SKETCHY Characters
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% Toy Story 3, which ran 103 minutes, was laid out on 49,651 storyboards. Storyboarding a career at Pixar / by Amy Laskowski SKETCHY Characters % Story artist Christian Roman starts by mapping a character’s movement, sometimes adding a gag or two to the script. PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEBORAH COLEMAN/PIXAR † A sequel like Toy Story 3 can be bur- dened with the mis- conception that it will be inferior to the original. Visitors to Pixar’s Emeryville, what movie Roman is currently Calif., campus who hope to catch a storyboarding (based on Pixar’s glimpse of the animation studio’s lineup of films, it could be The next killer project better prepare Good Dinosaurr or Finding Dory, to have their hopes dashed. The among others). Because he wasn’t studio is so secretive about work in allowed to show us his offiffi ce, progress that Bostonia reporters, Roman met with us in the neu- there to interview story artist tral space of a conference room, Christian Roman, were not allowed where several easels were pur- to go anywhere without an escort posely devoid of any hint of on- and were forbidden to discuss going or upcoming work. Summer 2014 BOSTONIA 47 Meanwhile, on the floor below, toys, you need to consider that the out the scenes complete with dialogue, a sun-splashed atrium displays the camera is down at their level,” he says. spoken by the artists. They even sing studio’s past glories, some plated in Drawing is the major part of the songs that accompany the on- 24-karat gold. There are Academy Roman’s job, but it’s not the first part. screen action (“I sing in my car a lot to Awards for Best Animated Picture for Years before a Woody or a Lightning practice,” Roman says). Finding Nemo (which took in $936 McQueen (Cars) come to the screen, “The director will say, ‘It’s good, but million at the box office globally), for he and Pixar’s team of story artists what if he does this?’ And other people The Incredibles ($631 million), for visualize exactly how the cowboy in the room will chime in with their Ratatouille ($623 million), for WALL-E or race car will interact with other own ideas,” he says. “Everyone is really ($521 million), for Up ($731 million), characters and where they will appear supportive, but they want to see the for Toy Story 3 ($1 billion), and for in the scene. They study the script scene be better. So I might feel a little Brave ($538 million). Since its creation and map movement and camera beat up, but I’ll take all the notes, think in 1979 as an offshoot of Lucasfilm, angles, often adding new gags or ideas about it, make another version, and Pixar has made 14 feature films as they go. Walt Disney began using pitch it again.” When the storyboards and earned more than $8.5 billion. storyboards in 1933 to create his now- are complete, they get put together in a It is arguably the most successful legendary short The Three Little Pigs, type of film reel with rough music and animation studio in the history of and since then animation studios voices. That rough version of the film film, neck and neck with the “House of have used them to cement the story then goes to a layout artist (comparable Mouse”—parent company Disney. before the expensive and arduous to camera blocking in a live-action Roman (CFA’91), who arrived at animation process begins. Roman and film). The animation team poses the Pixar seven years ago, is one of 50 the nine story artists who worked on characters, ultimately adding shading, story artists hired to make sure that Toy Story 3 made 49,651 storyboards patterns, clothing, and other finishing success continues. For our benefit, he for the 103-minute film. Brave holds touches. demonstrates one aspect of the process the Pixar record for number of behind Pixar’s remarkable products storyboards—112,000. THE ROAD TO PIXAR by drawing on a computer monitor “Every angle, every moment, how More than 20 years ago, when Roman using a digital pen. He sketches a quick the lighting works, the things in the was a junior painting major at BU, rectangle around the outstretched arm background—it isn’t just random,” he imagined that the ideal job would of Sheriff Woody, from Toy Story 3. says Roman. “It’s very specific and combine what he did in his painting “To make you look at his hand, I’m very detailed.” classes, music classes, and the BU going to put a window in the back of the After the story artists create rough undergrad student theater group room he’s in to really frame drawings in Adobe Photoshop, Stage Troupe. Animation became an ¢ it and call attention to it,” they insert them in Pixar’s intriguing option after an artist from For inspiration, Roman says. And because the story artists proprietary Pitch Docter Disney came to campus to talk about Woody—voiced in the film for Toy Story 3 software, which puts the boards working on The Little Mermaid. “I by Tom Hanks—is a foot-tall visited Alcatraz, in order and allows the artists thought, wow, people drew this,” says toy, the five-and-a-half- a dump, and a to view them like a movie. The Roman. When he moved to the West preschool, and foot taller Roman makes spent a good big reveal comes when story Coast after graduating, the best thing sure the room’s ceiling is deal of time with artists pitch their work to the he could find was a job as a facilitator in proportionally high. “With Barbie and Ken. director and writers, acting animation art classes. He worked there for a year until a colleague, who also worked as an animator on The Simpsons, helped him land a job as a layout artist on the Fox show. His next job gave him experience creating storyboards, and when he returned to The Simpsons a year later, he paired up with Brad Bird, director of the Oscar-winning Disney and Pixar film Ratatouille, 2) ( a man he describes as a mentor. Roman became The Simpsons storyboard supervisor, then directed the Disney cartoons Fillmore!! and American Dragon: Jake Long. He returned to the land of Homer to work as a story artist on The Simpsons Movie. Then in 2007, he SKETCHES COURTESY OF DISNEY/PIXAR OF DISNEY/PIXAR COURTESY SKETCHES 48 BOSTONIA Summer 2014 ! got a call from Jim Reardon, frequent screenings of in- in and did the whole scene where the Roman (far a director he had worked left) arrived at process films and performances toys have a confrontation, and Woody with at The Simpsons, who Pixar shortly by Pixar’s improv team, which decides to leave his friends and tries was then head of story on after Apple’s Roman started. to find a way home.” Pixar’s WALL-E. Steve Jobs sold If Pixar’s whimsical surroundings the company to FINDING INSPIRATION Roman arrived at a Disney for and entertainments fail to provide fortuitous time. The previ- $7.4 billion. Early in the making of a sufficient inspiration, there is always ous year, Apple’s Steve Jobs film, scenes are divvied up the real world. For the big Sunnyside had sold Pixar to Disney for $7.4 billion, among story artists, who retire to escape, the Pixar crew toured nearby a move that put to rest years of bick- their respective offices and create Alcatraz. Researching for another ering over part nerships that the storyboard thumbnails. Toy Story 3, pivotal scene, they waded through a two comp anies shared. It also put for example, about a group of toys dump, and naturally, they visited a Pixar and Disney under shared plotting their escape from the Sun- preschool. Roman also spent a good management, with for mer Disney nyside Daycare center, presented deal of time with Barbie and Ken dolls, executive vice president John Las- several challenges. Sequels, Roman necessary work to storyboard the Toy seter in charge of creativity at both says, are often burdened with the Story 3 scene where the two characters companies, and former Pixar presi- misconception that they are fated first meet. dent Ed Catmull taking on the addi- to be inferior to the original. “We had all the toys in the story tional presidency of Walt Disney “Plus,” he says, “there is reluctance room to see their scale relationships Animation Studios. to change characters or do anything and how their joints moved,” says One thing it didn’t change was radical that would break things that Roman, who later worked with the Pix ar’s famously playful culture, once were already established.” Barbie and Ken characters when described by the San Francisco Chroni- Take a scene Roman designed that he helped create the screenplay for cle as “a prepubescent’s paradise of wouldn’t have made sense if it had the Hawaiian Vacation short. “We foosball and pool tables, movie pos - followed the script’s original direction tried to keep Ken’s movements very ters, and cafe teria workers serving to abandon Woody’s trait as owner limited because that’s the way the fun food.” Andy’s reliable toy. doll really moves, and we wanted it These days, employees navigate “Initially, Woody stayed at the day to be authentic. the 22-acre campus (complete with care,” says Roman. “He didn’t leave, “That’s one of the things I like about pool, gym, basketball court, cereal bar, and wanted to go home to Andy.