PIXAR
In the summer of 2013, I did an internship at Pixar Animation Studios. I loved every minute, and have the following portfolio from my time there.
Application Demo Reel
I didn’t have prior experience in modeling / shading / animation, so I made a demo reel specifically for the Pixar application. The internship was in the ‘Pixar Undergraduate Program’, for technical directors. These are people that work on the technical aspects of the film, as opposed to the art or animation. It is related to software engineering, but also involves skills like 3D modeling, lighting scenes, creating visual effects and camera/scene staging.
Modeling
In our first week of the internship, we went for a walk around Oakland, where we were shown how Pixar employees observe the real world in order to portray it stylistically in animation.
We were shown how various surfaces aged under the elements, and how we could recreate that effect programmatically in a script. Finally we stopped at a thrift store and each bought something we would bring back to the studio and model. I was only just starting out in 3D modeling, so I chose a fairly simple lamp.
Group Project
For this project, I had 2 preposterously talented teammates, Kien Hoang and Joseph Tong. Because our program wasn’t for animation, we were given the task of creating a scene with no characters that still told a story. We decided to create an old boxing ring, that someone was still sneaking into to practice.
Everything you see here was created by us, from the models, to the lighting, to the dust effects in the air and the patina on the metal surfaces. Kien’s beautiful sculptural modeling was responsible for the boxing gloves, I think I modeled a squashed water-bottle discarded on one of the lockers in the background 🙂
Final Project - Houdini Effects
For my final project I chose to focus on visual effects. Pixar uses software called Houdini to create effects like dust, water, sparkles etc. I used it to procedurally generate jellyfish, which I then added to my favourite Pixar creation – La Luna.
My jellyfish aren’t modeled in the traditional way using 3D modeling software like Maya, they are just generated using functions. For example, rotating a curve to form a bell shape, and then distorting it with a sin wave over time to get the movement.
After Pixar
I did a few small 3D projects after my internship (examples below), but my main takeaway from my time at Pixar was a great love for the art of storytelling, and everything I learned about how to make people care about stories.