Pete Doctor in CCA

Pixar's Pete Doctor (Monsters Inc., Up) came to our school Monday night to give a short talk on like how the movie Up came to be and generally the work and effort of thousands of artists and life and so on.

Stuff that I got out from his talks were these:

-When Pete was younger, he always thought Disney came up with stuff just like this: 

Turns out, life doesn't work like that. (Though sometimes I wish it did).

-In terms of the debate between realistic 3d and or motion capture, vs the stylized kind of animation, Pete threw out this general question: There's real life and then there's caricature- which do you prefer to watch (as an animation)?  Caricature wins over the other because people will always want to see someone else's point of view. (Not to mention botched realistic 3d leads to the uncanny valley problem which turns people off alot, for examples see the Polar Express or Mars needs Moms). 

-Do your research. Regardless of department, you can't just pull things out of thin air. As an old teacher of mine says, 'You put out what you put in'. 

-Find what you're in it for.I think this is important as knowing why you're willing to do the labor of work expected for an animator in order not to grow stagnant or embittered or jaded over time. 

-Do not attach yourself, or your worth to your goals. Pete mentions that people who tie their self-worth to a goal in mind (eg. I will become a director!) burn out really fast when they are faced with disappointment (eg. ending up in the special effects dept) and thinking they have failed tremendously in the grand scheme of things. 

-The last bit of advice I jotted down wasn't really geared towards animation but rather in directing Voice Actors. It helps that instead of telling a VA 'sound more/be more angry', you can help the VA better by giving them a playful direction or idea in their heads like 'Punish this guy/ make them remember this day for the rest of their lives' because it allows the VA to not just sound like a character but act out with full intentions how they think the character would be.

Ended the talk with some signature signing and doodling, and that's how I got my Kevin bird doodle on my notebook.