Presto up on Itunes
Not that Spline Doctors is a place to pimp anything but animation education, I did wat to say that Presto is available on Itunes. Here is a link. Please address any questions about this short in the comments section and myself or Travis or Mark will try to answer them.
Stay tuned for the Doug Sweetland Spline Cast…
Andrew
Jeremy Collins
Hey SplineDocs-
I’m interested in hearing what it was like working for Doug Sweetland as a director instead of an animation supervisor. Was there an animation sup for the short? Or did all of your notes in dailies come from Doug?
Also, what was the turnaround like for animation on the short. I know you guys typically get quite awhile on your shots to add a lot of polish, but was this a quick production, or was there a lot of time alloted to animation on this short.
Excellent job to all those involved. The time spent crafting this awesome animation really made its way to the screen.
bnicolucci
One big thing that jumps out is just how much motion blur is used. Did you have much control over that as an animator or did you have to plan knowing it would be done afterwards? Were the transitions between poses working before the motion blur? Some of the moves are sooo fast I would think without it, the movements wouldn’t flow right. Makes me think back to some of John K’s posts about the dry brush technique and how careful crafting the smears inbetween helped sell the movement and transitions.
Once again, really fantastic work. Keep raising that bar!
Amanda
“Not available on iTunes outside the US” -_-
You tease!
Chris
Could you post some of the thumbnails, rough animation, and walk-throughs of the shots you each worked on? As a short is so, well, short, how much footage/number of shots do you work on? What did you feel was successful, and what do you feel wasn’t quite up to par?
Thanks! Presto was awesome!
Chris
BTW, loved the ‘Lucky 7 Lounge’ photo in Presto’s dressing room.
Carlos Baena
Hey Jeremy,
Andrew Gordon was the actual Anim Supervisor on this shortfilm.
Amanda, I believe the short will be available once the film comes out theatrically in whichever country you are at. Don’t quote me on this. It’s my guess. And the crew did an amazing job on this shortfilm. Very inspiring stuff for those of us working on Wall-E. Really nice to be working currently with Andrew.
C.
Adam Strick
Really amazing stuff on this guys! I’m curious about any possible tests that you guys tried and felt didn’t quite work in cg, if any? Essentially things that you found just couldn’t work a certain way and maybe ways you found to get around certain obstacles, such as the stiffness in a character and how long they stayed that way. Did you work to any music for the timing throughout, was it planned fairly tight in the boards, or how much was that left open to the animator?
Again, just awesome stuff! Can’t wait to hear more about it.
Thanks!
Vince Gorman
I’d like to echo Chris’s request: “Could you post some of the thumbnails, rough animation, and walk-throughs of the shots you each worked on?”
I would love to see your thoughts and drawings on paper.
Great short film and great feature, too!
Stephen Gregory
Wow, you guys sure ask for a lot. Please be aware that Thumbnails, Rough animation, and the like isn’t always the property of the animator but the property of the studio at which it was created. So it could be difficult to publish such items.
But hey, it would be cool.
the long lost
-Dr. Stephen G.
Chris
Sorry! Didn’t mean to come across as demanding; the short just got me fired up.
I’ve seen some other animators post thumbnails and such, though I don’t know whether permission was granted or forgiveness asked for.
Thanks for everything you’re doing and will do!
BTW, can you put in a good word to include ‘meaty’ extras (like Incredibles and Monster’s Inc have)? Docs, commentaries and galleries are fascinating, but apparently, some marketing firm reported hardly anyone watches them, so that was why Cars and Rat had such mediocre extra features, so ’save money’.
Daniel Huertas
Man… this is my favorite Pixar short.. any information on inspiration, reference, style… would be very very helpful..
i would love to ask so many questions when i get the chance to scrub frame by frame through it…but i have to wait until it is available for Canada
.. do you guys know when would it be? where can i sign up for a “heads up”? thank youuu 
.. I saw presto three times already on the theatre and i remember seeing some crazy moving holds, great snappy timing and “isolated” parts of the body… in “normal CG” that would have looked wrong.. but it didn’t! .. I would really like to know how did you guys pulled this off?? how to break the “pose to pose” feeling? 2D stretchy settles..? probably a sort of “advanced” anticipation in the story that gets you so into it that anything could work? .. so many things that made this short an inspiration and even more respect to the Pixar’s work..
Congratulations again and again!
Greg Lewis
Wow, Pure inspiration!
I never heard anyone laugh like that! (i wish i had a recorder)
I loved the bit when he sets down the carrot on the stool before covering with the handkercheif. The body language there was perfect!
Paul
I just saw it in theaters, then downloaded it on iTunes :). Awesome short. I’m also extremely excited about the Doug Sweetland Spline Cast. listening to those spline casts has been amazing. I’ve learned so so so so much. So much.
Josh
I couldn’t wait for it to come out here in Australia so I had a friend in the US buy me a $15 gift card and redeemed it on the US iTunes site. I was then able to buy both Presto and the Goofy “How to” short.
I laughed so hard during the first viewing of Presto, and even on repeated viewings, there are so many moments I chuckle. I’m now going back through it frame by frame and it’s so cool seeing how you guys were moving things, anticipations, overlap, freeze frames, it’s all so beautiful!
Victor Luo
Hi, Andrew, What a pity that I heard that Wall-E is probably will not be imported into China market, because noboby saw it on the upcoming movie list on those cinemas’ web sites. Since Nemo, this is the first time that Pixar’s movie not on screen of mainland of China, if that is true, I don’t know why and if it is relative to the Olympics. I saw the Presto 30 second clip and it is AWESOME! Can’t wait to see it! I even tried to buy it on the iTunes but failed, for China is not on the Apple’s iTunes available list, which is another pity. If it is not played on the screen, I can only wait for the DVD releasing. That’ll be such a llooong time for me!
Wes Riojas - new AM student
WOW! I bought Presto last night. It’s amazing! My mother-n-law never laughs at anything. She cried laughing the whole way through.
Thanks guys for all your teaching. I was just accepted into the Animation Mentor program and I can’t wait to get started! I’ve wanted to become an animator my whole life. It’s my goal to put 100% + into my animation studies so that I might be good enough one day to work in the same building with you guys.
I’ve already started journaling ideas for my short film because from what I’m learning, I’ll need all the time I can get to make the great.
You guys rock.
Sant
Wall E got released yesterday in Mexico, congrats for all the hard work, it showed in the film, I loved it!!!
One of the best films of the year!
Also, Presto was amazing!!! Man, I can’t wait to see both again! My girlfriend and me took our little brothers and we all had a blast!
I love the effect of Pixar shortfilms, same studio, completely different stories and styles.
Again, congratulations,
Sant
mattymatt
Hey, thanks for volunteering to answer questions — that’s really awesome. I have two, if you wouldn’t mind:
How on Earth did you develop the mouth movements for the “ahem”? It’s just one word and only about one second long, but there’s so much business going on with his lips and tongue.
And is that Statler and Waldorf in the balcony at about 2:38?
Tom W
Just seen it. Was very impressive. Well done guys!
What would be your work flow for any of scenes in the film? I would have no idea how to take on such complex animation. Would you block it out in linear or….?
Thanks and congrats again!
Tom
Ray Pena
I saw it in the theater and downloaded it first chance I got also. Of course, I framed through the entire short just to study as much as I could. Very well done! I think that the motion blur serves it’s purpose fairly well, but like Brad Bird always says, it’s so linear. It does the beautiful animation little justice becuase you can’t get the great arcs that you guys include in the shots. But when everything is moving so quickly it’s not so distracting.
Once again, amazing work!
Larry_g1s
This short was very very funny. It seemed very different to previous Pixar shorts, almost a Warner Bros. slap stick feel, but much funnier. Great job!
Dr. Hathaway
Yeah I’ve been framing through it lately too and that linear motion blur is a killer. It’s becoming more and more noticeable to me throughout our films…bummer. =/
Mauricio
WALL-E: Wonderful film. The technicalities are all solid. I was holding my breathe for the next Pixar film. Now I’m breathing easy. What was inspiring was the story, for me, above all. No shying away from the politics in the “given circumstances”, but enough character to entertain as well, not just lecture. Nice balance.
Presto had me rolling! The way you guys kept turning it up, I couldn’t anticipate it! Ah, breath of fresh air. I really loved the audience reactions, it was the icing on the cake. Wonderful work.
Elliott
Yeah i’ve watched Presto five times now here on my laptop!!!! I laugh everytime!!!i framed by framed some of it and i know i might sound like a hardcore animation geek or whatever but my favorite and most eye opening part was when he flips his hat over to show the audience its emptiness….It was 10 frames!!!! 10 frames!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!!!for such a broad movement that blew me away!!!! Wow!!!ok guys i’ve gotta go im getting emotional!!!!
Elliott
Nico
Just… thx to the all Pixar crew…
Presto stole the show and the movie for me. I laugh so hard…
Wall E is fantastic; I was just not into it unfortunately…
Marketing guys should learn to make trailers and stop showing so much and ruining movies like that… Anyway, I know I’ll be alone on that,. Fantastic amazing work and thx again to make so many people dream during few hours…
In Wall E, Can I found somewhere the explanation on the weird choice of Real Human footage for the Past?
For Presto, How close is the final movie from the initial storyboard.
Take care and thx for this great blog too.
Marybeth
Really great short. I loved how snappy it was. One thing I did notice was that the top hat was invisible in the mirror just after Presto removed it from the drawer. Was this intentional?