Animating a Blockbuster

Reading this article on Pixar surprised me. I knew it took awhile to make an animation, but each frame having its own steps, taking hours to complete is crazy. Sitting everybody in a screening room, and showing seconds of the animation finished the previous day, just to have each frame brutally shredded by anyone with a mouth is just part of the process to the animators at Pixar. It also surprised me to learn that not a lot of studios actually keep their animators and other staff after the movie or project is completed. I thought all studios did that, but it seems there are few who home their animators, directors, and technicians and have them move from project to project. Another interesting thing was Pixar’s relaxed air, and how the higher ups don’t really care what your room looks like or how you get the animating done whether it be a bowl of Cap N’ Crunch or a 70s’ love room, as long as it’s not illegal and helps gets the job done I assume. It also surprised me to learn that the actors actually act out the script before the movie is done, so the animators can truly portray realistic emotions in the film. We sit in IMD and wait for our computers to render, but the rendering takes so long and is so detailed at Pixar, and other animation studios I’d imagine, that they have rendering farms, which hold computers that do just one specific thing, albeit with very innovative software—render.

The article also confirmed a lot of things that I already knew, or had heard about. Such as how an animated movie takes a long time to complete, and even then, it’s not truly done. There is always more that could have been worked on. Another confirmation was that criticism is a good thing. Pixar gets their movies done, frame by frame with criticism from anyone willing to share it. I’ve always believed a lot in criticism, especially my own, which seems to be harsher than anyone else’s.