July 2, 2007

Ratatouille

Ratatouille: Saw it, loved it. Brad Bird's best work so far. The animation was amazing, incredible film all around.

If you haven't seen it already, The Slate has a great sideshow of Brad Birds work up tell now. It has great video clips of all the stuff he's done up tell now. I especially like slide number 5 where it shows a clip of his animatics. I've heard about this. He uses After Effects to practically animate his film before it goes into production.

Check it out: http://www.slate.com/id/2169280/nav/tap3/
click on slideshow

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fine example.

Everyone -says- they want to direct, but consider that not everyone wants to direct.

Most people talk about it because they perceive it to be the "next step," just as some people go to college because "it's what you do after high school" even if they've yet to determine what they want to do with their lives.

An animator who loves animation for the sake of it, seemingly, would be better off sticking to a high-level supervisory position where his fortunes and opportunity scale without being plucked from the direct experiences of producing artwork. Guiding him- or herself by their own desires and instincts rather than to please the notions of an image they feel obligated to satisfy.

Even among those who would like to direct, legitimately, there are few true directors. Leadership isn't where it ends. People recognize from the get that Bird's mind is suited to the task of "many tasks, " and that he's focused enough to be at once firm and open-minded.

I see it as an excellent goal. I don't know many people who hold on to ideas that have been tried and failed. I'm still willing to try, so I can't be doing too horribly.