Professional Development: Industry Report – Character Animation and Design

Gurpreet Johal

UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON

1504167

Contents • Introduction • Industry Roles and Opportunities • About Pixar • Pixar Opportunities • Pixar Competitors • Case study x2 • Conclusion • Bibliography

Introduction In this report I will explore Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004) and be used as a starting point to follow the career paths of individuals who have worked on this film. With this being my favourite Pixar film, using IMDb, I will be specifically diving into the career paths of Gini Cruz Santos and Teddy Newton. Gini Cruz Santos was a character animator on this film whereas, Teddy Newton took on the role as a character designer. Teddy Newton’s career history is much more diverse in comparison to Gini Cruz Santos which in turn will show the industries wide-range. With my main focus being character animation, character design also peaks my interest. The ability to create my own unique characters that are not of the norm compared to stereotypical designs in terms of being fair skinned and very slim, as well as giving life to them is a very rewarding experience that animation has to offer. Industry Roles and Opportunities My ultimate goal is to work for Pixar Animation Studios as a character animator. The role of a character animator as the Creative Skillset designates, “Animators follow a brief from a Director, Animation Director or Key Animator, and refer to established designs, models and layouts when creating the movement which will appear on screen”. A character animator trains for years to understand the principles (rules) of animation, these are basic skills that are advanced within character animation to aid the believability of a character. It does not matter which software or animation technique is used, the principles are the same. A trained character animator may need to train in various forms of animation (2D, 3D, stop motion) and to be knowledgeable in a variety of software. Pixar uses 3D software, and it would be a requirement of the role to know the software in addition to the animation training. Although I am intent in character animation, character design also peaks my interest. I enjoy creating my own characters that are unique and different to stereotypical designs in terms of being fair skinned and very thin. Seeing my characters come to life is very rewarding as animation allows this to happen. The role of a character designer as Career Match depicts that, “A Character Designer creates the look and feel of animated characters”. As well as character animators, a character designer is quite a varied role in terms of area in which they may be desired. In these roles, the areas of industry could include, video games, animation, illustration, etc. Both character animators and designers could potentially work as freelance or as part of a studio. However, this does tend to be set on a basis for the duration of the film they are working on for example. This can make it quite difficult to keep a steady income as you would be constantly trying to look for work before your next job ends. Nevertheless, each job would get your name out there and possibly make it easier to get work as your credibility increases. Some studios do however hire staff on a permanent basis. For

example, BrownBag Films is one studio that does this. However, they also hire on a contract basis. About Pixar Pixar is one of the most successful animation studios around today. As described in an article by John M. Cunningham, “Pixar Animation Studios, motion-picture studio, from 2006 a wholly owned subsidiary of the Disney Company, that was instrumental in the development and production of computer-animated films in the late 20th and early 21st centuries”. Pixar has received worldwide success with their full-length feature films as well as their shorts. As they have also developed their characters beyond their films and continued into merchandising them as toys, as well as tourist attractions in together with the Walt Disney Company. One thing Pixar does very well is storytelling. From watching Pixar films, I feel as though their characters always resonate with you. You feel as though they are real people that you begin to know yourself. From Pixar’s website they have stated that, “The objective of Pixar is to combine creative talent and proprietary technology to create computer animated films with heart-warming and memorable stories and characters. Pixar has a “story first” approach in all of their films”. I agree with this statement as it is apparent in their films.

With Up being one of them, in the married life scene you get so much insight into the characters life in such a short period of time. Each shot flows very easily into the next. From once painting their child’s room to a shot of a hospital room, the transition of colour and change in mood retains a significance to the audience. Their story’s also entail such moral chooses for its audience.

The films resonate with you and also to young audiences they help teach them what is right and what is wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5HN3-l_f-U Above is a link to a documentary of a day in the life of John Lasseter. This documentary does not only glorify Pixar and John Lasseter’s life style, but also shows the challenges they face and the way in which the team deal with it. One challenge they faced was the references to radiation in a scene in Cars 2. During its production, an incident known as the Fukushima Accident occurred in Japan which according to The Telegraph, “Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 150 miles northeast of Tokyo, was severely damaged by the earthquake and tsunami with its crucial cooling systems knocked out, resulting in a series of explosions, meltdowns - and the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years”.

Figure 1: Up. Pixar (2009).

In order to be sensitive about using the term radiation at this time, John Lasseter made the decision to re-word a line of dialogue in Cars 2 which originally stated, “when hit with a blast of radiation it becomes extremely dangerous”. This was then changed to “this camera is actually an electromagnetic pulse”. The way in which this situation was dealt with was very remorsefully as they took into consideration the unfortunate events that happened. Within this documentary John Lasseter indicated, “Even in animation sometimes you have to make changes… you try to be

sensitive to your audiences all around the world”. This graph from Box Office Quant compares films since 1980. Which an article by Edmund states, “comparing their domestic gross to their reported production budget. The line represents the average (the regression line), and Pixar has beaten the average every single time – a feat no other studio has come close to matching”.

Pixar Opportunities Pixar offer internships for both undergraduates and graduates all year round, for twelve weeks as well as six-month terms for a variety of different areas including animation. They also offer other forms of class room-based internships as well. Pixar seem to be a company who nurtures talent and especially young talent as Pixar readily open up their internship programs. This could be a good way to get your foot in the door into a large animation studio. However, with Pixar being such a large and successful company it is very competitive in order to get into as you must excel at your craft in order to do so. Although they offer these opportunities, they are extremely competitive to get into. Due to the fact that they are a dominating studio in the animation industry they are a company that many individuals would want to get involved with. Therefore, you must also be highly skilled at your craft in order to do so. Pixar also create various short films which are directed by existing employees. This would be a great chance in order to test their directing skills and possibly give them the chance to increase their status in their career ladder. On Pixar’s website, they have several videos under “Path to Pixar”. In these videos, they show how current employees managed to get into the company from various departments. These are helpful to watch because they give you useful tips about the industry and ways that you can improve your own skills.

There are also many online resources that are good for practise. For example, 11 Second Club is an ongoing animation competition. Every month a new sound file is released that individuals can animate to for free. Each submission is reviewed by professional animators which is incredibly useful when trying to find ways to improve. Animation mentor is another website that can be used to enhance your learning. There are a variety of different courses by staff from Pixar who would be teaching you. This is a very popular online animation school however, it is very expensive to get onto due to the fact that the staff come from large animation studios which also gives it, its high rate of employment after the course. Pixar Competitors

According to an article by Jason Dietz he stated just before the release of Toy Story 3 (2010), “every one of Pixar's 10 releases has been a box office smash, averaging over $550 million in worldwide grosses per film. Add in merchandising and home video revenues, and it's enough almost to make you forget that one-time Pixar owner Steve Jobs has another company”. This shows how successful Pixar has been and how large their dominance is within the industry. However, DreamWorks Animation is Pixar’s largest competitor. Having entered the scene in 1998 with Antz and their release of Shrek (2001), DreamWorks Animation has been taking the box office by storm. According to Jason Dietz’s article, “DreamWorks is now the all-time box office champion when it comes to CGI features, collecting over $6.4 billion in worldwide grosses”.

From these chart comparisons it is interesting that although Pixar has released less features compared to DreamWorks Animation, it seems Pixar’s sense of quality and story has lead their films box office performance, with Pixar dominating almost every category. Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004) is one of their early films which according to Box Office Mojo, The Incredibles has made a domestic total gross of $261,441,092. Within the same year, their competitor DreamWorks Animation Studios had released the film Shark Tale (2005). However, Box Office Mojo states that it made a domestic total gross of $160,861,908.

Although Pixar had earned a higher gross over Shark Tale; in the same year DreamWorks had also released Shrek 2. In 2001 Shrek was first released having earned a domestic total gross of $267,665,011, similarly to Pixar’s The Incredibles. During the time between its sequels release in 2004, Shrek 2 built up a total gross of $441,226,247. Due to DreamWorks already building up the brand, it was prominent that Shrek 2 would have outperformed The Incredibles in the box office. Pixar’s The Incredibles was also new to the scene and not heard of before this release. However, The Incredibles 2 is due to release mid-2018. Now that The Incredibles has built up a large fan base since its original release, it can be expected that its sequel will generate a much larger domestic total gross. Pixar’s most recent film Coco (2017) has earned a Domestic Total Gross of $209,726,015 according to Box Office Mojo. In comparison, DreamWorks most recent animated film, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), earned a significantly less Domestic Total Gross of $73,921,000. Interestingly, Coco had earned $51,715,077 less than Incredibles originally did with. Although Pixar still appears to be dominating the industry, its total gross seems to be remaining the same or even slightly lowering. However, with the up and coming Incredibles 2 (2018) this may change due to the branding the original film already gained.

Figure 2: Shark Tale. DreamWorks Animation (2004).

Figure 3: Shrek. DreamWorks Animation. (2001).

Figure 4: The Incredibles. Pixar (2004).

Character Animator Case Study: Gini Cruz Santos

Gini Cruz Santos is a character animator who has worked on The Incredibles as well as numerous other Pixar films including Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, etc. In an article by Levent Ozler (2004), it states that “Virginia "Gini" Cruz Santos has had an important hand in bringing characters from "Toy Story 2," "A Bug's Life," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" to life… Santos and her family migrated to Guam when she was 3, but she was later sent back to the Philippines by her father to study… later she formed important friendships in Saint Scholastica, as well as in the University of Santo Tomas, where she took up Fine Arts major in Advertising”. However, she later graduated from School of Visual Arts in 1996 with an MFA in Computer Art.

Gini actually was not very interested in animation to begin with as in an interview the article states that she said “Animation was the farthest thing from my mind. We were grouped, and we were supposed to make a small film. I remember going, 'Oh, I like to draw, but I don't wanna draw this much.' I was kinda turned off”. From being not very interested to gaining huge success from animation is quite remarkable. Gini’s first entry on IMDb was for the film Toy Story 2 where she worked as an animator in 1999. In 2001, she then worked on the film Monsters, Inc. This entry is quite interesting as it shows she had worked as an additional layout artist and character developer as well as an animator. The fact that you are able to move to a different area of the industry is very appealing to me. Gini Cruz Santos’s latest entry comes in for Coco (2017) where she took the position as a supervising animator. From this it is clear that she has stuck to the path of character animation throughout her entire career, varying from general and supervising animator. The ability to move in the industry is very appealing to me as new opportunities to work in a different position is do able as seen in Gini Cruz Santos’s career history.

Figure 5: Gini Cruz Santos. Racadio, MJ. EgleNews.ph (2016).

Character Designer Case Study: Teddy Newton

Teddy Newton is a character designer who has worked on The Incredibles as well as others such as, The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, Up, etc. In an article by Pixar Talk it states that, “Teddy Newton was born in Encino, CA, but grew up in Dana Point, along the California coastline. He was inspired by the drawings of Al Hirschfeld and early Warner Bros. animation. Teddy dropped out of CalArts in the early 90s and spent some time at Disney doing story sketch work on Pocahontas, Fantasia 2000, Runaway Brain, Mulan and Hercules. Teddy opted to leave Disney to pursue more creative opportunities”. With Disney being one of the largest animation studios the reason for his departure is quite peculiar. However, from IMDb, Teddy Newton had gone on to create his own work which would have allowed him much more creative freedom.

His earliest entry come in at 1992 for a short film called Bulimiator where he worked as a voice actor but also a director. Also, from IMDb, his next entry was for a TV series called 2 Stupid Dogs The Rise and Fall of the Big Dog (1994). During this production, interestingly he took on the role of a storyboard artist. Teddy Newton’s latest entry however, is for the film Smallfoot (2018) which is currently in post-production. From this he is still pursuing character design however, around this he has also taken on various roles such as, acting, concept art, visual development, storyboarding, writing, producing, directing, composing as well as creating his own productions. After reviewing both Gini Cruz Santos and Teddy Newton’s career history, the way in which the departments they worked in are so varied shows the flexibility of the field and allows the possibility to gain opportunities to take on roles in other sectors. Being fascinated in both character design and character animation, knowing this is refreshing. Conclusion In conclusion, the animation industry is very flexible in terms of the areas in which you are able to enter. After taking an insight into the career paths of Gini Cruz Santos and Teddy Newton, they have both shown this and enhanced my knowledge of the industry as well as enlightened any thoughts of not being able to be flexible in terms of industry areas. From the knowledge I have gained from this report and the building of my portfolio, they have both helped me to become more employable and prepared for the industry ahead. Although I am not complete sure as to where I will go after graduating my five-year action plan is:

Figure 6: Teddy Newton. Anonymous. IMDb (2017).

• Year One: To begin with I’d like to start with the Enginuity internship to gain some

experience and gaining the chance for my characters to be displayed around the museum. I also want to get a job just to get some kind of income. Whilst in this job I intend to keep applying to various animation studios for an entry level job as well as working on some personal animations to keep my showreel up to date.

• Year Two: In this year I’d expect to be working in an animation studio and continuing my own work.

• Year Three: As London is one of the prime areas for animation in the UK, I may decide to move here for more job opportunities. I would like to be in a permanent job with a studio to keep a steady income. I am aware that the industry is quite temporary work based however, I would much rather find a permanent job within the industry.

• Year Four: Continuing to produce work for my show reel and possibly progress to a high position in the industry.

• Year Five: Continuing to gain experience.

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