ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE April 1996 Creating the Memories by

This article is adapted from the I Really Feel Sorry For You Kid… keynote address Bill Kroyer gave at I finally ended up at Disney in the Ojai Conference, in 1977, which was an interesting Ojai, California, on July 22, 1995.The place to be then. It was the link to Conference, designed as a retreat for the Golden Age. You are probably the animation industry, was hearing about how we are going sponsored by the International into the second Golden Age, which Animated Film Society, ASIFA- I think might be true. Yet, in those Hollywood, in association with the days everybody sat around and Ojai Film Society.When Kroyer gave moped, feeling bad about the fact the talk, he had recently started that they missed it. working as co-director on Warner We used to have guest artists Bros. Feature Animation's first film, come over who would say, “I really now entitled The Quest for feel sorry for you kid, you missed the Camelot, which is being co-produced Bill and Sue Kroyer Golden Age. Your life is worthless. by his wife, Sue Kroyer. Why bother ? You weren't there !” Some of the Nine Old Men were If you asked them still there in 1977, including Frank why they were not Thomas, Ollie Johnson, Willie oday, animation is exploding. innovating, they'd say, Reitherman and Eric Larson. But the And with billion dollar “Because we do studio was still stuck in a time warp, Tanimated films, direct-to-video what we do best,” technically and creatively. If you and CD-ROMs, there are big profi- which meant they just asked them why they were not ts to be made. That's OK, after all, didn't dare touch innovating, they'd say, “Because we it is an art-industry. People forget the formula that do what we do best,” which meant the hyphen, but you need money Walt had left behind. they just didn't dare touch the to do this art form. formula that Walt had left behind. What I would like to discuss, If you were an artist who had though, is not so much the I came out to L.A. in 1975 and been transported from Disney in business of animation, but what it immediately went to Disney to get 1941 to 1977, there wouldn't be a means to be an artist and a job. They wouldn't take me, whole heck of a lot of technology animation as an art form. I'm going because I didn't have an art school that you would not instantly know do this from my own perspective, portfolio. Instead, I got a job in a about. You knew about peg bars, looking back on my career and small commercial studio, where my reinforcements, pencil tests and the what I've experienced. first assignment was erasing the multiplane camera. You might Back in the 1960s, it was said stretch lines off of Mr. Clean's pants, discover Xerox machines and reel- that President Nixon was asked because he looked too virile. My to-reel pencil test machines ; but why he didn't think there was a second assignment was to put beyond that nothing had really recession. He said, “Well I have a pants on elves, because they only changed. job, and all my friends are work- had shirts on and somebody finally In the 1970s, the industry was ing.” Well, I'm happy to say that, realized they were naked. That is in a real slump. Disney was the all my friends are working now. It when I learned the two most only studio making realistic wasn't always like that ; but now important principles of animation : features, and even their films had they are and that's part of what's It will go by so fast that you'll never reached bottom. Then some great about the animation see it ; and if you can't make it milestones came up and things industry today. good, make it loud and fast. started to change.

5 ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE April 1996

And Along Came Crusades. Suddenly, I realized we were Inner-Penetrating Objects and Many people see Who Framed seeing this little tiny tip of an iceberg Fractal Walls Roger Rabbit as the big milestone. of what had been going on for years. It was great. If we wanted to That's the one that made the Tron was the beginning. It was do an effect, we'd tell these guys, money. Yes, but there was another the moment when computer “Invent it.” They had no software that may have been even more graphics made its first contact with for it, so they would sit down and prophetic : Tron, made by Disney the animation industry — like the write it. back in 1982. sperm and the egg. Then they would say, “We wrote some software that does this. So, we would make up something in the story to use it. For instance, they were so ashamed when they showed us inner-penetrating objects. But we thought that was pretty cool and we actually made up a neat character composed of inner- penetrating objects. On the other hand, I once gave David Warner as the villainous Sark in Tron © 1982 Walt Disney Productions an assignment to do a scene where a ship flies out of a hanger. Every guy in the of America After waiting eight weeks, I asked, that was into computer graphics showed up to work on it. “Where's the scene ?” They said, It was like the Crusades. “Oh man, you're going to be so thrilled. We built a fractal wall.” I asked, “What's a fractal wall ?” I had left Disney earlier because I It was neat, because nobody had didn't want to work on The Black ever done it before. There were no The idea is to do things that Cauldron. I happened to land in the experts around. So, I inherited the are cheap lap of Steve Lisberger, who was position of Director of Animation. and look good, making Animalympics. Mind you, this Luckily, I caught on to it pretty well. not things that are was not the world's greatest film, It is incredible when you look at expensive which although it was a feature film that the people who worked on Tron, nobody notices. was completely hand ink-and- who are now key players at places That's a cardinal painted by nine people in a ware- like Pixar, Rhythm & Hues, PDI and rule of filmmaking. house in Venice, which is pretty Digital Domain. All these young guys amazing. After Animalympics, we couldn't believe somebody was really developed Tron and took it to Disney. going to hire them to do this type Well, it was this thing that looked Tron became a revolutionary thing. of work. like a rock wall, the kind of thing a When we first starting working on it, background painter could have we didn't know how we would do it. done in about six hours. They It was just an idea about a guy and a worked eight weeks on it and only computer. But when we showed up they would know it's a fractal wall. at Disney, something started That's a problem you always happening ; it was almost like putting have. The idea is to do things that a blue light on the back porch and are cheap and look good, not having flies from all over the things that are expensive which neighborhood come to it. Every guy nobody notices. To me, that's a in the United States of America that cardinal rule of filmmaking.

was into computer graphics showed Jeff Bridges is an electronic warrior in Tron. Tron was an unusual picture. It's up to work on it. It was like the © 1982 Walt Disney Productions where all this technology came

6 ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE April 1996

together and started to be utilized. such a high level of performance, underneath it, like the wrist and Looking back now, it was that it was actually designed to fingers, will follow. It sounds trivial somewhat primitive, but it was crash three or four times a day. now, yet back then people were weird mix of human effort and And the only people who could just starting write this type of technology. start it back up again were people software. If you watch the credits, you'll from Cray. So, when you bought The first time I animated a see a couple hundred Chinese a Cray, they sent people who human figure using this software, characters at the end : those are would live with it, called Crayons, I did a dancing cycle. Some people the names of the artists who in a trailer in the parking lot. looked at it and said, “Wow, how painted mattes in Taiwan. A year The Cray was so fast that none did you do that ?” But one of the later, that was totally obsolete. of us could actually “speak” to it. programmers said, “That's just key Computers could do all that. That's We first had to speak to VAX frame software.” They usually think how fast it changed. computers, which then built up that way. They hate to think that it The movie had story problems enough information until they felt takes a skill that can't be canned. and was not a big hit. In itself, Tron worthy to approach the Cray. They Then came Roger Rabbit, which did not revolutionize the animation would then shoot it over to the made big money and showed that industry, but it did give encoura- Cray, which would then compute it. animated cartoons could appeal gement to the computer industry. to adults and things started to The Cray was engineered change. Technology played an to such a high level important part in that film and of performance, allowed animation to be sophisti- that it was actually cated and hip again, and business designed to crash started booming. three or four times a day. Building a computer generated solar sailer in Tron.. Technological Threat © 1982 Walt Disney Productions My wife Sue and I started Kroyer At the time, we started doing Films in 1986 to combine AfterTron, I looked around and the first hierarchical animation of computer and hand animation. still didn't see anything great figures. This means that when you Although I enjoyed working with happening in animation. So, I move an elbow, everything computers, I always missed chose to stay in computers and worked at Robert Abel and Digital Productions.

Computers and Crayons I remember we had the only Cray supercomputer not dedicated to defense interests, which was used for the absolutely illogical purpose of making films. Actually, it wasn't totally illogical, because creating graphics was important. (We got the Cray because John Whitney's father, who had done the very first computer animated films using a World War II bombsight, was known in the defense industry.) The Cray was a cool computer, able to do six billion computations a second. It was engineered to Bill Kroyer's Technological Threat © Kroyer Films

7 ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE April 1996

drawing and the illusion of master is the vision and the servant reference, for instance, are OK as cartoons. I wanted to create is the technology. reference. But it's not OK if it starts something that would allow the There has been this battle ever taking away the animators' initial computer to blend easily with the since I've seen these two working vision of how to play a scene. An pencil, which I still believe is the together in Tron. It's natural, animator starts with a blank piece animator's greatest tool, as it gives because much of the work we do paper on which he can create one the most freedom to create an is technology based ; it's also anything, including somebody illusion. natural that the toolmakers with both eyes one side of his believe that they are the best ones head — which is perfectly OK. There was this heavy to use them, but it doesn't work Live-action reference has very philosophical depth that way. You go to hear limited uses. The same goes for to the movie, Rubinstein play, not the guy who motion capture, which is essentially which the French made the piano. the same thing. really appreciated. It's one of those things you have I prefer motion to be stylized, No one here did. to be sensitive about, because you because the essential part of the have to appreciate the skill of the art is movement. You've heard the person who knows how to use the saying that great animation is not We put together a software technology. But there has to be a drawings that move, but move- package that allowed a computer level of judgment about their ment that is drawn. What you are to draw out on punched ability to use it with artistic vision. doing is creating drawings that, animation paper using a plotter. It The computer world is a when looked at individually, may was unbelievably fast. Artists used Cartesian world which exists in an look bad or illogical. But when to look at it and you could see XYZ place, which seeks to create looked at all at once, they are them staring into the abyss of their an artificial three-dimensional magical. That's our art form. That's own careers disappearing. environment. It tries to reproduce what we do that nobody else can. The truth is that computer real dimensionality, physical space So, if you're going to work in people like to think that and artists and shape. computer animation, stylize it ; often fear that. So we made That's valid. Yet, in my opinion, bring exaggeration and caricature Technological Threat, which was much of the magic of our art to it. If you do that, then you are about just that. It showed organic comes from illusion. That's what taking it to a place that nobody cartoon characters being makes people's heads get else can. How many artists get to threatened by computer animated connected. What goes on the do that ? characters. We did the former by screen may make no logical sense, hand and the latter, of course, with but it conveys very clear emotional Learning to Cope computers. There was this heavy feelings which can be really funny, Technology leads artists to cope philosophical depth to the movie, poignant and beautiful. As a in many different ways. One is by which the French really matter of fact, the less sense it learning how to use the tools. But appreciated. No one here did. makes and the more emotional it it's interesting how other things Technological Threat spoke to the gets is one way to judge how happen. I'll give you a brief question of : What is this great it is. example from a project we worked technological revolution doing to Probably the most famous thing on and how our traditional the artist and to art ? Well, in animation is Mickey Mouse's animation staff had to deal with a animation as we know it, is both ears. You can't do Mickey's ears in new medium. gaining and loosing, but it's losing 3-D. You look at those outfits at less than it's gaining. Disneyland and they're not right. When the story people Mickey's ears are supposed to started working on gags, The Servant-Master Relationship crawl around, that's why they are we discovered was that in Which brings me to what I call cool. It's the art of the cheat, which video games gags (as we servant-master relationship, which is essential to the greatness of think of them) are almost is my obsession about how the animation. meaningless. industry should work. That is, the Rotoscoping and live-action

8