As one of the bigger Disney fans here at Fandango, I was thrilled to visit Pixar Animation Studios in Emmeryville, CA. I and a bunch of media outlets recently took a trip up to screen Toy Story 3, interview some of the cast and take a studio tour.
On the tour, it was amazing to see some of the life-size sets and characters created, including a giant Ken's Dream House—complete with favorites from his groovy wardrobe. During downtime, we took photos with a giant Lotso, one of the new characters, and tested out the Toy Story 3 video game on PlayStation. The real "show and tell" came from some Pixarians who divulged further details of the magic creating the third installment.
Before we got into Toy Story, June Foster from the animation support department first showed us displayed art around the building, starting with two sets of story boards for Finding Nemo. The first set included Marlin and Dory meeting up with whale. The second set was the same sequence, only two years later. By then, Pixar had decided to evolve Dory's character. "She took on a more active role, so they recast the scene," Foster explained. "They reworked the dialogue and even the physical positions, like where she's facing the camera and where she's making a pose, just to emphasize [that] she's a more active, full-partner character."
At Pixar, they always have a few projects going at once. It takes about four years to complete each film – a complex process with different departments working on separate elements simultaneously, such as shading, lighting, and articulation. A simple hair swing, for example, is controlled by a simulator, but the animator covers the movement of the head. "All these departments work together," June said. That's one of the things we like the best—how we touch each other's talent."It's apparent the crew has a passion for their work – drawings and sculptures on display are incredibly detailed. Art department manager Lourdes Alba showed us a wall covered with a Toy Story 3 color script, which tells a story using color and lighting to convey emotions. Alba pointed out how some scenes (like Andy's playtime) were incredibly bright and colorful to represent the good times, while others were de-saturated with a yellowish tone to give it an eerie feeling.
Posters from Andy's room covered another wall. Alba mentioned that they made a lot of conscious choices with the designed sets to convey the different characters. Personal involvement was a welcome enhancement. Actual children's drawings – including some made by animators' kids – were used in the daycare scenes of the film, and displayed around the studio.The last part of our tour focused on how the artists rebuilt Woody over the years. Character supervisor Sanjay Bakshi explained that it's like upgrading a machine. "Even the machines he was built on don't exist anymore," he said. "We've been making movies during those 15 years and we've also learned new techniques, how to make characters more expressive, how to make their mouths' shapes more appealing, so we wanted to apply all that stuff."
Woody's new look included more detail in his stitching, wear and tear, and facial expressions, but artists were careful to make those changes subtle—they didn't want to stray too far from the iconic cowboy audiences have become familiar with.
What do you think about the studio's process, and their commitment to quality? Looking forward to watching Toy Story 3?
