Celebrating Toy Story

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Pixar classic, Toy Story, which shows what happens to a young boy's toys when no-one is watching. Besides being a classic, Toy Story is also duly noted for it's animation, being the first entirely computer-generated animated feature. The film-technique changed the face of animation and took off like wild-fire; since it's release, there have been more than 250 computer-animated features released since 1995.


It was an amazing feat to pull-off, and took a lot of time and hard work and effort. Catmull, the executive producer of Toy Story and the creator of the digital-animation program that made the film possible said "There was a deep understanding right to begin with this was not about technology." Catmull knew that the technology was important, but he wanted the main focus on the story, as he stated "We succeeded because we hadn't made it about technology. We made it about the story, which is what our goal had been."


Another reason for Toy Story's success was because of the producers' awareness and dedication to making the movie enjoyable for adults. They wanted both adults and kids to love the movie, so they decided to make the toys adults themselves. The plan worked perfectly, as it has captured both target audiences and has been loved by many people of all different ages.


To celebrate the big two-zero, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is having Oscar winners John Lassester (DInsey-Pixar CCO) and Ed Catmull (Disney-Pixar president) participate in a live panel discussion tonight at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The creative duo will share behind-the-scenes stories about the challenges they faced when worked on Toy Story.

Toy Story 4

I know I'm pretty late to this, but I recently discovered that they are making a fourth Toy Story movie. It is slated to come out on June 16, 2017 and still retain Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz Lightyear. The first Toy Story movie is probably my favorite childhood movie of all time, which brings back crazy feelings of nostalgia whenever it happens to be on TV. As a child, one of my favorite things about the movie was the animation and graphics. For whatever reason I always loved the way the characters interacted with each other. It seemed so seamless and realistic; most of the time it felt like I was watching a live-action movie. Anyway, I'm super pumped for this next iteration in the Toy Story franchise. Pixar films will always hold a special place in my heart, as I grew up watching many of the classics.

Walt Disney Pictures Animation

The start to every adventure began with a blue sparkling tower with a shimmering shooting star. I'm not talking about bedtime dreaming. Some times the adventures would begin at the crack of dawn (5:30AM), but that would never stop me. Whether it were Toy Story, Tarzan, Atlantis, or The Lion King, the Walt Disney Logo led the way. It's amazing to think that while the logo has changed so much in the last 20 years (with advancements in motion graphics and animation), the stories have continued to excite individuals of all age groups. It's also interesting to note that while recreating the current logo is almost impossible for a college student to complete, the iconic original Walt Disney logo is definitely an achievable task. However, today we have millions of tools in After Effects, Maya, etc. Back in the 1940's, when the original logo was produced, none of these programs existed. While it may be a pretty long video, the evolution of the Walt Disney logo, shortening of the on-screen textual elements, and the specifically tailored movie opens are not only inventive but accurate set the mood of the story before the film's very first scene. I hope you enjoy the magic of Walt Disney.

Pixar Easter Eggs

I'm sure that this has been mentioned somewhere on the blog before. Who doesn't love to find easter eggs in movies? Pixar has gotten into the habit of leaving hidden goodies in their films, to the point where I found a 10 minute long video of a collective list of them.

Like I said in my last post, I love when the extra effort is put in for viewers to explore and connect the different movies. I didn't realize how many of them that there actually were until I watched this video. Some of them may even be a bit far fetched (or very far fetched) but that's the fun of it. It also makes me want to go back and watch older films such as A Bug's Life. After just having watched Finding Nemo in another earlier class today, I definitely want to refresh my memory with all of the magic that Pixar has created over the years.

Intro

Hello! My name is James Sussan. I'm a senior TVR major. Looking forward to working with you all this semester.

I've always been fascinated by animation. It's a ludicrous amount of work to produce, with a high level of skill involved, but the result could be something absolutely glorious every time. Not only that, but the possibilities and creative boundaries of an animated project are nearly limitless. As evidenced time and time again by film studios such as Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks, a fully realized animated film can leave an impression that lasts a lifetime, whether a feature-length project or a quirky short.

In our first couple classes, we've started learning the basics of animating in After Effects. Essentially, I now know how to create a shape, and make it do certain pre-programmed actions using code. The idea that a person can start with something as simple as a few shapes and a few codes, and end up with something as heart-warming as "Toy Story", or "Up", is something that truly excites me for this class. Not that I am expecting to create a full, professional, animated film anytime soon. However I'm sure my experiences in this class will be a lot of fun and will help me appreciate the art of Motion Graphics and Animation to the fullest.

An animated movie I saw recently that really surprised me was "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". I never saw this movie when it came out, because I honestly assumed it would be stupid and unfunny. The children's book it was based on never seemed like the type of thing to be translated into a successful film. A friend showed it to me a couple months ago though, and now its up there with some of the best animated movies I've ever seen. It's creative, hilarious, and yes, at times heartwarming. It's nothing at all like the children's book it's based on, which is a great thing because this allowed the movie to create original characters that helped push the raining food concept into a cohesive story.

Luckily for me, there's a few behind the scenes videos for "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" on YouTube. One of my favorite scenes from the movie is the Jell-O Palace Flint creates for Sam. I think this is pretty much everyone's dream:

I always liked watching these types of videos, where the animation gets broken down step by step. I'm sure they'll mean a lot more to me however by the time the semester is over.

These videos already make the amount of work put into animation look really scary. Despite that, I can't say I'm not eager to try my hand at it. Hopefully I can make something one day anywhere close to as cool as these movies. 

All My Favorites!

Because all of my post have been amazing I really just wanted to go out with a bang. So I figured I would share my top five favorite animation stuff. These can range from movies to clips. Lets get ready to rumble!!

5

Paperman (styled as paperman) is a 2012 black-and-white 3D hand-drawn/computer animatedromantic comedy short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and directed by John Kahrs. The short blends traditional animation and computer animation. 

4

Wreck-It Ralph is a 2012 American computer-animated family-comedy film[4] produced byWalt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.[5] It is the 52nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

3

Up is a 2009 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. By tying thousands of balloons to his home, 78-year-old Carl sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America and to complete a promise made to his lifelong love. 

2

Tangled is a 2010 American computer animated musical fantasy-comedy film produced byWalt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on theGerman fairy tale "Rapunzel" in the collection of folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm, it is the 50th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

1

I honestly could not pick which of the Toy Story movies I liked best so I picked all of them! Toy Story is a CGI animated film series and Disney media franchise that began with the original 1995 film, Toy Story, produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The franchise focuses on a group of toys that secretly come to life and end up unexpectedly embarking on life-changing adventures.

Again With The Rendering

So in class we were discussing about how much time it would take to render an animated film with one machine and the class had come up with a website that showed just that. It lists the Pixar movies from Toy Story all the way up to Brave. Now This website I especially find cool because my last post was about render farms and without them some of these films would take months or even years to finish rendering.

All this time I realized I haven't even put the website in. Well if you want to check it out just click ME.

Anyway, going through some of these films, the first one most definitely catches my eye: Toy Story. Made in 1995 by Pixar. One of the first, if not the first Pixar animated film. This film was the turn of the "Animated Revolution." Looking at the Toy Story section though, it says that the total number of frames was 114,240. Now let me put this in perspective for you. If you were going to do the math: Figure it would take about 7 hours (on average) to do one frame. That would mean it would take one machine to do 685,440 hours. Let us break that down a little more: 28,560 days, 4,080 weeks, or 78 and a half years. So clearly when they used the 800,000 machines to render it out, I think they made the right decision.

Clearly Woody up above has the right idea. Sorry Buzz, It would take an infinity to render all of Pixar's animated films with one machine.

It is amazing what you can do with animation. It is just absolutely insane, whatever thoughts or images that you have floating around in your head are able to become reality because of animation. After thinking about animation I then became interested in the different ways that animations can be made, really the different types of animation. I found many different but enticing animation styles, but my favorite has to be 3D animation. 3D animation is used quite extensively today especially within Disney. I believe my fascination with 3D animation really began with Toy Story. 

The 3D aspect of the animation made the movie more realistic for my as a child and really even now. Being about three years old when I first watched the movie I actually thought that my toys actually came alive and to be honest I still believe that a little now. 

There is so much work that goes into creating a 3d animation, definitely a lot more than I thought! It requires people acting out the movements to make sure the movement they are animating are truly realistic, as well as sounds, and so much more.

Here is a video that showed how Toy Story was made.

Brad Bird on Directing

Lately I have focused my attention to the job market for after my departure from school. Past classes in the Park School have required me to Produce, Direct, Edit, and Film short films. Taking this class has made me investigate the roles of Producers and Directors for animated projects. Although its still a movie, the direction and leadership required of some of these roles is quite different when working completely digitally. I found this cool video of Brad Bird a director at Pixar. His work includes Brave, Toy Story 3, and UP. He also has past work on the Simpsons. Its pretty interesting to hear about his management style and he has some good advice for future professionals.

Check out this clip (embedding is not allowed): Pixar

His IMDB can also be seen Here

Toy Story - Live Action

Toy story has become a classic movie of our generation with its cutting edge graphics and editing techniques to tell a story. Two fans Jonason Pauley (19) and Jesse Perotta (21) wanted to visit the facility where it was all created. Unfortunately for them Pixar does not let any visitors in unless they have done something fantastic. So armed with $1000 and 150 friends they created a shot for shot live action remake of the entire movie. The result is quite spectacular and the effort that must have been put forth is immense. What I find to be interesting is seeing this story told without animation. The characters are literally less animated with no facial expressions or fluid movement. This makes the scenes less believable and its harder to connect with the characters. That aside it is a very cool project and definitely worth a look. 

Aside: They learned yesterday they get to tour pixar.

Toy Story:The First Feature Length Computer Animated Movie

The Toy Story franchise has always been very close to my heart. I was roughly the same age as the boy in the story (Andy) when each of the three movies came out, and the idea that my toys were alive was kind of really cool when I saw the first one (I was like 5 or 6 at the time) Part of the reason I loved these movies so much was because of how great the animation is. The toys all have different textures (Rex the dinosaur is scaly, Woody is sewn together, Buzz is plastic) and those textures show really well in all of the scenes. Sometimes the toys act like they aren't alive and the fall realistically (Woody's arms hang while Buzz's are stiff) The amount of detail and thought that had to go into every scene, movement, and action of each toy is amazing. I really do think that Toy Story helped shape my imagination, and I would be very interested in learning how it was made.

From the video I posted, I learned that they had to build their own animating programs, and that it took them at least 6 years from start to finish to make the first Toy Story movie. I also realized how far we have come in computer animation in the past 15 years.

Pixar Animation

Whenever I think of animation, the first company that comes to mind is Pixar Animation Studios. Movies like Toy Story and Bug's Life are intertwined in my childhood memories. Not too long ago when I was on stumbleupon.com I ended up on the section of the Pixar website "How we Do It" which breaks down the steps in the creative process. I found it to be really interesting to see both how the animation process is both similar and different from the way non-animated films are made. While both begin with a story idea being pitched, a treatment being written and a storyboard being drawn, the following steps involve voice talent being recorded, and reels being created. After this videotape is made the art department establishes the visual look and feel of the film, models are sculpted and articulated, sets are dressed, shots are laid out and animated, sets and characters are shaded and lighting is added to make the total look complete. The final steps entail the computer data being rendered and final touches being added.

Here's where the breakdown of the Pixar animation process can be found:
http://www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html

A friend also sent me a link to a parody of the animation that begins all Disney-Pixar films. I thought it was pretty cool to see how twisted and dark a person could make such a light-hearted opening. Here's the video: