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Pixar animation software part 1

Posted on April 28, 2013 
Filed Under Animation | 11 Comments

This article is the first of a three part series

Pixar animation software part 2

Pixar animation software part 3

Wondering what animation software Pixar uses to bring us magical movies like Monsters inc 2? Wonder no more!

In a latest Open Subdiv demo, Autodesk Meet the experts presentation, Pixar’s engineer lead Dirk Van Gelder lets us have a quick peek at his computer screen so we get to see what Pixar’s Marionette looks like.

If you didn’t know, the software’s 30th iteration of Marionette or Menv (the name comes from the original name, Modeling environment), is now called Presto, as a tribute to Doug Sweetland’s 2008 short film.

Around 18 minutes into the presentation, we can have a good look at the interface and see Monsters University’s character, Dean Hardscrabble, the dean of the School of Scaring faculty, in motion. Here is a screenshot.

Pixar Marionette Menv screenshot

Pixar Marionette

Instead of being displayed in the viewport as we are accustomed to, the controls or Avars (this is how they are called at Pixar) are tucked to the bottom right of the screen and displayed as some sort of advanced channel box or spreadsheet since this is the term used in Animation Language AL, the ancestor of Pixar’s Menv.

An other interesting thing we notice is that Presto runs on Linux and the Gnome environment. This could be surprising when we think that Pixar’s CEO was also Apple’s CEO.

Animator working on Brave

If you want to see Presto in action a little bit more, check out that Guardian’s interview with Toy Story 3’s Animation Supervisor Bobby Podesta : (the video seems to have been pulled out, here is an other one instead)

or that one with Sanjay Patel:

Ah and to finish this post, what a better way than posting Monsters University’s third trailer!!! As a side note, Monsters Inc is still my favourite Pixar feature ;-)

Related posts:
Pixar Brave wireframes

Zbrush fun

Posted on April 21, 2013 
Filed Under Modeling, Portfolio | Leave a Comment

testing some asymetry and a facial expression in Zbrush. Fun stuff.

[update] Found a better material or MatCap

Meet Ze Artists 2013

Posted on April 17, 2013 
Filed Under Education | Leave a Comment

Oops, I guess I should have mentionned that before…. and it was actually planned month in advance…

After the success of Meet Ze Artist 2012. The good people from TigoboAnimation are organizing a new event this week in Angouleme.

The top guests this year will be Dreamworks’ Croods Art Director Christophe Lautrette, Dreamworks’ Vis Dev artist Arthur Fong, Character designer Florian Satzinger alias Paperwalker, Character designer Sylvain Deboissy who previously worked at Sony Pictures Animation and did a great job on Surf’s Up…

Check out the full schedule for the other conferences and workshops

Meet Ze Artists

Man with a hat

Posted on April 16, 2013 
Filed Under Drawings, Portfolio | 4 Comments

I have been watching a lot of movies lately, hoping to find some great audio clips for my soon starting AnimSquad workshop.

Since I don’t like to feel I am wasting my time, I am also doodling in Paint Tool SAI, just to get better at it.

Drawing in SAI is a very relaxing activity, you should try, it will make you rediscover your Wacom tablet. In fact, I even stopped using my TabletPC and I don’t feel the need for a Cintiq.

Here is a drawing I did while watching Tombstone with my custom Tombow brushpen.