Meet the Artist: Victor Navone

[vnavone]

1. From listening to the animators commentary on the DVD for The Incredibles, many Pixar animators noted that they animated in 1’s and 2’s, where whenever I animate I just place keys down where I need them, so the keys for my arm movements may be spread out in a completely different way to the keys for my leg movements. Besides the economy of it, I tend to find that I get jitter in my motion if my keys get too dense. Is the decision to animate in 1’s and 2’s on a computer, a continuation of techniques learnt from traditional animation, or is there some real benefit to this method that i’m missing?

2. When animating characters do you do the body motions first, then the facial motions, or the other way round, or both at the same time?

3. Can you give any tips on coming up with good body language, especially in the case of matching to dialogue. When animating I try to think about the character’s emotions, their motivations, and their internal dialogue, and I try to make sure that I don’t just go for unnaturally obvious actions to match their dialogue (like having a character wave when they say ‘hi’ or pointing to themselves when they they say ‘I’), but sometimes it’s tough to come up with body motions that have that believable subtlety. Even if I act the scene out, my motions are still affected by how conscious I am of what i’m doing. Any advice?

4. Do you make sure that your animations always work no matter what angle you’re looking at them or do you animate just for the camera? Related to that, do you animate in less detail if you know something’s going to be really tiny in the shot?

5. To what degree do you iterate animations? If you see an issue with an animation will you usually start fresh, or tweak the animation until it’s right?

Hi Dan,

1. Every animator works differently. Some of our guys work in stepped mode down to one’s and two’s, others work in a more layered approach, as you suggest. One advantage to working in the former method is that if forces you to really think about every breakdown and inbetween! But hey, animate however works best for you.
2. I tend to block the facial stuff along with the body. Especially on Cars, where the face IS most of the body.
3. Observation. Watch actors. Watch real people. Watch yourself. Take an acting class if you can.
4. Generally we only worry about how it looks in the main camera. There are times when we have to worry about reflections and shadows giving away our cheats.
5. Once I’ve got blocking approved I just keep tweaking it. If my blocking is not approved I save the parts that are working and rip out the stuff that doesn’t and do those parts fresh.

[vnavone]

1. How do you feel you have grown as an artist during your carreer path?

2. There’s this statement “Genius/Art is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” Do you think this is applicable to character animation? Why?

3. Working at Pixar, you’re actually helping other people complete their visions, tell their stories. When doing so, don’t you feel you are creating kitsch, rather than real art?

4. Animation is a way of communicating, so how important are people’s reactions to your scenes, to you?

5. How important is reference and planning to you? Do you thumbnail, videotape, use x-sheets…?

6. To you, what’s the most important thing in animation? And what’s the most important thing that you’ve learned?

7. Apart from your Pixar work, AM Online mentoring and Big Bang creating, have you got any other artistic hobbies you like to do?

8. Where do you draw most of your inspiration from?

9. Do you still go out and sketch people, as a way of observing, like the AM Online students have to do? How do you observe?

10. What do you strive for in animation?

11. Have you tried other media than 3D, such as 2D or stop-mo? If so, what have you learned from it?

12. Who in the animation world is your “idol”? Anyone from the Nine Old Men? Maybe Tex Avery or Chuck Jones or anyone from their crew? Or guys from the new Disney Generation, such as Keane, Deja, etc? Or maybe someone your work with, or for? Yourself :D?

Aw, jeez.
2. Sure. Michelangelo said something like “if you new how hard I had to work to achieve this mastery you wouldn’t think it was wondeful at all”. Animation takes a lot of hard work and practice. It’s not about divine inspiration, it’s about making a lot of mistakes and doing a lot of crappy work before you get to the good work.
3. Huh? I get to work with directors who are telling a personal story that means something to them. There’s nothing kitsch about it. Except for the occasional fart gag.
4. If the audience doesn’t react the way I want then I haven’t done my job. Back to the drawing board!
7. I try to draw a lot. I’m doing caricatures of the other animators these days. I’m also learning guitar.
9. No, I don’t do that, but I do take gesture drawing courses, which helps a lot.
11. I haven’t tried any other mediums, aside from those flip-corner animations in my school books. 2D and stop-mo scare the hell out of me, frankly.

[ReaperXVIII]

First of all I would like to say that I love your work and I am really looking forward to what you guys are going to be doing in the future. So far I have not seen a single Pixar movie that I haven’t liked, and they just keep getting better.

That being said, I am currently shooting for a career in game design, but I would love to do animation too. I have little to no experience in 3D animation and little experience in animation in general, unless you count drawing stick figure animations on the pages of notebooks or a few simple flash animations. I was wondering if I should get a firm grasp of just modelling scenes or characters first before I try my hand at trying to learn to animate something like the bipeds in 3ds max. I do have a modelling class next quarter but I can’t wait until then to get started.

Thank you so much for your time. I am looking forward to Cars.

[owenshire]

Just another thank you for you and the artists at pixar for inspiring me to be where i am today. I am sure I will be working there within the next 5 years so I’ll see you there if you are still with them. But, ultimatly, it will be taken as a learning experience. I will open my own studio and do things with cg people have never seen before. You are totally right, realism is boring, with all the possibilities, I don’t think people are taking advantage of animations full capabilities. Not a question really, just sharing. Thanks again.

[Okan]

Hey Victor,
No Questions. Just wanted to say hi as always. It’s gonna be fun to read your answers. hope you remember your Turk fella
Take care.

[dobermunk]

Hi Victor, you said:

I’d like to see (aniamtion) take more risks with aesthetics and animation styles. Usually the experimentation is relegated to short films. I’d like to see some more inventive features. I want to see a look that is completely unique and unprecedented. Realism is boring.

I’m curious:
Would the chance to work on something like this be motivation enough for you to leave Pixar, or is this something you’d just like to see happen?

David

[sphere]

Hi Victor,

I hope this hasn’t already been asked. I didn’t see this thread til late.

Are you allowed to hide any ‘easter eggs’ in the projects you work on and are there any examples of this in any feature films from Pixar?

[HellBoy]

Hi Victor

I can tell my question is going to be long way before it gets answered, but I got hopes

1- How did you feel when pixar was interested on you when you joined?

2- Today, how tallented do you have to be to join pixar?

3- From you expeience, how long does it take you to produce a 5min animation?

4- I’ve seen a clip inside pixars studio, (this is when monster inc was out), theres was a mirror which acted like a motion capture but without the suit, it was a mirror. How does it work?

5- Finally, who’s the youngest in the studio, their age would do fine!

Thanks Victor, wish you the very best of excitements

[Trident_2K5]

Hi!

What do yo like (and hate) most about being 3D animator?

(Sorry for my english…)

[JBoskma]

Good stuff Victor, keep it up I got a few questions,

• Do you know the Vancouver Film School? www.vfs.com If you do, what do you think of their
  3D Animation program?

• Would a VFS diploma, own ‘talent’, some freelance jobs and a good portfolio open doors for
  somebody at an animation studio as Pixar?

• What do you find more important for finding a job at a quality animation studio? A good
  resume (schools / previous jobs) or a good portfolio?

• Do you like your Dutch Pixar colleagues?

Thanks for your time, good luck with everything. I enjoyed the Big Bang storyboard btw, looking forward to the short …and oh we both have an eye as our avatar, isn’t that great? :rolleyes:

[greyface]

Hey Victor, nice seeing you here! I have three questions for you:

1. Do you use walk/run cycles as a base for creating more complexe animation? or is each shot animated from scratch? Do you even create cycles?

2. Are you familiar with non-linear animation, like most of the high end animation packages have? If so, what are your views on this compared to the standard way?

3. You said you roughly create 4 seconds of animation per week, that sounds very little to me, considering some short movies with good animation are created within a year, including modeling, rendering, rigging, lighting and texturing, by only a few individuals, part-time. 4 seconds per week would mean only ~3 minutes over a year, full-time? Could you clarifly what takes the most time maybe, in a sequence?

Thanks a lot for reading,

Alex-

[wazim]

HI

I was wondering are the lip synch software of any help or is it better if we use our normal software morphing and a little bit of observation what works the best.

Please reply

[Fuchur]

Hi Victor,
I have to thank you, too. In 2000 I watch Alien Song and Killer Bean(from Jeff Lew), I stared at my PC and I just thought: "WOW, I gonna have to have that software and do something equal). Today I am wiser and know, that I have to find my own style but in the end you and Jeff brought me to Characteranimation and to Animation:Master and even if I am not the most talented one and not famous for any animations, I’ve got sooo much fun with it…

Thanks for being such an inspiration.
Fuchur

[Headless]

Hey Victor, thanks for answering my earlier questions. I just thought of one more quick one.

How complete is the audio track when you get it? Obviously you’ll have dialogue, but I wondered whether you animate to sound effects or not. It seems like some scenes, like the little crab doing praying-mantis in Finding Nemo (which I adore, by the way), would really benefit from having the sound beforehand.

[supergrover]

Hi Victor,
As Computer animation is still in it’s infancy I’d be interested to hear about whether you think you’ll stick with it until retirement age ( and after! ). Do you picture yourself as a Director somewhere down the line if the opportunity arises? Also How does family life suit a character animator? ie. is there enough time for the wife and kid(s) when you’re in crunch?
Matt

PS. Keep up the great work on Animation Mentor!

[KenH]

Edna voice on Love your work Victor dahling.

I’ve just one question: Which gives you more satisfaction…to design/script/build and animate your own short or work on a little piece of a superb Pixar short? Excluding the getting paid aspect.

I didn’t read all the questions so this may have been covered already.

[Marius_F]

WOW Victor Navone! What a pleasure it is to see you doing this Q&A.

I have just 3 questions for you if you don’t mind

1. Do you ever use pre made cycles when you’re doing a shot that requires the characters to either walk, run, climb etc.? Just wondering if you’d do this to save time or is every shot done right from scratch?

2. It sounds like you prepare yourself quite a bit before going to work on the computer. Have you’ve ever had a shot where you knew exactly what you wanted to do and forego say recording yourself or even drawing thumbnails?

3. I was just wondering if you know any animators at pixar who can’t draw a thing to save their life yet still be a really good animator? Seems like I keep hearing “thumbnails thumbnails thumbnails” but the reality is not everyone can draw like you. I guess Im asking so that I dont feel alone being an animator and be limited to stickmen

Thanks so much for your time! I can’t wait to see your work on Cars later next year!!!

Marius.

[jerry123]

hi.

• this have been bothering me for a while now,so now i have my chance…
  i have a kinda strange question,lately ive ran into a 2d/3d animation problem.
  im trying to kind of mimic the style u see on old disney movies,where everything is
  very flexible and over streaches,its just so fluid and flows really beautifully,eventhogh
  not verry phisically correct.

problem is when i transfer the concept to 3d,instead of all that,it just looks wrong
u get this very liquid unconvincing feel to it.
i found it happens on everything,starting from just primitives,to full characters,the 2d
way just doesent work…

have you ever ran into that problem?or is it just me.
any idea why doese it happen?or ways to solve it?

• i noticed the front page image…was that your scene,i liked it,it was very good,kinda
  creepy,are you responsible for all those slightly pcycotic syndrom scenes,or those are
  different animators?

thank you.

ps. emmm,lets hope he doesent see this,but your buddy just moved back here,and
hmmm…please,please take him back there,tell him you really miss him and all color and
joy ran out of your life ever since he left or something…hes taking over all my animation
contracts…took them all…the horror,man,the horror
im just kidding of course,hes a nice guy,but he took over my nisch…and im scared to
death of him…take him away,man…pleeeease…

[vnavone]

1. As you get your story board for a particular scene and may be you come up with some nice gag or acting idea in it :
   Whats preffered ?? Ur idea or the Storyboard.
   In Short > How much an animator is free to put in his creativity to make the scene look better?

2. Every animator has got his own preferences when it comes to Rigs and many Animators must be working on the same character. So the Animators make themselves comfortable with the Rig or Animators change or get the Rigs changed according to themselves ?

3. What do you prefer when it comes to acting out your scene … Thumbnails ? Video Recordings ? Basic Blocking of the Poses ?

4. And yaaa… who animated that little boy on the tricycle in The Incredibles with a bubble gum in his mouth and who watches Bob lifting his car high ? That was just cooooooooll !!

Hi Abhishek,

1. Usually we will stick with the gag in the storyboards, but sometimes we will come up with additional gags or gags where there were none before. As long as we meet the emotional and story requirements of the scene the directors are usually open to new ideas.
2. As animators we can’t change the rigs, and the rigs are standardized so that all the characters have the same basic controls. We just learn to use them as is and we work with the riggers to get the important features we need.
3. I may use any of these methods, depending on the scene. Or I may use none and just go straight from my head into the computer. I guess thumbnailing would be my “favorite”, but it’s not always the most effective.
4. I believe that was Rob Russ. He also did the shots of Helen turning into a parachute with the kids, and crawling on the beach. He works closely with the tools people and riggers to improve our models.

[vnavone]

Hi Victor,
Can you give us an example? Tell us a special scene you worked on and the time you needed to delivery it.

I really can’t remember any specific times. I do so many shots… I remember some of the hard ones, like the shot of Helen and E walking down the hallway, took me about a month. I don’t know if I had a deadline on that, or if they just said “keep going untill it’s done”.