First Look at Disney's Paperman

A lot of hype has been surrounding Disney's latest short film as of late. Paperman, directed by John Kahrs, - who worked as an animator on a number of Pixar films, before moving to Disney where he acted as an animation supervisor on Tangled - has been received to a rapturously positive response by those privileged to see it already. The film screened at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival a few weeks ago and Tweets about it passed enthusiastic and bordered on frenzied.

The short film, which is set to precede Wreck-It Ralph later this year (or the start of next year in the UK), is making waves for its revolutionary animation technique, which fuses hand-drawn animation with computer animation, combining "the dimension and depth of digital animation with the abstract warmth of traditional line-art. The result is a world seemingly sculpted out of sketches."

That description comes via Entertainmexnt Weekly, who also provide us with our first look at the highly anticipated short, with 3 exclusive stills.

The article also offers up some insight into, and the inspiration for, the techniques behind the short's animation:

“Drawing can have a really powerful, visceral effect on the viewer. You can create anger and surprise or anguish with just a few lines of a pencil,” says director John Kahrs, an animator on The Incredibles and Tangled. “But it can’t just be the same thing it was. I think for 2-D to be revitalized, you have to figure out a way to make it new again.”

It also provides some insight into the animation software behind Paperman, Meander:

"Disney used new in-house technology called Meander to build the world of Paperman. First the characters and backgrounds were rendered digitally, and then hand-drawn art was layered over those shapes, giving the figures a kind of 3-D quality unseen in old-school animation. “What you’re seeing is a very stylized CG layer [underneath], but the feel of the image is very flat and lives in between the two,” Kahrs says."

Finally, I'll leave you with perhaps the most telling comment of all, from producer Kristina Reed:

“If this short had come out with The Little Mermaid, everyone would be excited about the CG,” says Reed with a laugh. “Now here we are in the early part of this millennium, and what we’re celebrating is going back to the handcraft.”

It's a fantastically rivetting read and Paperman promises to change a hell of a lot for animation at Disney! Be sure to read the full article over at EW.

Classic Cartoons #7 - Red's Dream

Since establishing this feature in early January, we've so far explored some old (in some cases very old) cartoons and short films that have helped define the careers of some of the prolific figures that have been the focus of our Bitesized Biographies, but also that have helped shape the history of animation. However, today's Classic Cartoon is the first from a more modern era in animation; the first from the era of computer animation. Today's Classic Cartoon is Red's Dream.

Red's Dream, directed, written and animated all by John Lasseter, is one of Pixar's earliest short films (their third, and their second whilst as Pixar Animation Studios) and remains one of its least known efforts. The animation is incredibly primitive looking by today's standards (in fact Pixar pre-production engineer, Michael B. Johnson, Tweeted recently that an iPhone 4 is 1000 times more powerful than the machine used to render Red's Dream), and its story is still one of Pixar's darkest ones, but Red's Dream is incredibly artistic, well designed, well executed and, as is the norm for Pixar, a testament to great storytelling!

National Film Registry Gets Two New Animated Entries

Two animated films have been inducted into the National Film Registry, being recognised as being of "cultural, historical or aesthetic" importance.

This included Walt Disney's fifth animated classic, Bambi. Bambi, which was originally released in 1942, has been preserved due to, amongst other reasons, "the movie’s resonating, emotional power. Treasured as one of film’s most heart-rending stories of parental love, "Bambi" also has come to be recognized for its eloquent message of nature conservation."

Secondly, A Computer Animated Hand, created back in 1972 by current Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios President, Ed Catmull, has been preserved for its foundational role in the basics of Computer Animation. The description provided by the registry says that the film "worked out concepts that become the foundation for computer graphics that followed."

This is a huge honour for both of these landmarks in animation history, to be preserved for all time and have their paramount importance recognised. The two animated features are amongst 25 to have been added to the registry, including Forrest Gump and The Silence of the Lambs, of 2,228 nominated (full list here).

You can have your say in nex year's addition here.

The Pixar Process

The work that goes into making even one shot or scene of a Pixar movie takes years and is a phenomenal undertaking, one that can't be easily articulated, it is a journey that takes, usually, over 4 years. However, three Pixarians, Michael B. Johnson, Ricky Nierva and Soctt Clark appeared at the EG Conference that happened back in April, to give an insight into the huge workload in a Pixar movie, in particular Up (video above).

As well as seeing some of storyboarding on The Incredibles, we get an in depth look at the deep thought put into the production design of Up and its characters, namely the symbolism of the squares and circles of Carl, Russell and other characters, all the way through to blocking and to final animation. The painstaking attention to detail and to comedic and emotional timing is outstanding and reinforces why Pixar is atop the Computer Animation world.

Courtesy of The Pixar Times.

Aardman News 4 - Straight from Annecy

We've seen a lot out of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, lots of details on the Pixar short, La Luna, and thanks to Aardman Co-Owener Peter Lord's Twitter, we get an article with some in-depth looks and thoughts on Aardman's upcoming slate, Arthur Christmas and The Pirates. The article tells us that Arthur Christmas is fantastic and a great twist on the rather stale Christmas film niche, it also gives us more insight into the film's plot - seeing Arthur and his granddad (the former Santa Claus) travel around the world in the old fashioned sleigh to deliver one last present that was left behind. It sounds great and Skwigly seem to agree, the animation style (CGI here, rather than the trademark Aardman stop-motion) looks great and distinctly Aardman.

The article also gives us a little more details on Aardman's 2012 stop-motion film, The Pirates, which is said to be even more impressive and visually stunning and massively impressive, as well as hilarious. The article also gives us an insight into the genesis of the film, and apparently it has been on the table since the 1990s, but DreamWorks told them that no one would pay to see a pirate film. Since then and the success of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the film has been put under full production and is being directed by Peter Lord and is set to be released in 2012.

I can't wait to see either of these films, I love anything out of Aardman and would encourage you all to head over to Skwigly to read the full article, it's incredibly interesting.

Tron: Progress

Having just been to see Tron: Legacy, the sequel to the 1982 cult classic, Tron, I wanted to show just how much computer animation has progressed in 28 years. Whilst not technically an animated film, Tron was a film (as is Tron: Legacy) that relies heavily on animation for its magic, also it is the film that put computer animation on the map - also Pixar and Disney CCO, John Lasseter, categorically stated that "without Tron, there would be no Pixar".
I thought Tron: Legacy was (in the same vein as the original) absolutely enthralling and fantastic, nonetheless Tron: Legacy is leaps and bounds better than Tron in terms of animation. Below you can see examples of the animation in both, I think it's fairly self explanatory, but the left pictures are from the original 1982 Tron, the right hand side pictures are from this year's Tron: Legacy.

The difference is both staggering and unbelievable at the same time, whilst I loved both films, Legacy just felt that bit better, however both were at the forefront of the craft, pushing bounds, Tron was in 1982 and Tron: Legacy is now, in 2010.