Paperman: Re-Thinking Animation

Paperman is an Oscar Winning Disney short, directed by John Kahrs.

The story of animation is both charming and heartwarming, however it is the thought behind the animations that makes this short interesting.

Arriving at Disney, Khars talks about his appreciation for the hand drawings that go into the brainstorming of animations. He points out the "expressive" marks and the "simplicity" of the drawings that make these drawings unique.

This inspired Khars to try and find a way to incorporate the drawings from the preproduction of Paperman into the CG effects that would later become the animation. CG and photorealistic animations seemed to make up the majority of content being produced nowadays. Kahrs tried to imagine an animation that could be different. Paper man carries the drawings along with the CG effects, to create a beautiful and refreshingly different film.

Paperman

Here is a short Disney Animation Studios made in 2012. It is meant to be in 3D, but this will suffice. The story, so simple, is told beautifully with amazing animation. It was directed by John Kahrs, who is also known for his work on some of Disney's most popular films including Frozen, Monster's Inc., Wreck It Ralph, to name a few. 

Here's the director, talking about the inspiration of the short.

3D's Biggest Advancements Are Looking Very 2D

One of the neatest tricks in art is something called Forced Perspective, which can make things look 3 dimensional, even though they are only 2 dimensional drawings. Things like the picture below:

 For more information on drawings and paintings like this, talk to Arturo, he's done some impressive stuff with it, some even involving toilet paper!

So, you can make 2D art look 3D, that's pretty impressive! But what about 3D art? Things like animation, can you make those look 2D? Well, in a way, you can!

Disney's short Paperman used a style of CG that was reminiscent of a painting or ink drawing. The short went on to win both an Annie and an Oscar, and is a visual treat. But as interesting as the short itself is, the way it was made is in my opinion, definitely worth a watch:

Recently, Pixar has released info on it's new artist friendly rendering system that captures the look of traditional watercolor. The new technique involves painting over some of the CG frames, and even works on the studio's previous animated works.

Screenshots from "Up" with the new system

The painted style looks interesting in motion, however, footage of the system in action is not on youtube, and I cannot upload it. I cannot stress how much it's really worth seeing, and can be seen easily be following this link

Keep in mind, Pixar's new system only effects rendering, not the animation itself. The animation is already done when the system is utilized, at least so for. This is much more an achievement in rendering than it is animation, but it brings new possibilities to the final look and feel of future CG animated features. I have no doubt we will be seeing this new system in the future, likely in an animated short. Keep an eye out for it!