After the tough week I had... it's saturday again and I went along with my mum and the kids to art school again. In between, I went seperate ways from my mum and aunt, and since time was up, I went to fetch the kids first. Knowing that the elders were probably in the market, the kids and I just waited at the foot of the staircase, the kids kind of interacting among themselves, ann monkeying around the railings while Yang and Xiong were discussing about some 'noob' issue. Then came an old woman with a walking stick, who saw the kids and the bags I was carrying and asked if there was a tuition centre in this building. Yea, there was one, as far as I know, the one at the top most floor where I fetched the kids from. She nodded, said some stuff and told me that her grandson was having tuition and she had come to fetch him since the parents couldn't make it for some reason. And started climbing the stairs.
For some reason, I was just horrified to see that. Almost a minute had passed and she was not even up that flight of stairs. Who wouldn't feel bad about it?? Even I was panting when I got up there, I couldn't imagine how she would be like when she got all the way up. Offered to help her get her grandson down and asked for hte kid's name, but maybe for safety reason, she insisted to go up herself and fetch the kid, though she told me I have three kids to look after and didn't want to bother me about it. I regreted not bringing out my handphone... at least a call would be able to confirm if the kid was even up there. I was told later by my mum that there was a tuition centre at the second level. Felt very bad about that... the kid might have been there, save the old woman some torment. Wonder if that was jsut too much self-righteousness, I remembered my friends mocking the young hoggers of the MRT seats and didn't comment about that. Personally felt that everyone has that selfish heart and even if one gives up a seat for the elderly on the train but don't extend that compassion to others whether they like them or not, what's all that righteous talk about? Maybe I'm slapping myself in the face, just sad to be in the position to help but not knowing how to. Aye, just wanted to get that out of my head and did this pastel painting of what I remembered of that old woman.
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Pixar exhibition
Yea, it got me into the pastel mode again. It's very very inspiring to see their works up in the science centre, thought I thought the art musuem would have been a greater place for them. Went for the three talks yesterday (aye, didn't go for Good Friday's mass this year, I'm such a bad girl...) I was shocked that not many year 2s came, and not even a familiar soul from nyp.
The Talks
The first talk by Mr Warren Trezevant, (as copied from the email sent from school:
Warren Trezevant joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1995 and has animated on seven of Pixar's feature films, including Finding Nemo, Incredibles and Ratatouille. Taking advantage of his strong technical background, Warren has been exploring ways to take characters off the screen and bring them to life in our world with the Toy Story Zoetrope and the animatronic WALL*E. Warren is currently working with Pixar's software team to improve their animation production software.)
He talked about how he started off, got to know what he wanted to do in his life and how he ended up in pixar. He brought us through the animation production, from the storyboards all the way to the final rendered movie. It was amazing. The storyboards were simple drawings, fixed with dialogue that the makers dubbed themselves. The reel that he showed us was one from UP, the part when Russel discovered the birdie and presented it to the old man. It was hilarious to see images of Russel fixed to a manly voice that tried to 'act kiddy'. Yea, the images, as compared to Ting Zhao's reel I've saw couple years back in NYP was not that detailed, but the shots were pretty much what we see at the end of the movie. Next, the story moved to a very rough animation in 3D. The characters were just there, not doing any detailed movements other than moving from point A to B. It's almost like setting the camera angles and blocking out the major actions. The facial expressions were not done at that stage, but the voices were the final dialogue that was in the movie. After that, it moved to a more detailed phase where all the actions were done. There weren't any shading on the them, all concentration seemed to be on the animation itself. After that, the lighting, shading, rendering; the final outlook. It's pretty amazing. Although I myself didn't had the oppurtunity to go through a proper production in school, I could catch what he said, it was almost like painting a picture, the rough first, get the important form in there (in this case, the animation) and then make it look beautiful and finished.
Throughout the making, the animators do act out the actions of the characters they were animating. He showed us some clips of that, and it was funny watching the animators acting there. Super expressive. During the QnA, it was known that when the voices of the actors were dubbed for the show, their faces were also recorded for the animators to reference to.
[Off: Which reminded me or this video: hahahahahah~ great reference it would be!]
There were many other things he said, the working environment of pixar... but I couldn't remember them all. Oh, and he showed us the toystory zoetrope made of sculptures! (Aye, check up the wiki if you have no idea what it is) It was very amazing, and it's up in the exhibition!
The exhibition
As there was a 2 hour break in between, Shengyi and I went into the exhibition and had a look. She had gotten a ticket to the exhibit that day, which wasn't a very good choice. However, what's done is done and she hoped i could accompany her for the trip. I tried to ask for a change to my tix that was fixed for today and thankfully, they allowed. There wasn't much time for us to see everything, but enough to take a browse at the pictures (!! A browse.... T_T I intend to return another day actually.) Man... it was information overload.... Halfway through, I couldn't take it. Just too much to see and absorb!!!!! I was very inspired by the acrylics and pastel paintings exhibited, especially the ones from Finding nemo and Monsters Inc. My descriptions wouldn't give them justice >_< A definite see for traditional medium and concept art lovers. The character sculptures of the different movies were on exhibit too! It seems like they would build a model for the character and draw out contour lines as a visual aid for modelling. Also, there were a number of concept arts which were done using collage, and that opened a new door to me about the technique too. As long as it can communicate the idea and be done in the fastest speed of the artist, guess anything goes! To hell with the 'only digital for digital media' crap!!!
Didn't really read the descriptions, neither did I settle down to see the videos cos the next talk was starting. Info overload!!!! Info overload!!! Time to grab some woman down to see it!!! XD
Talks continued...
The second talk by Ms DeAnn Cobb:
(Shamelessly copied from the email I got from school again!: DeAnn is an instructor at Pixar University and a Designer for the Exhibitions program within Pixar and abroad. She specializes in color theory and painting and technical art classes such as Photoshop and Illustrator. DeAnn grew up in Marlow Oklahoma and went to Baylor University in Texas where she received her BFA in graphic design. She then went to San Francisco Art Institute for her Masters in painting.)
Maybe cos I had some food earlier on, i started feeling a bit sleepy in the auditorium, but her talk about the art making was as interesting as the previous talk. After a walk through the exhibition, it was even easier to relate to the pieces she showed on screen. What really caught me was the making of 'Bugs Life' concepts. They actually took a video camera and took videos from the ant's point of view. Many things seen in that home made video then became inspiration to the settings and tiny details in the movie. She talked about the pixar culture of 'plussing', an idea about building on ideas. Thought that was a really great way of making ideas instead of just casting things away and saying 'No'. The third speaker, Kim Donovan,
(Kim came to Pixar in 2007 from The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Her role as a project manager at MoMA spanned six years where she worked on projects ranging from art installations to the building of the new Education Center. In the winter of 2005 Kim was involved in the installation of "Pixar: 20 Years of Animation." She eventually stepped into the role of project manager of the traveling exhibition and has been amazed by not only the film making process at Pixar but at the support and fans of Pixar she's met around the world. While in New York, Kim also worked extensively as an actor and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. She grew up in Sarasota, Florida on Siesta Key and received her degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.)
expanded much more on that topic, saying that the people had a culture of saying 'Yes, and...' instead of 'No, but...'. It's a respect for the idea that someone comes up with, but instead of disregarding it, one adds on to it, and maybe the original idea will slowly morph into the grand idea. Seems like something I can try doing next time when it comes to brainstorming. Another I learnt was... 'story is king'.... (some mantra chanted throughout the entire pixar company). Since almost three quarter of the production would revolve around the story, yea, story is king. But the welfare of the workers are higher than that, she said. So yea, maybe that's where we suck when it comes to working. Drowning in the pile of work and not getting out of the seat for some sports or even food. No wonder so many people hoped to work in the Pixar company.
Yeap, not gonna go further on that anymore. I'm thinking of my next visit to the science centre again, most probably catching a movie too. They are actually screening Up, Toystory 1 and 2 on April, May and June respectively. In 3D at the price of $3 (dun think you need to buy the exhibition tix for that, the screening is in another venue near the exhibition). Aye. I watched it for $10. Why not?
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Side thing: I scored B+ for my astro quiz without preparation, reading notes and attending lecture. Yes, I'm laughing. Things I study like siao ends up as failures while things I don't give a damn about gets passes. Just don't understand how this world works sometimes... S/U astro liao. Heck. Couldn't be this heng in exam next time.
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