Chris Sasaki Talk Part 1

We recently had Pixar character designer Chris Sasaki come in to do a talk which was great. It's a shame he couldn't stay for longer, but it was still very informative and useful.

Notes;

History

inspired by monsters inc, rejected from CalArts but still went to uni in Burbank. Internship at Dreamworks; was given assignments and built up character design portfolio with them. Character design test for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friend - feed back was 'great but not enough experience' but he was asked by someone who worked on it to help out with a personal project. Hired roommate to help. Continued doing a lot of smaller jobs like that, then ended up working with Laika, and then Pixar. He has done character design on both Monsters Uni and Monsters Inc. 

Working at Pixar

Was on films from very early on in the development process. Did lots of research and carried out lots of field trips. Find small authentic bits to make people connect with the character/ideas. Research drawings for reference. 3/4 days research last 1/2 days doing a lot of the actual drawing/designing part.  Half way before showing them meets with production designer, edits them then shows the director. Working on their (director's) baby - want to make them happy. Might start from scratch again after chat. Pitch, walk them through everything. Who they are, what am I trying to sell - think about the story point, purpose, what performances they need to get out of them. Ideas to relate to and apply to design process, bringing personal influences into it. Depends on timeline for media, likes to do things by hand as much as possible early on; later is a lot more digital stuff. Turnarounds are v good. Communicate a lot with the technical team; how will they build it? Art design 20% - rest behind the scenes. Regrets skipping the step of finding out who he was as an artist at uni.

Spend like 3 weeks creating a research bible. What does the world look like, why does it look like that? Computer vs hand drawn - depends where you want to work. Colour keys, lighting etc is best digitally. Keep as loose as possible at first. Cheat all the time for appeal sake. Sometimes sculpt before computer, work close to technical team to compromise; lots of problem solving.