John Lasseter stays on track...

Below are quotes from an article in the LA Times by John Horn called
"The Inside Track."

This article is really a good read.

[Lasseter took out his laser pointer and circled McQueen's eyes, which, like all of the film's anthropomorphic characters, are built into the windshield. Sweetland thought McQueen was trying to figure out what to do next, and therefore needed to close his eyes and collect his thoughts, the way the scene was animated. 'Isn't it about McQueen's trying to decide what he's doing?' Sweetland asked.

'I hear what you are saying. I just don't agree with you,' the director told Sweetland.

Lasseter believed the character knew precisely what he was about to do next, and was only settling himself before acting. A squint, Lasseter felt, would show McQueen's resolve. Closed eyes, he believed, would read as indecision. Sweetland saw it differently, and was concerned that McQueen would come across as arrogant, rather than confident. 'I don't want him to be full of his own narcissism,' he said.]

In our book, "Thinking Animation," we talk about subtext and what is really going on inside the character's head vs. what they are saying or doing and where they are within the story. This is crucial for you to understand as an animator to get at the heart of your scenes.

One more great point in this article we just loved has to do with sharing. Animators push each other's scenes to a higher level when they share ideas. Lasseter offers an experience he had at Disney that he remembers vividly and helped form his opinion on sharing...

[Lasseter recalled that when he began working at Disney in the early 1980s, he approached an older animator about how a scene might be improved. The animator cut him off, saying he hadn't put in enough time to hold a worthwhile opinion. 'If you want my job, go do in-betweening for 20 years,' the animator said, referring to of one of the field's less-prestigious drawing jobs. More than 20 years later, Lasseter remembered that dressing-down vividly. 'When I came to Pixar, I said, 'I will never say to any of the employees what that guy told me at Disney.' ' Creative quarrels such as the one with Sweetland and Stocker, he said, are what he relishes. All Pixar animators are invited to give notes on a colleague's work. Even though Lasseter's opinion eventually trumps all others, he has the confidence to encourage dissent.]

Good stuff...