

Animating a Blockbuster: How Pixar Built Toy Story 3 - edw519
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/process_pixar/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

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RyanMcGreal
"We know screwups are an essential part of making something good. That's why
our goal is to screw up as fast as possible."

The terror of being caught screwing up destroys more creativity, drives more
behaviour underground and fuels more petty politicking than just about any
other corporate imperative I can think of.

~~~
nlawalker
Amen to that. Insecurity destroys whole worlds full of ideas every day.

"The Myth of the Genius Programmer" is one of my favorite presentations:
[http://code.google.com/events/io/2009/sessions/MythGeniusPro...](http://code.google.com/events/io/2009/sessions/MythGeniusProgrammer.html)

From a "corporate" perspective, I think insecurity often stems from the
mandate to produce output and not waste time, and no one wants to produce
half-baked or poorly-thought-out output, so they throw their ideas in the
trash.

EDIT: Also, the importance of asking stupid questions. Stupid questions are
the most important ones to ask, because everyone else was probably too afraid
to ask them, resulting in gaps in thinking that you could drive a fleet of
trucks through. For this reason, sometimes the most important person on a
design team is the person who has the faintest idea of what's going on and
asks questions about existing processes that everyone takes for granted - they
ask seemingly nonsensical questions that challenge the thinking of everyone
stuck in tunnel vision.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
>EDIT: Also, the importance of asking stupid questions.

The company I work for really, _really_ loves acronyms; and different
departments often have different names for the same thing. An important early
lesson I learned from a manager was to stop during meetings and ask what an
acronym means.

One of my biggest surprises was discovering that different people had
different ideas about what the acronym stood for, and many people - including
the people using them - simply had no idea at all.

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MartinCron
I've watched most Pixar movies between 3 and 300 times (I have two small
children) and I'm still catching bits and pieces of hidden detail that I
missed on previous viewings.

One of the things that I love about their process is the way they essentially
make the movie multiple times, script, storyboard, animated storyboard with
stand-in voice talent, and so on, and how at each step of the way they aren't
afraid to make changes to make the thing better.

If you haven't seen it lately, take another look at Toy Story 2. The
characters feel real, every scene transition is perfect, and only one or two
lines in the whole movie fall flat.

~~~
jacquesm
I can quote you 'monsters inc.' line by line, it is my sons favorite movie...

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johnyzee
Single page:

<http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/process_pixar/all/1>

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jacquesm
Grellas posted this yesterday too. Weird, google still shows it but on
grellas' submission list it's gone.

~~~
grellas
Actually, and you might think that this _is_ weird, it was such a nice piece
and, when I saw that it was dying without a single upvote, I deleted it about
an hour into the posting so that it might be re-posted at a better time
without getting caught by HN's dupe filter.

It is interesting how quirky the community can get on a post such as this: one
day, nothing; the next, almost the exact opposite.

~~~
jacquesm
I think 'edw519' comes with a few automatic upvotes.

At least I wasn't hallucinating :)

Don't feel too bad by the way, I spent a day and a half writing this:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1376083> and it sank without even a
single comment.

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10ren
fantastic business talk by Ed Catmull (pixar co-founder) at Stanford
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc>

btw: I find it hard to believe that Toy Story 3 could be any good (because of
the "3"). Is it?

~~~
jcl
I haven't seen the movie, but given the history of Pixar and Toy Story, I
think there's a good chance Toy Story 3 will be good:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1334660>

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joezydeco
This article showed up online the same day the magazine arrived in my mailbox.

So I read it online, since I was busy at the computer doing other things.

So, Wired, why exactly do I need the print version if you're putting
everything online at the same time? What do you tell your advertising clients?

