Monsters rule!!

As we roll off Halloween I want to circle back to the theme I briefly touched on in my first Robot post: MONSTERS! But this time to ones we all know. My second and last films at Pixar were Monsters, Inc and Monsters University respectively. A fitting bookend to a relatively long tenure.

I remember how excited I was while still on A Bug's Life to glimpse the first images of the mysterious next feature, known as Hidden City. By the time I rolled on to the film in the late '90's, much was still up in the air about the story and its unique world.

For the next few years, the story and style swung wildly around, tugged by the challenge of developing an entirely original world, compounded with the conflicting visions of multiple directors, production designers, creative executives and committee oversight afforded by Disney as part of the original 3-picture distribution deal.?

At this early stage in my career with the studio I was a sketch and digital artist, broadly contributing to character, set and prop concepts and model packets (mechanical drawings, breakdowns, cutaways, and scale plans informing how the designs should be built in 3D).

As much as I had looked forward to being on this production, it proved a LOT more challenging than I thought. The idea of designing an entirely original world sounds great, but when everything has to be designed from the ground up, and anything can basically be ANYTHING, the one suddenly recognizes the value of creative constraint.

During this production I conceded I was not a character artist and passed on what little knowledge I could to two up and coming artists who have since become amazing Art Directors and Production Designers in their own rights.

By focusing on just sets and graphics I still had plenty of challenge and room for growth. Having never finished college, working at Pixar with such talented artists and storytellers became the best education I could have ever asked for. While I often felt like one of the weaker artists, the environment enabled me to learn and grow, even to this day.

Although I didn't necessarily always enjoy packeting, I learned under the guidance of Academy-award winning production designer Harley Jessup the importance of accuracy in visual communication and presentation, down to the tiniest details and measurements.

My previous background in games enabled me to move into graphics where I took secret delight in injecting story and humor wherever I could, including inside jokes, crew references and subtle easter eggs (until I did one on Ratatouille that proved not to be so subtle--more on that for another post).

Next post I'll share some Monsters, Inc graphics along with exploratory graphics I developed for my last film, Monsters University. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!