Tribute to Disney/Pixar story artist JOE RANFT

Today (March 13, 2010) would have been Joe Ranft's 50th birthday. This tribute film was made by Joe's friend John Musker for the memorial service for Joe held at Pixar . John has graciously shared this touching tribute on YouTube to mark the occasion of Joe's birthday.


(expand to watch full screen)


By the way, on August 10, 2010 there is a new book coming out by John Canemaker called "Two Guys Named Joe" which will feature the art and life of Disney/Pixar story artists Joe Ranft and Joe Grant.

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And since this is a blog of NOTES and INSPIRATION for my AAU students the pedagogue in me wants to point out to students that the tribute film above by the amazing Mr. Musker is a stellar example of what a Story Reel/Animatic should look like. So much is said with no dialogue and the simplest, most direct sketches.

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Pete Docter on success in Animation: "Draw, draw, draw"

Pete Docter gives advice on succeeding in Animation:

Thoughts from Brad Bird

I came across this quote from Brad Bird on CartoonBrew recently:

"It’s also worth noting that (Wall Street) analysts are always bullish about any studios whose production slates are loaded with sequels, remakes, and “re-boots”.

This particular poverty of imagination is absolutely mainstream thinking when it comes to businessmen, who are all about recognizing patterns of success that they assume are repeatable… no matter how often that very approach fails.

They always try to copy the original THING rather than the CONDITIONS that allowed the original thing to come into being."

– Brad Bird

He totally nails it. They try to copy the original thing rather than the conditions that allowed the original thing to come into being. Exactly.

"Hey, make me something like Bugs Bunny... yeah, that's it , give me the New Bugs Bunny" , they say , instead of considering "What were the conditions operating at the time of the Leon Schlesinger Studio that caused the artists working there to create characters like Bugs Bunny?" Why not try to replicate those creative conditions that gave rise to those classic cartoons and then see what happens ?

Also for more thoughts along those lines from Brad Bird, read this article from the McKinsey Quarterly on Fostering Innovation , which has been around for a couple of years, but is worth reading again if you've seen it before, or if you missed it the first time around take a look:

Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation

This link is to an excerpt from the full article. To read the full article you'll need to subscribe to The McKinsey Quarterly.

Among the gems from this interview with Brad Bird are :

Lesson Five: High Morale Makes Creativity Cheap

The Quarterly: It sounds like you spend a fair amount of time thinking about the morale of your teams.

Brad Bird: In my experience, the thing that has the most significant impact on a movie’s budget—but never shows up in a budget—is morale.

If you have low morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about 25 cents of value. If you have high morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about $3 of value. Companies should pay much more attention to morale.

Again, he's talking about creating the conditions under which creativity can flourish.

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In a similar vein these thoughts from Frank Zappa about the demise of the music industry which can be applied directly to most of the animation industry today (in the first 2:10 of this interview) :

Frank Zappa Explains Why Cartoons Today Suck

(from CartoonBrew.com)

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Dr. Lasseter tells it like it is

John Lasseter Q&A Any advice for aspiring animation student?