CGSociety CGNews
VIEW begins today with top line acts from Sony Imageworks, PIXAR and a spree of luminaries.
Thursday, 05 November 2009
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The VIEW Conference for 2009 was opened this morning by Maria Elena Gutierrez and some esteemed members of the Turino and Piedmont councils. These are the people that have been instrumental in bringing the funding and national recognition to the conference. From Chambers of Commerce, Universities to the Piedmont State politicians.
Then PIXAR's Stereographer Bob Whitehill gathered the crowds in, hanging from the window boxes, to discuss ways PIXAR used 3D to tell a story, using the examples of 'Up', as well as the reworking of the classic 'Toy Story' 1 and 2. Truly they were jammed in.
Whitehill listed a plethora of elements in screen construction for driving the narrative: Areas like Lighting, lens choices, composition and the shapes of characters. The square shapes of Carl Fredricksen in 'Up' and the round characterization of Ellie, drove so much of the story arc, through light and dark, happy to sad and back again.
Bob primarily took on the Stereography story. Elements like Edge conflicts and the phenomenon of floating windows when two or more elements drag audience's eyes both into the screen and pulled them back out. Many tricks to making it all appear acceptable.
"What we miss when we go back to 2D, is it feels like the sound has been wound down," he said. The task of regrouping with animators from the original Toy Story was like a geneaological search. "An adventure in digital archeology," Whitehill quipped. A great talk. A question at the end brought up the spectre of placing subtitles into a 3D Stereo movie for international release, an aspect not unfamiliar to this local audience. "They are a minefield," he said, suddenly ashen-faced! Bob told of having to go through the film shot by shot, placing the subtitles at a stereo level so they would not clash with any of the story elements as the film ran through.
