How does a large animation studio like Pixar maintain consistency when dozens of people with varying artistic tastes are working on a single project?
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In short, master style guide documents. A small number of people will be involved in making these documents, and then everyone else who is working on the project ends up working within the parameters they have.
Further, a most of the aspects of the design get assigned to smaller teams, so you might have a group of three or four artists working on sets, five or six on character design (with your main characters and filler characters being separate sub-teams), two or three people on just lighting, four on large body animation, another four on facial animation, a few on virtual camera movement, and so on.
As you get more things blocked out into place, you can have even more people working on more specific things which don’t overlap enough for your brain to be able to tell if different artists working in slightly different styles did them as long as they work to the master guide. For instance, with *The Incredibles* you wouldn’t be able to tell if Edna had a different artist working on how the fabrics she wore specifically looked as opposed to Kari’s fabrics. Or rather, your brain would make the assumption that any differences were actual differences in the fabrics
A lot of people talked about how it works, but I want to talk about places where it’s ignored and that works too.
Something like Adventure time has many writers and directors who keel their particular episode on rails and in a style but AT doesn’t have rhe same unified look or story telling style. Instead, you can find different writers, directors, or story board artists who all bring their own flavor to the mix. For example, some are more likely to include a song or have particular characters or utilize ultra close ups or push the envelope for the styles of story telling they use. The show still works and feels unified in voice direction and absurdity even while into a non uniform art direction.
In short, master style guide documents. A small number of people will be involved in making these documents, and then everyone else who is working on the project ends up working within the parameters they have.
Further, a most of the aspects of the design get assigned to smaller teams, so you might have a group of three or four artists working on sets, five or six on character design (with your main characters and filler characters being separate sub-teams), two or three people on just lighting, four on large body animation, another four on facial animation, a few on virtual camera movement, and so on.
As you get more things blocked out into place, you can have even more people working on more specific things which don’t overlap enough for your brain to be able to tell if different artists working in slightly different styles did them as long as they work to the master guide. For instance, with *The Incredibles* you wouldn’t be able to tell if Edna had a different artist working on how the fabrics she wore specifically looked as opposed to Kari’s fabrics. Or rather, your brain would make the assumption that any differences were actual differences in the fabrics
A lot of people talked about how it works, but I want to talk about places where it’s ignored and that works too.
Something like Adventure time has many writers and directors who keel their particular episode on rails and in a style but AT doesn’t have rhe same unified look or story telling style. Instead, you can find different writers, directors, or story board artists who all bring their own flavor to the mix. For example, some are more likely to include a song or have particular characters or utilize ultra close ups or push the envelope for the styles of story telling they use. The show still works and feels unified in voice direction and absurdity even while into a non uniform art direction.
There’s a book “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration” That touches on this and the business of CGI animation in general. It’s by Ed Catmull one of the founders of Pixar, and one of the few business books that is worth a read.
I’m currently watching a documentary on the making of Frozen 2, maybe you’d like that as well.
As other people already mentioned, there are several art directors involved. In this case they also have specific character directors (one for each character) that makes sure the character is looking and acting the same way throughout the entire film. And lots of reviewing together helps to make everything blend in as well.
This explains it well (for the Simpsons)
There’s a book “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration” That touches on this and the business of CGI animation in general. It’s by Ed Catmull one of the founders of Pixar, and one of the few business books that is worth a read.
There’s a book “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration” That touches on this and the business of CGI animation in general. It’s by Ed Catmull one of the founders of Pixar, and one of the few business books that is worth a read.
I’m pretty sure it has to do with individual animators using the same software/tools and receiving the same files for character skins and other on-screen things that require continuity for CGI films anyway. For traditional animation it’s something similar but on physical media.
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