SIGGRAPH: Day 3

My shift today was supervising one of the many presentations and lectures that were scheduled for today. As siggraph is a computer and CGI centric conference, many of the panels and presentations were extremely specific and specialized well above my knowledge of technology- however as many of the presentations were research papers I found it an invaluable experience to see how research can be structured and analysed to present findings to a collection of industry peers.

Waiting for the Brave Panel to begin

After my shift I had organized to attend the Pixar Brave: From Pencils to Pixels panel wherein the directors,animators, riggers and art dept were to trace the development from their latest film from concept and research to final product. Each stage of production had a representative and this was the panel that provided me with the most relevant information regarding the use of place to progress narrative in addition to information regarding the role of the visual development department in the creation of a CGI film. 

Panellists included Colin Thompson (Technical Director); Tia Kratter (Art & Visual Development); Paul Mendoza (Animation); Claudia Chung (Simulation Supervisor) and Chris Burrows (Shade Lead). 

Brave Panel about to start

The main focus of the panel was to trace the journey of the film Brave from design to production via the process of art meeting technology. 

Art & Visual Development Team: Tia Kratter

-19 years at Pixar

-Brave took 6 years to make

-Team of 10 in the Art Department

-Initially Brave set in a snow storm, a lot of the early concept work based in winter snow. 

-Visual research for Brave, looked at Scottish folklore

-Goal to make the environment part of the story telling- language of the environment with the inclusion of repeating long slow curves and the creation of a stage or fish-bowl style shape for the character within the environment to show the density of the landscape in the Scottish Highlands, whilst being economical in the rendering time. 

-Weather key in demonstrating mood and atmosphere

-Visual concept and development for landscape and sets often done in any medium in which the artist feels most comfortable, this can include oil painting, sculpture or digital art. 

-Work from the big picture to the detail- to this end they will draw out a large structure for example a castle, then overlay with tracing paper all the details that would be included and can be changed as the story demands it. 

-Tia works predominantly with flat colour combinations for character design and character combined with the environment. She calls it glorified colouring book style. 

-Takes a year to nail down character design from sketch to colour to sculpt and then clothing design and details. 

-The art department will provide packets for each other department connected on the pipeline to outline the associated details of a particular aspect of the film. For example character clothing, or rocks- all the information regarding size, weight, colour, texture are included to give the other departments as much information as possible thus aiding in their part of the pipeline. 

Tia Kratter- Merida Concept Art www.pixartimes.com