Hey guys I found this interview with the amazing Jeff Pidgeon on-line today. Everyone should check it out. Jeff has been at PIXAR forever and he is in my opinion one of the most influential artists of PIXAR’s earlier films, Toy Story,Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, etc. Worth a listen.
–Dr. Stephen G.
We’re all familiar with this concept from having to do “heavy object lift” tests and the good ol’ “ball bounce” but what weight and balance really do for your poses is give them a sense of “believability”. One of the gifts we have in animation is the boarderless playground of our imagination to create whatever characters and worlds we can dream up. However, in order to get our audience to believe in the products of our imagination we have to give them credibility. No matter how caricatured you are working, weight and balance should always come into play or there will be something about your work that will look odd, wrong, or worse yet….unbelievable.
Take a look at this pose from Frank Thomas of the woman and Merlin squirrels from “Sword in the Stone”.
The female squirrel has a great sense of weight (and I’m not talking about her size). Her sense of being off balance is reinforced by the Merlin squirrel leaning in opposition against her. You can see by the use of straights and angles in the arms the tension and strain of Merlin trying to hold up the other squirrel.
Last year I had taken my family to see a performance of chinese acrobats. Beyond the amazing and entertaing feats of physical discipline, I was fascinated by studying how they carried their weight. No matter how fantastic the pose, the heads of the performers (unless balanced by a wider stance) was always in a direct plumb over the weight bearing foot. This idea of weight and balance should also apply to the physics of your animation as well as your poses. Keep Sir Isaac’s laws in the back of your brain when posing and working on the physics of your movement. You can have a character with 8 legs walking on a planet made of spounge cake, but does it have a believable presence in the space it’s occupying? That’s where wieght and balance help the audience connect with your work.
Law and logic clearly prove to me that a coyote cannot ski down a hill with a refrigerator on it’s back. However, if you show me an entertaining and believable pose….you can probably talk me into it.
-Adam
Finally, The Pete Docter Spline Cast is up on Itunes. I’ll be tweaking it a bit, but the interview is done and hopefully the audio is ok. We did it with a special microphone at Pixar.
Enjoy!
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Download the Spline Cast
Interested in tutoring? I’m going to be taking a few students in November for more info click here.
Its the new semester and a lot of folks have been inquiring about where they can take classes that the Spline Doctors teach at. Originally, when this blog was started, all the teachers were at the Academy or Art University in San Francisco. It was myself, Angus, Mike, Scott Clark and Stephen Gregory. Alot of us are doing different things. Angus is not teaching right now, Mike is also taking a break, as is Stephen Gregory. At the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, here are the guys teaching the 4 animation classes that are within the “pixar” track, which is not really supposed to be called the pixar track. Pixar animators just happen to teach there.
Level one: Matt Majers and Michal Makerawictz (Matt is great animator who attended Cal-Arts and Michal is one of my former students that has been at Pixar for 4 or 5 years now.
Level one (class two) Andy Beall and Travis Hathaway. Andy and I went to school together. He worked at Warner Bros (iron Giant etc) and has headed up the animation fix team. He is a great teacher with alot of passion and knowledge. Travis is a Cal Arts grad who has been at Pixar since days of Finding Nemo. He is an amazing animator and a great teacher. We taught the summer interns this year.
Level Two Animation: Adam Burke and Mike Wu
Adam is an animation veteran of just about every major studio (Bluth, Warners, etc) and came on during the Incredibles. He brings a wealth of knowledge and a back east attitude. Mike is a 10 year Disney vet who also came on during the Incredibles. He is an awesome teacher and both guys can draw like mo-fo’s.
Level Three Animation: Scott Clark and Mark Walsh
Scott was a Supervising Animator on Cars and is Supervising on Pete Docters new film. Mark Walsh is a 10 year Veteran who was a directing animator on Finding Nemo and a Supervising Animator on Rat. Both guys will be working on the third installment of the Virgin Voyage group project, which is as close as you get to doing feature quality work in a school environment. Students are also going to be doing individual projects.
I am taking a semester off from the level 3 class to help start the Animation Program at the California College of Art (CCA). We are gathering some really good people to get the program going and we hope it will be different from other Animation Schools. Hopefully, Mark Andrew’s will be coming to teach Story come spring. I am really gonna miss teaching with the guys. It was a great run and most of all, I’ll miss the booze afterward and of course, the students.
As for Stephen Gregory, he is currently taking a break and is seeking individuals to mentor. (I think…) You will have to confirm with him… He is an amazing teacher and I would sign up if I was a student.
Former Spline Doc and veteran Pixar animator Billy Merrit is teaching at Ringling in Florida when he is not enjoying a cigar or fishing.
Good Luck to all the students this semester and keep your eyes peeled for more Spline Casts, Roundtables and posts during the year.
-Andrew
