UPDATED: Watch the full short and find out about the new hybrid technique which results in a world seemingly sculpted out of sketches…
UPDATED: 31st Jan: You might have been lucky enough to see this subtle short (that’s up for the Animated Oscar Award) which ran ahead of Wreck-It Ralph in cimemas a few months ago, but if not, you’re in for a treat, as Disney has just released it online.
UPDATED: 5th Dec:
“Paperman” director John Kahrs has described the process: “It’s not like a texture map. It’s just like painting on the surface of the CG. It acutally moves on a 2D layer that’s driven by the CG.”
John Kahrs goes on to describe the working process of animating: “…folds in the fabric, hair silhouettes and the like come from of the commited design decision-making that comes with the 2D drawn process. Our animators can change things, actually erase away the CG underlayer if they want, and change the profile of the arm.”
2D animation has, for some time now, taken a backseat to 3D computer graphics but John Kahrs has stated that although he does not believe they are ready to do a feature length film using the technique that it is a direction that they are eventually going to move toward and that Disney believes there is a strong future ahead for this technology.
“Paperman” is one of the 10 animated shorts being considered for an Oscar at the next Academy Awards.
Check out the report on Hollywood Reporter
Disney has been keeping Paperman quiet, but now it’s finished there are a few stills from the film and some interviews online.
The short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, who tries to win the girl of his dreams with only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers!
First-time director John Kahrs led a team of 2D and CG artists who used a proprietary program called Meander to create the short.
Employing a technique called final line advection, artists were able to add a level of grace and expressiveness never before seen in an animated film.
“When I began working for Disney, I just fell in love with the hand-drawn line,” Kahrs told the Huffington Post. “And seeing as Walt Disney Animation Studios has this long tradition of producing hand-drawn animated features… Well, I wanted to do what I could to make sure that more of those great line drawings that Disney artists produce during the preproduction phase of our new CG projects actually wound up on screen in the Studio’s animated feature films and shorts.”
If Disney hadn’t have used this new hybrid technology, Paperman would still have been a charming story — but the appeal of this animation is as much about the technique as it is the tale.
Using this technique has really worked on Paperman, but the director wants to experiment with it further and next time plans to introduce colour and foliage...
Paperman had its world premiere on the opening night of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It’s slated for release in front of Wreck-It Ralph in November.
We’ll hope to have more on this short soon. In the meantime there’s a short interview with John Kahrs and producer Kristina Reed on Paperman on AWN’s website.
If you liked this, you may also like to read about the following magical shorts:
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Pixar’s enchanting short La Luna
Sources: Huffington Post
Entertainment Weekly
Posted on Friday, February 1st, 2013 at 10:54 am under Shorts, Showcase. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: Animated short, CG, Disney, final line advection, hand-drawn techniques, new Disney short, Paperman
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