By six fortuitous cancellations I was able to attend a talk on animation this evening. I'm glad I didn't miss an opportunity to hear someone from Pixar talk at length about their profession. Andy Schmidt has worked on several Pixar films including The Incredibles and Ratatouille. He went from an art background into 2D animation, learning and developing his skills from scratch, and then finally progressed into 3D animation. Although this is a natural progression - the two animation forms share the same techniques such as 'squash and stretch' - Schmidt stated during Q&A that whilst experience of 2D animation is helpful, it is not a necessary prerequisite for working in 3D.
As I have little experience of working in animation I found some insights particularly useful, in particular that "acting is the most important part of animation". Schmidt described acting as 'reacting', in other words, what happens to your character isn't as important as how they feel about it. Characterisation is a carefully refined process in animation, as the degree of control is immense. Characters can be defined very precisely by manipulating their body weight, shape and size, and through the way they move. The formal possibilities are greater for the animator than a film director casting for a role. That is not to say that animation is superior to live-action, but that the difference in style results from different options being available in real world and the CG world.
After the talk I was fortunate enough to talk briefly with Andy about how he finds satisfaction in collaborative work. At Pixar, I think this comes from animators being given particular animation challenges suited to their strengths. Therefore, talent is utilised most effectively, and a personal sense of your own importance and value to a big project is much greater.
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