A Human Story of Computer Animation

Published by Kernon on February 20th, 2008 in 3D News, Education

Enjoy this long (101 minutes) and lively discussion between some the industry's leading artists and directors.

Participants include:

Brad Bird, Writer/Director, The Incredibles, Pixar Animation Studios

Ed Catmull, Co-Founder and President, Pixar Animation Studios

Alvy Ray Smith, Co-Founder of four centers of computer graphics excellence (Altamira, Pixar, Lucasfilm, New York Tech) and a Microsoft Fellow

Andrew Stanton, Writer/ Director, Finding Nemo, Pixar Animation Studios

Michael Rubin, Moderator, Author of Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution

Here's the video:

There's also a hi-res version available (WMV format, 220MB).

Related posts are selected automatically based on their content.

16 Responses to “A Human Story of Computer Animation”

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1 BlendRoid Feb 20th, 2008 at 5:44 pm

Wow! Thanks for sharing; I must watch this!
2 Gustav Feb 20th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

Kind of old, but worth seening….
Here a link to high-res version:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/lectures//a_human_story_of_computer_animation.lecture.2005-05-16.102656916.wmv
3 Kernon Feb 20th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

I've added the link to the article, thanks!
4 DramaKing Feb 20th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

Wow, wow, wow. I don't really have enough time to watch this, but otherwise I would love to!
5 ibkanat Feb 20th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Wow…. really long but worth every minute.. Nice….
6 Chad Murphy Feb 20th, 2008 at 8:53 pm

This is awesome. Totally worth the time to watch. Very educational and entertaining.
7 rogper Feb 20th, 2008 at 9:07 pm

Thanks Kernon for let us know of this excelent discussion ;)
Brad Bird is one of my favorite directors and ED catmull i only knew from the Catmull-Clark interpolation methode :P I wonder now who was Clark hehe
Very good information in here for every movie kind maker.
Just awesome ^_~
8 Joel Feb 20th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

Thanks so much for letting us know about this video, it's incredibly inspiring and interesting!! Worth every bit of the 101 minutes (well it stopped loading at about 90!!)…
9 Phil Feb 20th, 2008 at 11:57 pm

What I found interesting when watching this was that it appears Ratatouille is a parable of the Disney / Pixar story.

Auguste Gusteau = Walt Disney
He is dead he is an inspiration he was an innovator.

Skinner + Chefs = What Disney (the company) became after the death of its founder. They produced formulaic films that copied the patterns laid down by Walt but failed to copy his innovative spirit. Disney's artists are represented as highly skilled but unimaginative. In the end their film became like the cardboard cut-outs in Skinner's office and his ready meals.

Remy the rat = Brad Bird, he was fired from Disney but sneaked back in. He is highly creative. He knows how to cook up a great film.

Linguini = Ed Catmull, he can't draw / can't cook but ends up controlling the kitchen / Disney. He creates a tool (Renderman) that artists can use to do whatever they want. This is depicted by the way Linguini becomes a puppet. The pulling hair is just a joke for anyone has ever tries using an handles to animate a 3D character.

Collette = Disney employees who are happy to do things in a new way.
10 Virgilio Feb 21st, 2008 at 12:44 am

Man!! =)

Thanks a lot for sharing it. This is an awesome video! All the big boys together…
11 Jakub Steiner Feb 21st, 2008 at 2:34 am

Wow, glad I watched it as it's been taken down now (the opening titles kinda made me feel that' gonna happen). I love Brad Bird although I hate he had to replace Pinkava in Ratatouile.
12 blengineer Feb 21st, 2008 at 6:27 am

very very compelling.

I completely agree with a lot of the stuff they believe in.
I also suspected about Pixar some of what they said, it's wonderful to hear it from their own mouths.
it makes me respect and admire them even more.

i think its really powerful to believe that it isn't really about the computer technology but about art and telling a story.

amazing amazing stuff I can't say enough
13 LoMac Feb 21st, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Frickin Awesome video!
I feel like making something now.
14 Matro Feb 21st, 2008 at 5:14 pm

A very interesting video about the the beginning of computer graphics and animation from a few of the people that help set the foundation for an ever growing medium. And yet they were very clear to those of the next generation look to your life for inspiration and focus on telling a good story.
15 wolf Feb 21st, 2008 at 7:58 pm

@Phil
That's something I didn't think of, yet! In this context this is even a better movie (my girlfriend always said there was something strange about the storyline, but we didn't quite work it out :) )
16 Squiggly_P Feb 27th, 2008 at 5:01 am

Anyone aware of a mirror for the larger video? or a torrent?

Their server is either under a lot of pressure or they host it from a C64 - I'm getting 7 kb/sec and it stalls a lot.

But the video is fantastic. I've actually seen this before somewhere… Google video probably.. a year or so ago. There's an audio interview with a couple of these guys on some animation site as well - I'll see if i can dig up the site… That interview focuses more on their animation training rather than the technical stuff and Brad Bird's really interesting pre-pixar career.