Pixar's 'Burrow' made with TVPaint

[D.T. Nethery]

The newest Pixar short film, 'Burrow' , directed by Madeline Sharafian, was made using TVPaint.

https://www.animationmagazine.net/short ... to-disney/

The article quotes director Madeline Sharafian:

"The short’s animation was done in TVPaint. All my student films were done in TVPaint,” says the director. “It needed to be simpler and flatter so that the colors would pop up against those detailed backgrounds to maintain that hand-drawn feeling. We had to do these small lines stitched together, and it all had to be hand-drawn because it was too hard to automate the process.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apx1aUP3MqA



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM3YrFMuRU4

Pixar_Burrow.jpg (93.7 KiB) Viewed 16986 times

This is now the second Pixar hand drawn animated short made using TVPaint. The first was 'Kitbull' in 2019 .



.

[Dean]

Hi David, thank you for posting this It looks crazy good!

[VGmaster9]

Just watched this. It's very refreshing to see Pixar dabble into 2d animation. I'd totally love to see them make a full length film that 100% hand drawn/painted, and not having any CG elements that modern 2d films use. I know it'd be a very challenging task, but it'd still be easier doing it all digitally instead of using paper, cels, and traditionally painted backgrounds.

[D.T. Nethery]

Just watched this. It's very refreshing to see Pixar dabble into 2d animation. I'd totally love to see them make a full length film that 100% hand drawn/painted, and not having any CG elements that modern 2d films use. I know it'd be a very challenging task, but it'd still be easier doing it all digitally instead of using paper, cels, and traditionally painted backgrounds.

I've often thought that it would be interesting to see Pixar make a hand-drawn feature film. It's not likely , but I think it's actually more likely to happen at Pixar than at Disney. I can imagine Brad Bird directing . (he has mentioned that he would like to make another hand drawn animated film).

So far they've used hand drawn animation selectively for certain shorts (Day & Night , Your Friend The Rat , Kitbull , Burrow) and for title sequences (end credits of Ratatouille, for example).

[VGmaster9]

Just watched this. It's very refreshing to see Pixar dabble into 2d animation. I'd totally love to see them make a full length film that 100% hand drawn/painted, and not having any CG elements that modern 2d films use. I know it'd be a very challenging task, but it'd still be easier doing it all digitally instead of using paper, cels, and traditionally painted backgrounds.

I've often thought that it would be interesting to see Pixar make a hand-drawn feature film. It's not likely , but I think it's actually more likely to happen at Pixar than at Disney. I can imagine Brad Bird directing . (he has mentioned that he would like to make another hand drawn animated film).

So far they've used hand drawn animation selectively for certain shorts (Day & Night , Your Friend The Rat , Kitbull , Burrow) and for title sequences (end credits of Ratatouille, for example).

Last week I watched an old anime anthology film called Neo Tokyo. After seeing this, I believe that should be Pixar's style of 2d animation, digitally recreating "classical" 2d animation before the days of digital ink & paint. To me, that is is where TVPaint shines, as opposed to Toon Boom which is meant for films and shows with a more modern/cinematic style of 2d animation.

[D.T. Nethery]

Last week I watched an old anime anthology film called Neo Tokyo. After seeing this, I believe that should be Pixar's style of 2d animation, digitally recreating "classical" 2d animation before the days of digital ink & paint. To me, that is is where TVPaint shines, as opposed to Toon Boom which is meant for films and shows with a more modern/cinematic style of 2d animation.

Software is style neutral. It's a tool. TVPaint (or any other software) "shines" when artists use it to tell a compelling story with interesting characters and an engaging visual style. All of those things originate from the artists using the tools , not from the tools.

[slowtiger]

While it is true that each software has its focus in a certain style, it is also true that you can achieve the majority of possible styles in any software. (I've seen beautiful animation done in Photoshop or even Gimp.) Some studios specialize in 1 style, others in another, others specialize in diversity. It breaks down not to the software they use, but to the amount of work they put into preparation and training.

One of my first tasks in "production design" was to transfer the look of a print cartoon into animation. I experimented with different pencils and line widths, then had a short presentation to the animators and cleaners involved. That was in the old pen&paper days. I do stuff like this from time to time even now, solving workflow problems for other animators, create brushes for their style, and so on.

The style of "Burrows" is quite similar to "Ernest and Celestine", especially the broken outlines. The latter one was done in Flash - that's not what comes to mind when you think of this picture book look. So it's not the software which dictates the style, it's the director/producer/production designer.