Lighting and Animation

I stumbled across an interesting Ted Talk about how lighting plays a very crucial role within animation. In the Ted Talk, Danielle Feinberg discusses her career at Pixar and how her work at Pixar has made her dream of having art as a career possible. She speaks in depth about how lighting has the potential to drastically change the feeling of the film as well as bring a scene or character to life. Lighting is such an important characteristic to not only cinema but animation as well and I suggest you all take a peek at this Ted Talk, it is around 12 minutes but I promise it is very interesting!

WALL-E

It feels just like yesterday when I went to see WALL-E in theaters. The favorited animated movie originally came out in 2008, as a production by Pixar Animation Studios. Even though the film was released six years ago, it's message still holds true: we must take care of the Earth if we want to live there in the future. The story follows a robot named, WALL-E who's sole purpose is to scour the Earth and clean up the remaining waste.

The existence of humans is referenced for a brief amount of time, but the main focus is on the journey of robots within a new universe stemming from environmental unconsciousness. Ironically, it seems as though humans have gravitated to a seemingly "robotic" and repetitive lifestyle: lack of exercise, processed foods, and constant media consumption. While on the other hand, robots have been tasked with the daunting goal of cleansing the world while humanity lives in a starship planet. What makes this animated film standout from all of the rest, is that the robots are designed to model physical human traits (eyes, hands, feet, etc.) and display emotions, rather than words to express themselves. As the movie progresses, it becomes evident that the robots understand the full meaning of free will.

It would behoove us to take a page out of WALL-E's book and do our part to preserve our home: the planet Earth.

Animation Sound Design

Here's a neat little video about the process of sound designing for animated films.  In this case, the video gives us a behind the scenes look at one of the most popular and well-known animated films from the past few years: WALL-E

How sound creates character

One of my favorite animated films is Pixar's "WALL-E." I find the way in which the directors and animators of the film bring such life and character to these futuristic robots amazing. The following clip is an interview with Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Toy Story). The sound design in "WALL-E" is incredible and Stanton gives a little insight into how he used sound to develop the characters in the film. Often times I find myself marveling at computer graphics in films, but this interview shows how sound is just as important as image in animation.

Rodrigo Blass' Alma

I found this short film, Alma, that is directed by Rodrigo Bass. After 10 years in the animation field, this is the first film that Bass has directed. The one thing that stands out in this short is the incredible attention to detail. In the beginning, the detail in the cobble stone alley is very realistic, with snow separating each stone with slightly varying color and shape. From all angles, we see individual hairs of our main character, Alma. The tiling of the floor is like a mosaic, with each piece a unique shape and size. I was very impressed with the detail in this short film and felt like Bass took the time to to make sure every element in this short was just right. A painstaking process? I should think so. Notice at the end of the short the number of people listed in the credits for this 5:25 length piece.

Rodrigo Blass (or Rodrigo Blass Nacle) has worked on various well known animation films including Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, WALL-E, The Incredibles, and Up.