It’s ironic that Emeryville, CA’s best-known animation studio, Pixar, owes its success—nay, its very existence to George Lucas, Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. Not only are the characters in Pixar’s The Incredibles more believable than those in Lucas’s recent Star Wars films, they’re more life-like than Eisner lately himself seems. Further irony is found in the fact that Eisner’s Disney two-dimensional shop is no more, shut down by the public’s preference for Pixar-style computer animation.
The background: In 1986 Lucas sold his Computer Division to Steve Jobs, who renamed the outfit Pixar (that’s Pix for pixel, and ar for art) and set out to create the first computer animated feature film. Nine years and a money vault full of Eisner’s Disney dollars later, Toy Story was born—and traditional, flat animation was on its way to extinction.
MoMA’s expansive celebration of Pixar’s oeuvre spreads across four levels of the museum. According to John Lasseter, the studio’s creative kingpin, “people don’t realize how much traditional art—drawing, painting and sculpture—goes into creating computer animation.”
A sizeable hunk of that material is on display at MoMA, eye-candy to the max. Animation junkies can pig out on concept art, storyboard frames, “color scripts” (meta-storyboards that track the movie’s emotional and visual arc), low-res in progress images and maquettes. Meanwhile, animatic test sequences and film clips play out on wall monitors.
After you’ve taken in the exhibits and caught a screening of a Pixar classic to recoup a bit more of your twenty bucks, check out the show’s two trippiest attractions, set up back-to-back in a second floor gallery. First, a multi-projector, Cinerama-style “Artscape” flies its virtual camera into, out of and around blow-ups of Pixar pics you’ve just finished looking at outside. Once that’s over, turn around and watch a giant-sized, three-dimensional zoetrope spin sculpted versions of Toy Story’s cast into strobing, surreal motion. Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.); Museum Admission $20, museum closed Mondays, go to moma.org for hours and more information.
The background: In 1986 Lucas sold his Computer Division to Steve Jobs, who renamed the outfit Pixar (that’s Pix for pixel, and ar for art) and set out to create the first computer animated feature film. Nine years and a money vault full of Eisner’s Disney dollars later, Toy Story was born—and traditional, flat animation was on its way to extinction.
MoMA’s expansive celebration of Pixar’s oeuvre spreads across four levels of the museum. According to John Lasseter, the studio’s creative kingpin, “people don’t realize how much traditional art—drawing, painting and sculpture—goes into creating computer animation.”
A sizeable hunk of that material is on display at MoMA, eye-candy to the max. Animation junkies can pig out on concept art, storyboard frames, “color scripts” (meta-storyboards that track the movie’s emotional and visual arc), low-res in progress images and maquettes. Meanwhile, animatic test sequences and film clips play out on wall monitors.
After you’ve taken in the exhibits and caught a screening of a Pixar classic to recoup a bit more of your twenty bucks, check out the show’s two trippiest attractions, set up back-to-back in a second floor gallery. First, a multi-projector, Cinerama-style “Artscape” flies its virtual camera into, out of and around blow-ups of Pixar pics you’ve just finished looking at outside. Once that’s over, turn around and watch a giant-sized, three-dimensional zoetrope spin sculpted versions of Toy Story’s cast into strobing, surreal motion. Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.); Museum Admission $20, museum closed Mondays, go to moma.org for hours and more information.
