I loved PIXAR's cinematic offering for 2007. Ratatouille managed to entertain while, as is PIXAR's trademark, never giving up on story or dialog. It was also rich in colour and I was mesmerized by the subtle beauty of it though for me, the best bits were the bits of Remy tasting the food and the way in which that was visualized.


I knew going in to expect great things from the most recent and final SIGGRAPH event of the 2007/2008 season "Teasing the Senses: The Visual Style of Ratatouille" but as usual, I was a little surprised by what I learned.


This time around, the crew brought up "Goddess of Light" Sharon Calahan, a Director of Photography/Lighting at PIXAR. It was fascinating listening to her talk about how she achieved the rich colours and textures of the film and though I understood very little of the technical, the before/after photos she showed really did speak louder than any words. But for the technical folks, she spoke about saturating shadows rather than mixing in blacks and grays which naturally dulls the colour and, from what I could see, gives everything a "flat" look. There is something very different in the feel of watching "Ratatouille", almost like a painting you want to step into where everything is at once gorgeous and familiar yet different.

What always surprises me is where people get their inspiration and hearing Sharon speak of where she looked for inspiration on lighting the shots provided what was, for me, the most interesting part of the presentation. Sharon spoke of finding her inspiration in her photos, photos of food and, not surprisingly, other films.


"Blade Runner", "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb", "Batman". All very different films but all inspirations on the look of the film and when you see the stills from those films immediately before or after various shots in the movie, the inspiration is uncanny and I wonder how I could have missed it the first time around. I haven't seen "Ratatouille" since I rented it earlier this year but I'm really excited to give it a second look to try and really spot these visual references that I missed the first time around.


Overall, it was a great event and a fantastic way to finish off the year. A two month summer hiatus starts in July and the group will be back for the 2008/2009 season in September with the Animation Festival which I'm really looking forward to.

If you're not already on the mailing list, I highly recommend it. All of the events I've gone to have been sell outs so it's good to know what's coming up with plenty of time to buy your tickets. To sign up, it's as easy as clinking here and filling in your name and email.

I'm really excited and looking forward to another great year!

Previous SIGGRAPH event coverage:

May - "Visual Futurist: The Art & Life of Syd Mead"
April - "droidMAKER: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution"

I may have mentioned it before but SIGGRAPH is officially one of the coolest things I ever discovered. Last month it was Droidmaker and this month, to celebrate their five year anniversary, the group pulled out all of the stops and brought Syd Mead, one of the greatest and most recognizable futurists, to speak to the group of 600 or so geeks at an event titled "Visual Futurist: The Art & Life of Syd Mead" and it was fantastic.

Before Syd even stood up, we had a very special surprise. We had the chance to experience Alex Beim's Zygote Interactive Balls. Essentially, these are large balloon like balls with some techy construction which respond to touch. The result, in a darkened room is that every time the ball is touched it responds by lighting up and emanating a sound. The result is a fabulously entertaining, interactive show. Beim has a whole load of videos of the balls in action on his site, including a short video of how and why he created it. I captured a few second of the greatness:


After that great display, Syd Mead took the stage to entertain us and entertain he did. He spoke fondly of his experiences on various projects and shared a load of fantastic pieces, some famous, some not so famous and some from his personal stash of goodies.


One of the great things about Mead, and there are many, is his energy. At 75 he's still wide eyed with wonderment and his love for fantasy and creation is obvious in his work, both old and current. He spoke of the steps of creating an image:

1) Concept - what are they (the client) after? Guidelines? Create a rationale
2) Storyboard - create your image, if possible step away from it for a day and re-visit it
3) Share it with someone with a visual eye, make changes if necessary

Aside from lots of talk about specific projects, I was most impressed with his passion for story telling. Not being an artists myself, at least not in the visual sense - I'm more of a writer, I was surprised by his discussion of each project within the context of a story and I got the sense that storytelling is as important to the creation process as anything else. I've rarely looked at a piece of art and created a story but hearing Mead share the stories within his projects so vividly, I'm inspired to do the same when looking at art.

Photo care of Prof. Michael Stoll on Flickr.
Aside from that, there was a bit of discussion around "Blade Runner" and Mead spoke about the freedom he had when he created the designs for the film and it seemed to me that it was one of his favourite projects.

During the Q&A someone asked him what movie he wished he had worked on and his response surprised me a little: "The Fifth Element". He spoke about how great it would have been to create a floater car which squeaks when the breaks are applied and how much fun he would have had designing the ballroom because he loves that extended shootout scene. I'll have to post a link to the next podcast...I have a feeling we may have a conversation about this...

All in all, another fantastic evening. Next month is looking to be just as great with Sharon Calahan of Pixar for "Teasing the Senses: The Visual Style of Ratatouille". If you're in town, be sure to head over to SIGGRAPH and buy your tickets in advanced for the sure to sell out show.

I had a fantastic day yesterday. I mean - truly outstanding. Outside of the bomb exercise excitement during the day I attended what was likely one of the most interesting and entertaining talks I've seen to date.

Michael Rubin is one of these all around genious type of guys - smart and funny with tons of stories to tell including his best one: how George Lucas, somewhat unknowingly, revolutionized film making for ever - and he's documented in a great book called "droidMAKER: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution".

I have a film class paper kicking around where I bluntly state that Lucas hasn't made a good film since "THX 1138" (for the initiated - myself now included - that's pronounced THIX) and I stand by that. What I have never meant is that the man is some sort of lackey. I's always appreciated his contribution to film making - I'm just not the biggest fan of his films. That said, I never realized just how big of a part he had in revolutionizing the way so many films are made today. Michael's talk was loaded with details and fun facts but it was all delivered conversationally and with a lot of passion. Entertaining and informative is an understatement. To top it off, he personalized every book to the individual (and I don't just mean with a name. He asked questions about where you worked and what you did) and happily talked about everything from movies to computer tech stuff that was way beyond my understanding. A really super guy.

I also had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, co-founder of what is arguably one of the world's best recognized animation companies PIXAR. Does it get any better than this?

Dr. Smith shared a couple of stories about the beginnings of PIXAR, the struggles of getting George Lucas' attention, perhaps most importantly considering PIXAR's current incarnation, the hiring of John Lasseter, how the company got it's name and the first years of struggling to make ends meet under Steve Jobs. Again, a fantastic speaker with loads to of interesting things to share.

All in all, a super night. I'm not sure how it's going to be topped but SIGGRAPH is on the road to doing it again. Next month, a talk from legendary futurist Syd Mead (OMG SYD FREAKIN' MEAD!!!) along with a screening of "Blade Runner: The Final Cut". I already have my ticket although I'm almost certainly going to skip the movie mostly because of its running time. It'll end very late and I still have a long trip home afterwards!