Coming Soon
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am planning on doing a few splinecasts with UP director Pete Docter, co director Bob Peterson and Production Designer Ricky Nierva. I hope to get them recorded, edited and on the site within a month. Please post your questions and I will pick some good ones for the interview.
-Andrew
Benoit Doidic
As Pixar grows in size, how do you avoid becoming Disney? How will you ensure talent can always rise to the top?
Nate Lane
Ricky – What was stopping you from hooking up with Pixar the first 2 times they asked you?
All – What is your ideal lunch?
A.J. Cooper
For Bob – Is there any advice you can offer specifically to writers aspiring to work at Pixar? What would be the best way to go about becoming a writer at Pixar?
Thanks in advance for doing these interviews. You guys are awesome.
Nate Moody
What qualities are looked for at Pixar for animators? What would be the most valued one?
How do you maintain originality in storytelling?
What makes a story “Pixar worthy”?
For those who aren’t fortunate enough to be able to get to CalArts for whatever reason, what part of that experience should students try to generate at their own colleges? What would be your advice for students aiming at the big leagues who may not be able to afford the bigger schools?
What are your takes on the 3D push? Where is the industry headed?
—-
Thanks for doing these interviews! They’ve been extremely inspirational to me and my peers in our studies.
Ivan Gozali
Thomas Edison said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
If you don’t even have 1% to begin with, can you grow “talent” by improving your skills?
Russell Wilkins
Thanks Spline Doctors for the fantastic interviews!
For Bob – How do you get yourself into story creation mode? Any particular tips or tricks?
For Pete – What is your process when working with a story team? Do you work one-on-one with the head of story or do you work with the entire story crew?
For Ricky – What is the most in-demand quality for artists who want to break into visual development? And is understanding the 3d pipeline essential or unnecessary for a Production Designer?
Rowan Tallant
Question One:
From your experience, how does the scalability of production work when going from a short film to a full feature?
Is it simply a case of numbers? More people, more setups, more time? Or is there something else involved?
Question Two:
Have you ever considered producing an animated film that isn’t specifically aimed at younger people? (maybe under a different brand?)
Many thanks
Rowan, UK
Jonah Sidhom
I don’t have a question of my own, but I just wanted to say that I’d like to hear the answer to Nate Moody’s question, if that’s the kind of interview you’re doing:
“For those who aren’t fortunate enough to be able to get to CalArts for whatever reason, what part of that experience should students try to generate at their own colleges? What would be your advice for students aiming at the big leagues who may not be able to afford the bigger schools?”
Rob Somers
Awesome choices for SplineCast! I’ve been itching for a new podcast for a long time now, and Bob, Pete, and Ricky are some of the best choices I could hope for. And another animation round table is ALWAYS welcome as far as I’m concerned
Pete Doctor — What did you do differently when directing Up? What lessons did you take from Monster’s Inc and how did you apply them to Up?
Bob Peterson — As a story artist, do you anticipate animators deviating a great deal from your boards? Are there times when you rough-in a section with the idea that the animator will know what to do, or do you always get very specific with the acting and expect the animator to hook up to your ideas as much as possible?
Ricky Nierva — What is your life on the progression of a movie like? Do you focus most or all of your time in the early phases of production, and then move on to another feature? Or do you stay on a show from start to finish?
Kelly Perez
Pete Docter: How did you transition professionally from animator to story to directing? Did you just quit animating and start writing, pitching ideas? Do you still work on animation while you direct? If not, do you miss animating?
Thanks.
Rob Somers
Also, one more for Pete Doctor:
You said once that you animated the final shot in Monsters Inc. Are there any shots in Up that you personally animated as well? If so, which ones?
Patrick Semple
As the quailty of animation is progressing so fast in pixar and the character movements are getting more and more polished do you guys feel that they are looseing somthing. Like with claymation there is the imprefect arcs and spaceing but an audience still loves it and with hand drawn animation there is a boil in the line, basically what i’m trying to say is do you guys ever feel that 3d characters move to perfectly and that maybe some inperfection in the movement is needed.
Anirudh
thats awesome to hear ! its been a while since splinecast was updated and what better way to get back than have the UP people in it.
Question –
1. As artists how they keep themselves inspired and motivated and not hit burn out/creative blocks day after day.
2. As a student I am constantly learning thru books/workshops/seminars/blogs, etc, so what do they do to keep on being a student for life ?
3. A bit about their little time(considering the ton of work at PIXAR which keeps them busy) outside work. What kind of recreational/let go things they do to have a life outside work and to get energized after a long day of work.
Thanks!
vince gorman
To all of the interviewee’s:
-What about Pixar would you like to change?
-What kinds of stories would you like to tell (or styles you would like to work in), but haven’t had the opportunity at Pixar?
-Will Pixar ever tackle anything outside of 3D animated film, like TV or games or traditionally animated films?
A.J. Cooper
A question for Pete: Is there a certain actor or actress whose voice you’ve always wanted to use for a character in a film but haven’t yet had the chance? If so, who is it?
Will
Not sure which direction you guys are aiming to take the interview in, so I’ll try to vary my questions (in terms of specificity- general advice, personal questions, Up related, etc.) to provide for whichever direction you may go.
First, I have just a basic question regarding storytelling. When looking at scenes that do not necessarily further the plot, where do you draw the line between valuable character development or a funny gag and filler to maintain both an entertaining and well-paced film?
The next two questions are more Up related and I guess the second one could end up straying a bit into spoiler territory.
I was looking through the Art of Up book and noticed the Fun Bunch, a group of Shady Oaks residents not present in the final film. What is the story behind them? Why were they introduced to the story and what lead you to cut their part?
Second, I really loved the character arcs for Carl and Russell in Up. One character who I was curious about, though, was Muntz. I felt he didn’t get quite as satisfying a conclusion and his development did not feel as, well, developed as the aforementioned two. Then, however, I read a passage concerning him in the Art of Up book that helped to clear things up. It basically described him as a foil for Carl- is that how Muntz was viewed in conception? As more of a device for showing Carl the error of his ways and less a character in his own right? I know Russell was developed to further Carl’s character arc, so I was just wondering if the same was true here.
Lastly, I have a bit of a personal question, similar to Ivan’s above. I’m a 21 year old computer science major entering his senior year in college with absolutely no previous experience in terms of art. The family and town I grew up with always considered film making an incredibly impractical and foolish goal to pursue, so I ended up taking a more conservative route when it came time to go to school. Now, I consider myself fairly intelligent, creative, and hardworking- would it even be possible for me to attempt to learn how to animate and break into the industry this late in the game?
Thanks, as always, to the Spline Doctors for the numerous resources they continue to provide and to the Up crew for their time. I loved the film and I can’t wait to see what you guys do next.
Jason Chee
For Pete Docter -
Did the live-action movie “Into The Wild” help inspire your character direction for UP in any way or form?
Secondly.
My friends and I discussed how we thought Carl Frederickson reminded us of the much beloved Martin Crane from Frasier. Did you lend an eye on his unique persona in anyway when creating Carl?
Jeremy Hopkins
This question can be tied in with some of the others but for Pete I was curious if his short film ‘Next Door’ provided inspiration for the relationship between Carl & Russell as well as the starting point for their designs.
Larry Vasquez
No question (maybe after I see the movie soon), just a big thanks to Andrew and the rest of the Spline Dr. on the interviews the one’s with Pete, Bob, & Ricky.
Corey
Sweet! Thanks for the free podcasts. They have been extraordinary.
David Humphreys
Thanks for doing these interviews Andrew they are superb, and unsurprisingly so was UP
congrats to all the worked on it.
A kinda open question this one:
How do you go about creating and utilizing reincorporation in scenes throughout the movie? i.e the chairs in the living room with Ellie on and also later Russell’s belt signifying his new adventure? is this a natural organic process as you go along or do these things get added in like layers later on in the process? do you find it hard to do these things so that they are part of a coherent whole? how important is it to you as a director that you make the animators are aware of these more symbolic/representative things?
I hope i interpreted some bits of the film as intended otherwise it might make my question a little odd eh
looking forward to the podcast.
Dave.
Thomas Yu
I dont have a question. Just wanted to say thanks to you guys for doing this!! Cant wait to hear the splinecasts! =D
alonso
Thanks a lot for everything you do with the spline doctors website. You may have already done the interviews, but if not here’s some more questions:
How do you trust your vision for the years it takes to make a film, how do you not 2nd guess yourself all the time, how do you look at it fresh when you’ve been living with it for so long?
How do you make humor integral to what’s happening, without it derailing or undermining the story or becoming campy?
What bad ideas or bad approaches did you have to overcome in order to learn to tell top notch professional stories? (or to put it another way, what aspects of your student films makes you shudder?)
thanks
Mikaela
For Ricky Nierva — how much of the art used in production design is created digitally? How does the digital art compare with the art done in traditional media? What do you think the computer adds to the visual arts, and what qualities of traditional media are lost when you make digital artwork?
For Bob Peterson — it seems a large part of story development is done in groups, but then other ideas are thought up by individuals and then pitched to the rest of the story artists. Is there a particular stage in the development of a story where most ideas are discovered in groups, or most ideas are thought up separately?
Theresa
For Pete Docter -
Having a flying house is just another way Pixar had broken the mold. One scene in particular that stood out to me in “Up” was when the house sailed right into a giant storm. What were some of the challenges in getting the house, the characters and all the furniture inside the house to look realistic as they crashed and slid around as it spun out of control?
Thanks a lot!
– Theresa
warren
For Pete Doctor –
What happened in your life that brought forth the kernel idea for UP? Why did the story choose you, do you think? What was your very first draft about?
For Pete & Bob Peterson –
How quickly did you get it wrong (the sooner the better, right)?
At what point did the Muntz/Snipe byline become necessary to tie up the story? Did it ever feel like too much of the story was centered around Carl’s internal conflict? What other options were boarded until you hit on Muntz in South America as the answer? Where did he come from?
Which came first, the dog pack or Dug? At what point did Dug become more of a central character?
For Ricky Nierva –
Could you outline the process of designing the dog pack and Dug? They seemed to vary in caricature in a way I can’t quite put my finger on.
How did the new ‘camera lenses’ perfected for Wall-E affect your design process?
You’ve all made a beautiful film that will outlive you all as a classic, one for the vaults. Congratulations!
Theresa
Pete -
I’ve noticed that the last two Pixar films start off with a sequence having little to no dialogue – relaying purely on acting alone. Because this style was used in Wall-e (and now in UP) and was such a success, do you think we should be seeing this more in up-comping Pixar films as sort of a trademark approach to storytelling? Also, what are some of the limitations working this way? Do you think it’s during these movements that you truly discover who your character is?
Vince T
What questions do you get most often that you have no answer to?
What are the best movies to watch with the sound off?
What are biggest misconceptions amongst animators/artists?
Do you ever receive fan mail and if so do you receive so much you can’t get back to all of it?
jim
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/whats-up-balloon-to-the-rescue.html
Santiago Arellano
Hey Andrew,
Here are my questions I hope I’m not late, they released the film in Mexico a week later:
This film had two things I’ve always wanted to see animated/animate an exotic bird and a retriever, and I loved the direction on both, but I specially liked Kevin since he’s probably the biggest bird alive and he’s mythical and exotic, could you guys talk about the conception of Kevin? Where did you draw inspiration to create him, and how did you decide this was going to be the creature Charles Muntz would be after? And also, some of the decisions involved in his animation, birds arent as expressive as dogs because birds have hard beaks, so they can’t smile and their eyes are fixed in one single direction, how did you worked around those limitations so that the character would express emotions, but still look and feel like a real bird?
Question 2
This question is in regards of the blood! I think the use of blood was excellent, you used it in two key moments and it never was gratuitous it serves the story, but at the same time the use of blood was pushed, when the construction worker rubs his forehead and the blood spreads it looks serious and disturbing, what was your process to reach this decision? Have some enraged parents come up to you complaining about the blood? I think it’s useless to hide those things away from kids.
Question 3
This is kind of a curiosity question, when the planes are attacking the house, why did you used darts instead of bullets, my thought was that those airplanes were created to capture Kevin, but still, I thought the sense of danger was somewhat diminished, was that to light contrast the fight between Carl and Muntz?
I absolutely loved the film and I’m eager to find out what you guys do next! (Any hints on that?
)
Thanks!
Sant
Mayur Ahirrao
Special Thanks spline Doctors for such a great Podcast .
My Question is to Pete :-
If you ask to start over again as a fresher student of Animation….
What are the things you will try to do or improve so as to get a chance to work with best company’s in Animation Industry .
We all know the quality of animation of pixar is very high and unique so what exactly is the key that makes pixar animators so much unique ??
I remember Brad once saying that “As an Animator try to incorporate other art form with animation like music or caricature etc ” can you elaborate more about this .
Thanks
alonso
Probably too late, but ….
Every scene should advance the film in some way, plot character or theme. How do you separate the pacing out from the advancement? With fast pacing it’s easy to feel like you’re advancing but you may just have a lot of flash, with slow pacing it may feel like your dragging but your not. Slow seems even harder to do right because less stuff is going on to feel like your doing something.
examples
slow: Lady and the Tramp falling in love over meatballs, nothing happens fast but it needs that time, how do you know how much time to give it?
fast: Indiana Jones Lost Arc fight over the airplane, they jump on the plane, fight over the plane, and leave the plane in basically the same state as they started (http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2008/05/three-mini-indy-posts.html final 4 paragraphs)
dave goliszek
I’m super excited about this podcast, I loved UP!! I don’t know if anyone has asked this yet or not, but was the character design of Carl base off of the character in Pete’s short film Next Door? They have a very symillar look and demeaner to them.
jamie parreno
Can’t wait for this podcast to be up on the site. Thank you so much for the podcasts, Doctors. Rx
Ben Hernandez
Hey guys, I don’t get listen to you as often as I want as I don’t have an Ipod to play the weird format you guys use.
I do have one Suzie Q for you:
How the heck do I, as a post grad with student loans, push though through art school?
I see my brother (then 16) struggling through his assignments at the local junior college and he doesn’t have to worry about making ends meat. Here am I, Communications major graduating next spring. My parents understand my desire to take my degree to the next level, but I have no desire to lay on them another two years at an art school! I hear some studios will take willing people from other branches of its operations and train them as artists, but with unrealistic goal and ambitions I fell that jumping off cliffs are a more productive use of my time.
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