseter and Jobs on Charlie Rose

Yeah, I know that's a picture of David Copperfield in the preview still, but the first interview in this episode is in fact of John Lasseter and Steve Jobs.

I stumbled upon this video while searching for Toy Story clips. It's a great glimpse back a few years, as it takes place right after the release of the first Toy Story. Lasseter is a young film director, Jobs has not yet returned to Apple for the iPod Age, and Pixar is still a name that people don't really understand. While that sort of nostalgia is fun to watch, what I find the most interesting is how these 3 different characters, Rose, Lasseter, and Jobs, interact with each other. Each one of them comes from a completely different perspective, and hence uses vocabulary that they are comfortable using.

Charlie Rose is the outsider, the journalist, trying to use what he has learned over the years about businesses and computers and apply it to the making of Toy Story. He asks a lot of questions about how the computer makes the process "easier", "faster", "cheaper". Lasseter is the filmmaker trying to explain his craft, using an explanation that makes sense to him, which is that the computer is an expensive pencil. Steve Jobs is the computer business man, once referring to the story/production process as "beta testing" the film before release.

Charlie Rose is in some ways entertainingly ignorant of "computer" animation, and no matter how much Lasseter tries he just can't seem to get the point across that computers didn't make the movie faster, easier, or cheaper. And even though he gets the point that the ideas come from the artists, I don't think he ever quite gets to the point of full understanding that computers are just a new tool and not creators in the process. I found it very interesting how at around 5:20, when Lasseter is trying to explain the differences between 2D and 3D, Rose seems completely lost and almost tunes out as he starts shuffling his papers and looking at his notes, maybe for the next question. In all fairness, how can he understand? To him, a picture is a picture, he doesn't seem to understand the difference between a flat drawing and a virtual 3D environment, he seems to still be stuck in the mindset that somehow the computer can just draw things faster and do them better...somehow...

Steve Jobs is also incredibly interesting to watch, especially if you consider the point at which he is at in his life. I'm not extremely knowledgeable on his business history, but I think the general summary is that at this time he had been fired from Apple, and was working for (or started?) "Next" Computers. This is well before he became one of the top CEO's of the country, well before the iPod and Apple became a status symbol on the streets of SoHo and 5th Avenue, and everywhere else. He seems a little like a broken man, though he tries to hide it, especially when Rose asks him for his thoughts on the fall of Apple. Jobs breaks from his normal catchprases of "We're about (blah blah)" and relevant cultural examples that support his topic, and instead takes a moment to think, and kinda quietly states that the innovation he made at Apple lives on in other forms, even though the Apple Company may not be succeeding, and he might not be a part of it. He seems genuinely proud of that, not in a boasting way, because he has to admit that he failed in other ways. There are many times when he still talks as he does on those Apple Keynote addresses of today, but somehow it's really only the words and his strategies that are similar. I'd have to study it more to see exactly what it is, but he doesn't seem to have the same confidence as he does now when he addresses his theatre of fans waiting with anxiety for him to reveal their new toys. What an interesting comparison between then and now! He's definitely the same person, but his life is changing as he speaks.

Jobs is also interesting to listen to because he seems to be at a point of understanding well past Charlie Rose's (concerning animation), but shares a similar point of view as having been a bit of an outsider to the filmmaking process. Jobs has obviously embraced the filmmaking process, no doubt in part to his view that it will continue to be a success for him, but the way he explains how the product, in business terms, continues to live on (read: is profitable) for decades in contrast to computers that have a very short life span--shows a deeper understanding of the product. He also seems to have an understanding of the inherit value of the creativity of filmmaking. I think that's the paradox of Steve Jobs--he's an incredibly saavy business man and of course his products are results of decisions he thinks will make his business succeed. At the same time, he comes off as someone who understands creativity and innovation. He has a great talent of speaking to both left minded and right minded people, and you've gotta admire his talents.

I was asking myself earlier today why I animate. What is it about animation that draws me to it?
It seems silly to ask that now, but sometimes I wonder. When I look at this, I think I know one reason. I found the juxtaposition of these three guy's distinct personalities very interesting to watch, and I really love analyzing personalities and characters. If you're the same, take a look at the interview. If you have more time, the David Copperfield interview is fun to watch too. He talks a lot about his goals as a performer, and how his inspiration comes from films and stories.

Don Bluth Books

Now, I hope I haven't lost touch with the animation learning material that's out there now, but I'd never even heard of these books by Don Bluth until I went to Barnes & Noble today! Am I crazy? Maybe some (heck maybe I'm the last) of you guys already know about them, but in case you don't or haven't bought them yet, it's worth posting. Seeing that the copyright says 2005, I guess they are relatively recent publications.

Don Bluth's The Art of Animation Drawing and The Art of Storyboard are now a part of my permanent animation library, and as useful and necessary as The Animator's Survival Kit and The Illusion of Life. Books like these don't come along often. More often than not in the animation section of the bookstore you find a giant book that claims to have everything you need to know in one spot, and when you actually look through it you see horribly unappealing characters in Maya screenshots, and pages and pages of information overload. Not so here.

Don Bluth's book reads with the simplicity of Preston Blair's Cartoon Animation, and the personal anecdotes of the Illusion of Life. It takes the complex process and personal feelings of the animator and summarizes them in an easy visual book. Every now and then he adds little bits of advice that have more to do with working on the job than technicalities of animation, and gives a broader picture of what it means to be an animator, an actor. He has stories of his experiences at Disney with Milt Kahl, John Lounsbery, and his own lessons he takes from the lives of Walt Disney and Freddy Moore. He ends the book with an interview of Marc Davis' wife Alice. If you're looking for another Survival Kit, that's not quite what this is, though there is plenty of discussion on analyzing action.

There is no silver bullet to great animation. In fact, even in my few short years of animating, I've figured out that the more I animate, the more I see myself rediscovering what is referred to as "the basics". There is SO much to learn about animation, it is impossible to read a few books, know it all and immediately put it into practice. That's why critique and learning by doing is so important. Don Bluth gives his personal take on the art, acting, storytelling, and job of animation in this book, that I feel is a fantastic blend of the technical and emotional sides of animation (and animators). He covers all the bases, and then some, quickly and easily. After that it's just up to us to practice. And practice. And practice. (And get critique.) And then get the book out again and remind ourselves of what we've forgotten.

**SCAD students will notice a quote by a familiar name on the back of the storyboarding book! Didn't Larry work at Bluth Studios?

Horton on CG Talk

Check out this article (and pretty pictures) about Horton on CG talk!

Horton is here!

Hey everyone! Horton is finally released! I went to see it tonight at a "real" screening, and it was so crazy to see the name on the marquee, posters in the lobby, and random people watching something that, for me, had only existed in a few floors of a Westchester County office building.

It's a strange sensation to have this project suddenly out there in public view, and existing on its own. It's exciting, and regardless of all the stress of the crunch time during production, I feel very lucky to have worked on this film, and am proud of the team I worked with at Blue Sky. The animation team ballooned up to at least 60 people at one point, about half of which were temps and half staff. As I think I described in an earlier post, it was very intimidating to kinda be thrown into the deep end with no feature film experience. But the leads and other animators really stepped up and helped us temps find our feet, and it was amazing to see how far we came in such a short period of time. Nearly all of JoJo's sequence in the observatory was animated by temps, (Unfortunately my shot was cut, but fortunately before I had started animating it ;).

I'm still realizing how much I learned from the experience. I'm blown away by the talent there, and if you go see Horton you'll know why. The animation is so fluid, flexible, polished and just plain fun to watch. The only shame is that many of the animators' crazy stretch frames are now partially hidden by motion blur, but even still, when this comes out on DVD and you frame through this stuff, you'll be amazed.

I'm also blown away by how much visual appeal there is in the characters, and also by how much of that came from how they were animated. When you opened the Mayor's rig, for example, he didn't look like the mayor. He was plain, straight--exactly like a cartoony rig should be, in order to be able to bend him in any way. The animation team, long before the temps showed up, had figured out a way of animating the Mayor's face to give him appealing asymmetrical expressions (often one eye is slightly bigger than the other, the mouth is at an angle, and the skull is curved slightly), as well as how much to round the elbows, wrists and shoulders. Essentially, you had to animate him and bring him "on model" and in character. The downside to having this control, and what makes it so difficult, is that it is extremely easy to animate him "off model", so that he somehow doesn't quite look like what had been established as the Mayor. The difference can be so subtle, but so important!

Anyway, I could keep rambling but it's late and I need some sleep. Go see Horton this weekend! I've actually really enjoyed the film both times that I've seen it, and so far it has received generally positive reviews. My favorite scenes are the Kangaroo/Vlad sequence, and the Angry Mob sequence (at the climax), but there are other parts of the movie that work really well too.
Go see it!

Freelancer's Guide #9: On Hold--Part II: Priorities

There's more to tell about holds, oh yes, there is. If you haven't read the first post about holds, it might be best to go back and refresh your memory.

So, let's pick an alternate story about holds. Say you are talking to Studio-A, and they say "We'd like to put you on first hold for January." They haven't booked you, or given you a start date, they just have you on hold. Then you get a call from Studio-B, who says they'd like to put you on hold for January as well, and want to know your availability. Neither place has said they want to book you, so there is no "challenge" happening. What do you do? If you accept a hold from both places, and both places later call you up to book you for the same time, how is it decided which place gets your services?

The answer lies in what priority that hold has. Studio-A has said they want you on first hold. That means that they have first priority over your services, over any other place for the duration of that hold. So when Studio-B calls and wants you on hold, what you do is tell them you have a first hold (you can decide if you want to tell them it's for Studio-A), but am not booked for anything at this time. You can either tell them you'd be able to agree to a "2nd Hold", or wait for them to ask for a "2nd Hold" when they respond.

A "2nd Hold" does not just mean it's the second one you have. It is the priority which that place has on your services. They have 2nd priority, meaning that if Studio-A (your first hold) wants to book you, Studio-B really has no say in the matter, because they have 2nd priority. So what's the value of a 2nd Hold?

Let's say Studio-A has you on hold for a length of time, but has no work coming in to actually book you for. You're not hearing anything from them either, and the chance of employment is not great. Studio-B on the other hand has work coming in, and wants to book you. Because they have 2nd Hold, that gives them the ability to "challenge" Studio-A's first hold. (If you read the first post on holds, I talked extensively about challenges--if you're confused, just go check it out again). Since Studio-A has no work coming in, they have no choice but to release you from the hold, leaving you free to go work at Studio-B. Alternatively, if Studio-A actually has work and they want to book you, they have the first hold so you work for them. So, no matter if you'd prefer one job over the other, it all comes down to who has priority.

Priorities don't stop with the 2nd hold though. You could have a 3rd Hold, and theoretically even a 4th Hold. So, say your 3rd hold, Studio-C, wants to book you, and neither Studio-A or B has called to book you. Before you can work for Studio-C, you first have to talk to Studio-A and Studio-B because they have priority. If by some chance all 3 studios want to book you, Studio-A wins because they have First Hold, first priority.

Why have all these holds though? I mean, if a place wants to put you on hold doesn't that mean they are going to hire you? Not necessarily. A million things could happen that could keep you from getting booked. The project could fall through at the last second. The studio may have put too many people on hold, the budget may have gotten cut, who knows. Multiple holds, if you're lucky enough to get them, can help you in the event that something falls through. Giving holds priorities is really the only way to be able to handle multiple holds at once.

A couple things to add to this: If you're getting multiple holds from places, this is actually a really good thing because it means that places are busy and you're in demand. On the other hand, if you're struggling to get holds, it could mean any number of things. 1) There's not much work going on in your area at the current time or 2) You need to improve your skills, or networking, or website,etc so that you're more employable. Even if you're doing everything "right", a freelancer's life is a life of faith, because the unemployed times will happen, and there's only so much you can do to promote yourself. No amount of self-promotion or skills will help you if the jobs simply aren't there. Even if the jobs ARE there, it can be easy to get worried that the next one won't come...and the one after that...and the one after that... Just do your best, keep learning and improving, and try to have faith that the unemployment is temporary. Plan for that unemployment time, save up money to get you through it, and if you're in a stable position, try not to freak out. I'm not saying that if you badly need money you shouldn't go find a way to earn some to pay your rent. I'm not saying you shouldn't work hard. Yes, you have to learn and prepare, but patience and faith are as necessary as that demo reel, even when everything is going "right".

My dad is a farmer. Freelancing is kinda like farming. It doesn't matter if you've bought the best seed available, have the richest soil, and the best equipment. When it comes down to it the weather has to be good! And we can't control the weather can we?

Letterman is funny

Check this out starting at about the 3 minute mark, when he talks about Cloverfield (no spoilers). Shout out to Framestore!

Massive Legs from Mass Market

Check out what's on Motionographer! Psyop's sister company Mass Market did the visual effects on this awesome spot. It's only a minute long, but nothing seems rushed or confusing, and there's a great payoff in the end. Good stuff!