“India is definitely one of the hotbeds of competitive talent right now.”
What are the challenges and joys of being a Technical Director?
As you can imagine, a studio like Pixar demands quite a lot from its Technical Directors. The challenging aspects of my job center around ensuring that I deliver the highest quality effects and imagery under the pressure of tight deadlines. There are many things that contribute to how effectively this can be accomplished:
1) The quality and extent of direction is important – the director (and in some cases the art director) must explain and provide adequate knowledge about what an effect must do and look like. In many cases, reference materials are provided to help supplement their vision.
2) Understanding what the director wants is extremely important. At first, this point may seem obvious, but this can vary widely among TDs and the more you are on the same page as the director, the quicker you�ll be able to deliver what they want.
3) Knowing how to actually do the effect. This is where experience obviously helps, but this is the point where you decide how to develop the effect and pull from your bag of tricks to get it done as fast a possible. Clearly, this is what really can separate the quality of one TD over another and is really the heart of how successful a TD can be.
4) Having a good feedback system is crucial to decreasing the numbers of iterations it takes to get the effect approved. This feedback loop can come from peers, office mates, leads, supervisors, art directors, and so on.
5) Ignoring your ego is a must. I�ve seen so many TDs crash and burn by wrapping their ego around their work. This is the fastest way to stifle creativity and knowledge from growing and will prevent you from being able to self-critique your own work.
6) Staying openminded and malleable to new ideas and techniques is absolutely necessary. This industry is constantly changing, improving, and expanding, so the more you are able to learn and adopt new ideas the better off you�ll be.
In the end, it’s really a combination of all these aspects that I find to be challenging about my job day after day because none of them are going to be perfect all the time.
Now, the second part of your question is easy, the joy of my job comes from getting a really hard effect approved by the director and knowing that I can be proud of my accomplishment. Oh, and seeing my name in the credits at the end of the film doesn’t hurt either.
Could you share with us about some of the most challenging shots and scenes you have worked on?
I would have to say that there is something in every shot that I do that is challenging to some degree, but the most challenging was developing the look of dust trails on Cars. Early on in the production, I was brought onto the project to establish the look and dynamic behavior of dust. This eventually entailed a process of procedurally generating rigs that could be attached to the wheels and body of any character. What was so difficult about this project was that they originally asked for a generalized solution that could handle any type of emission condition for more than 100 shots (unfortunately, after the rig was completed this number was drastically reduced largely due to story changes). This was a big project that spanned several months. The rig had to be rebuilt several times because the parameter requirements kept changing. This
is why early development work on any of Pixarâ€?s projects can be difficult – since the story is also written in house, it is subject to numerous changes and re-writes which can dramatically affect what you are trying to design, and in some cases, they cut it completely.
Pixar is a beacon of Inspiration for the animation community globally. For the benefit of thousands of our readers, could you give us a glimpse into Life at Pixar?
Pixar is definitely a unique working environment unlike anywhere else I have worked before. For example, they work hard to stimulate our creative energy by offering enrichment classes through our Pixar University (P.U. for short).
P.U. courses are offered either during lunch or after work and include things like sculpting, screen writing, improvisational acting, gesture/figure drawing, acting, yoga, pilates, martial arts, etc. P.U. periodically includes more job-centric training courses such as python scripting, Maya, Photoshop, AfterEffects, etc. which helps expand and broaden our skills. The Pixar campus is home to the Luxo Cafe, our on-site cafe serving meals throughout the day, a soccer field, volley ball and basketball courts, swimming pool, weight and fitness gym, and a walking/running path around the faciltiy. These amenities are there to encourage Pixar employees to be healthy.
The main building at Pixar was designed around the atrium, a two-story open-aired area located in the center of the structure, and is brightly lit via the glass rooftop. The atrium houses the cafe, a recreational area complete with pool tables and such, and the main entrance lobby. Centered at the back of the atrium is the entrance to theatre which contains approximately 230 seats and can project both digital and 35mm films. One of the many perks is getting to see movies both old and new in this theatre, which is quite a treat since the sound and projection is totally state of the art.
The environment at Pixar can best be described as friendly and welcoming. Although getting a job at Pixar is competitive, people are extremely approachable and are quick to answer questions and help you out with any problems you may have.
I’ll finish by saying that one of the greatest aspects of life at Pixar is the fact that I get to interact with not just my fellow technical directors, but also with all the other departments as well. It’s quite rewarding to be able to work with artists of all disciplines. I really believe this is what keeps the creative level so high.
Your Perspective on FX in CG Animated movies and where things are moving?
In the early days of CG animated films, FX was really in its infancy and was almost an afterthought in many cases. In some ways I believe this was due to the lack of knowledge of FX and the lack of processing power.
Those that knew anything about creating FX usually went to the big effects houses and worked on live action films. Only in the last 10 years (more specifically in the last 5 years) have we been seeing a surge of FX being incorporated throughout most CG animated films. Before this time, FX shots were extremely cost prohibitive, so the “money” shots had to be judiciously selected. I believe we are currently at a stage where the FX in animated films can be compared to those being done in live action effects, besides we are all basically using the same or similar tools.
The technology continues to improve in areas such as cloth, fluid, crowds, particles, etc. With the increase in processing power as well as advancement in our tools, we are seeing effects that have far greater levels of details and larger scales than we ever have in the past. I believe that in (the not to distant) future, the industry will be looking to developing and rendering effects with real-time solutions. I believe this will be driven largely by the gaming industry. Most games rely heavily on sophisticated physics engines that are becoming more and more believable. The sheer fact that believable effects can happen in real-time will eventually make its way into the film effects industry. I have no doubt that this could have a real impact on the way we handle effects in our future pipelines.
What alternate / performing arts are you personally interested in?
In the past I’ve been into music and photography, but more recently, I’ve helped co-produce a colleague’s feature length documentary film (which I was lucky enough to get behind the camera a few times). In the spring Iâ€?m also planning on taking metal sculpting classes so that I can incorporate electronics into metal sculptures. But most of my creative energy right now is spent working on Pixar’s films.
Do you have anything to share about working with Indian artists at Pixar and Blue Sky?
I’ve been working with Indian artists throughout my time in graduate school, Blue Sky and Pixar and have been extremely impressed with the talent that is coming out of India. Pixar has a strong internship program that employees students in either Fall, Spring, or Summer terms. I’ve noticed an increase in the numbers of Indian students that have been passing through this program. Considering the highly competitive nature of this program, it’s says a lot about the breadth of artistic and technical skills that are being taught.
From a business standpoint, U.S. companies are looking more and more to India for its production needs and it is apparent that India has been receptive to this demand by making great effort to educate and train their young students. India is definitely one of the hotbeds of competitive talent right now.
Are you working on your own short film/s?
As I mentioned before, I’ve been helping out on several people’s film projects but currently am not working on my own. However, I do have several short ideas but haven’t had the time yet to flesh them out. Many people here however are very active in developing their own projects. Its very difficult to have the energy to work on your own project after spending 12 hours at work. That speaks volumes about the shear amount of creative energy that we have here at Pixar.
Your comments on SIGGRAPH and what are you looking forward to at SIGGRAPH this year?
Unfortunately I won’t be attending this year’s Siggraph due to time constraints with work, but I been attending Siggraph events for the past 10 years. Siggraph is such a great opportunity to meet and mingle with some the industries greatest minds. But networking isn’t everything, what I personally like about Siggprah is the opportunity to briefly glimpse how other studios solve their problem The courses, papers, and panels offer a rare chance to gain some insight into new technologies which can help keep us competetive. This is such a fun and exciting industry to be in and Siggraph is the one time of year that allows the knowledge to be spread and shared.