Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • I am Ricky Nierva and I am an artist.

  • I am very very lucky to say that I am

  • a production designer at Pixar Animation Studios,

  • which is one of the best animation studios in the world.

  • It is hard to believe, but I've been in the industry,

  • animation industry, for almost 20 years now.

  • And one thing that really terrifies me,

  • other that being on the stage right now,

  • is this. Right here.

  • This blank sheet of paper.

  • This is very very intimidating to an artist, I think.

  • Its emptiness could be very intimidating.

  • There is so many opportunities,

  • so many possibilities of what could be on this thing.

  • You know, I have a little, a quick story

  • about a theater and a director at a theater,

  • where the director came to work, during rehearsals,

  • the director opened the door to the theater

  • and noticed, on the stage,

  • that the dancers were basically doing nothing.

  • Some dancers were stretching, some dancers were,

  • you know, reading a book or something,

  • but they were basically doing nothing.

  • And the director, bewildered,

  • walked down to the front of the stage

  • and he noticed the choreographer had his head in his hands

  • and he looks at the choreographer and angrily says:

  • "What 's going on here?"

  • And the choreographer looks at the director and goes:

  • "Nothing is happening. It's nothing, you know, it's just not working. Nothing."

  • And the director looks at the choreographer and says:

  • "Well do something, so I can change it!"

  • (Laughter)

  • So, being a production designer

  • is a very intimidating thing.

  • A production designer is basically in charge

  • of the overall look of the film.

  • And that's very scary because

  • at Pixar a colleague has said to me,

  • his name is Jason Deamer, he's an art director at Pixar,

  • has said: "Pain is temporary, suck is forever".

  • (Laughter)

  • So, I'm gonna do, the theme here is

  • "Uncharted Waters" and do something crazy

  • and I just said "suck",

  • so I'm gonna do something that hopefully doesn't suck too badly

  • and I'm gonna make this more relaxing to me.

  • So I'm going to just--

  • OK, that sucked but,

  • there's a point behind this.

  • Basically, where do you begin, right?

  • Apple and Pixar founder Steve Jobs

  • has said, let's see here,

  • "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like,

  • design is how it works."

  • Film making is a purely collaborative

  • art form, and that's why I love it so much.

  • To make a film's design work,

  • the art must support the story.

  • and at Pixar we try to tell the best stories that we possibly can.

  • You know, the first time I got to production design

  • was on the movie "Up",

  • and for those that have not seen it,

  • you need to leave right now and watch it.

  • (Laughter)

  • But I apologize if I ruin the film for you,

  • when I say, it's about a story, about a man

  • named Carl Fredricksen.

  • And Carl Fredricksen, in the beginning of the film,

  • we meet him as a very young child

  • and he meets the love of his life, her name is Ellie,

  • they fall in love, they get married,

  • they go through all the trials and tribulations of life.

  • You get to a point were they get old

  • and Ellie dies.

  • Again, I'm sorry if i ruined it for you,

  • but, that's in the first five minutes of the movie

  • and I think it's the most beautiful five minutes of the movie.

  • It's a really powerful setup

  • to Carl Fredricksen's story.

  • And then Carl, basically, at that point

  • starts being boxed in,

  • starts being stuck in his ways.

  • He's basically unchanged man.

  • So, the approach I took to designing that

  • is all based upon that idea,

  • and if you bear with me here,

  • I'm gonna show you a bit about how I think

  • about designing for that movie.

  • And it all started with this.

  • A simple square.

  • Basically, I go to work,

  • I draw that, I show the director

  • and then I go home and

  • turn on the Internet.

  • OK that was a joke.

  • (Laughter)

  • It takes some time to translate the jokes, I'm sure.

  • No, it starts with a simple idea,

  • the square.

  • And the square to me, while I'm designing,

  • it's static, it's not dynamic,

  • it's solid and stable,

  • but it's also basically boxed in.

  • So, as I'm thinking of these things while I'm designing

  • on the shape,

  • things come together.

  • And all of these ideas,

  • and here's some square glasses,

  • is supported by that square.

  • He's got square ears,

  • and this is basically Carl Fredricksen

  • see, hold your applause, I'm not done yet.

  • (Laughter)

  • He's got a square body.

  • Uncharted waters, I don't normally draw in front of people like this.

  • So, you're getting first time stuff going on here.

  • He's got square hands,

  • a lot of squares to support that simple,

  • simple idea.

  • Carl Fredrickson.

  • (Applause)

  • So, another character that takes Carl through his journey

  • and actually tries to change him

  • and make him a more well-rounded character,

  • is a character named Russel.

  • And what's simpler shape that contrasts that square

  • but a circle?

  • So, I'll get here

  • So, the circle symbolizes positivity and moving forward.

  • It's a very dynamic thing,

  • It's all of these things that

  • need to help Carl get more well-rounded.

  • So Russel was based upon this idea.

  • It's kind of like a balloon shape.

  • And Russel, is this wilderness explorer.

  • A very positive kid.

  • And he's got all these circular motifs all around his body.

  • Like that.

  • And he has, well, I'm not done yet.

  • (Laughter)

  • I wanted to show you all the details around his body,

  • which are very circular.

  • And we think about all theses things,

  • you know, he's got this sash,

  • and part of the story

  • is that he's collecting all of these badges

  • as a wilderness explorer

  • and it's all these circular things

  • and each badge has a story,

  • but right here is this empty one.

  • He's trying to get the "Assisting the elderly" badge,

  • and by design it's over his heart.

  • And one of these things is that they would work with each other.

  • You have the square and the circle.

  • But for Carl there's also a story point

  • of this circular symbol right over his heart,

  • and that's the Ellie badge.

  • So you need to watch the movie in order to

  • understand what's going on there.

  • But, you know, we think about all of these things

  • as we design and it's a very long process.

  • You know, it takes an average of four years

  • to make an animated film at Pixar.

  • And we also, while we are thinking of making the movie,

  • we have fun putting these simple shapes

  • all over the movie.

  • So you can see here, where Carl wakes up,

  • on his side of the bed are the square symbology,

  • and on her side is this circle symbology.

  • And so, you know, it's fun to do this

  • and we have kind of these ideas,

  • but the main point is to not see it

  • while you are watching the movie,

  • but you should feel it.

  • If we do our job right, you don't notice this stuff,

  • but you feel it.

  • It's also here,

  • in picture frames around the house.

  • If Carl is by himself, he's in a square picture frame.

  • If Ellie is in the picture frame by herself, she's in an oval picture frame.

  • Someone asked: "What if they're in the picture together?"

  • Well, it's a square frame with an oval mat.

  • (Laughter)

  • You can see in this image, Russel is literally

  • separated from from Carl with lighting.

  • It's just cut right through the shot.

  • And all of these things support that simple idea,

  • basing upon that simple idea of circle and squares.

  • You can see the circular motif all around his design

  • and his very colorful, very saturated color.

  • And Carl's desaturated.

  • So he's trying to get color back into Carl,

  • he's trying to get him more well rounded.

  • Very clearly it's in the prop design.

  • Carl and Ellie's chair,

  • you can see the circle and square

  • shape vocabulary there, shape language.

  • And at the end of the film, after Carl has gone through his adventure,

  • you can see that he's a more softened character.

  • He's more well rounded.

  • You know, he's tanned,

  • he has more life in him.

  • And the idea of this, is that

  • it's a process of making things simple.

  • But we all know that simple is

  • not necessarily simpler.

  • Pablo Picasso, the famous artist has said:

  • "It has taken me four years to paint like Rafael,

  • but a lifetime to paint like a child."

  • You know, kids have an amazing

  • directness to the way they draw and express themselves.

  • This is a beautiful drawing by my daughter Olivia,

  • who's actually in the audience right now.

  • (Applause)

  • Sleeping, bored.

  • (Laughter)

  • Uncharted waters, this is what it's all about.

  • (Laughter)

  • She's never gonna forget that.

  • I'm never gonna forget it.

  • Oh my gosh, this is amazing.

  • Let me tell you about how amazingly full of life she is.

  • (Laughter)

  • No, she drew this drawing and, you know,

  • young kids, they just jump in.

  • They're joyful when they create.

  • You know, Eugene was talking about that,

  • about the kids,

  • very young kids will just dive in.

  • You know, they're not afraid of that blank piece of paper.

  • They can't wait to fill that blank piece of paper.

  • They simplify down to it's purest essence.

  • You know, pure drawing comes from the soul.

  • It comes from deep inside of you,

  • and that's how you can communicate.

  • You know, I've been drawing,

  • my first drawings are when

  • I think I was three years old.

  • I asked my mom: "Who did these drawings on my bed?"

  • and she said: "You did".

  • "You found a permanent marker,

  • you destroyed your bed,

  • and then you went to the walls.

  • You kept going around the house".

  • And my mom, instead of getting angry,

  • she brought home paper for me to draw

  • on the paper instead of her walls.

  • So I'm very very thankful and appreciate

  • that she's an enabler and she supports my addiction,

  • and, OK that was a joke.

  • I love my mom for doing that, really.

  • I would get completely lost when I was a child,

  • and it's called "Getting in the zone"

  • where the world would just disappear,

  • and I would make sound effects and I would just

  • completely lose myself and, you know,

  • as an artist, that's the thing you try to strive for.

  • You know, getting in that zone.

  • Kids also, in terms of drawing, they get to the heart of it.

  • My youngest daughter who's also in the audience,

  • Lilly. She's not sleeping. Is she?

  • (Laughter) (Applause)

  • She's gonna kill me.

  • Oh my gosh, my kids are gonna kill me.

  • (Laughter)

  • Lilly, when she was around four years old,

  • she's about five,

  • maybe actually when she was about three or four,

  • she drew this amazing drawing of our pet dog right here.

  • Our dog, Kika.

  • Kika is a little Doxin, a little wiener dog.

  • And I looked at the drawing,

  • I loved it, but I said

  • "Hey, Lilly, dogs only have four legs".

  • And she said "She's running, papa".

  • (Laughter)

  • Isn't that amazing? That is so amazing to me.

  • And there's cave drawings, you know,

  • where there's animals running, and there're multiple legs.

  • It's like the first animation, in a cave.

  • So, you know, it's just so inspirational.

  • I look at kids' drawings and that pure,

  • that purity in this things that Ι just feed from.

  • And the last thing is,

  • ultimately kids are not afraid of making mistakes.

  • My goal is to continue to draw

  • so some day I will be able to draw like a child.

  • So, my last point is, let's come back to this.

  • I would say if anything you get out of this talk

  • is- don't be intimidated by the blank sheet.

  • You know, start with something.

  • Start with a scribble, start with something.

  • "Fail early, fail often"

  • That's a saying that we have at the studio.

  • But you need to be brave and take risks.

  • I'm gonna create something out of this here.

  • Lets see--

  • It's a duck holding its egg close to its body.

  • (Laughter)

  • (Applause)

  • Thank you.

I am Ricky Nierva and I am an artist.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it