Monsters University
Pixar Animation Studios | 2013
Feature Film
Role: Layout Artist
Monsters University was my second film at Pixar, and the first one where I have a singing part! Well, not really, although I did join the chorus singing the Monsters University Anthem (the one sung by the crowd at the stadium in the film, not the one in the soundtrack, which is obviously sung by professionals).
The movie was a lot of fun for Layout artists, since we had a gigantic set of the whole university, including the fraternities row, and we could literally go around it in 3D space, finding the best spots and angles to shoot. Many of the fully modeled buildings didn't even show up in the final film, although they did get portrayed one way or another in deleted scenes or old storyboard sequences. Extra fun points for being able to go to UC Berkeley, just a few minutes from the studio, and see a lot of the building and locations that inspired the ones in the final film.
Here's a delightful promo created for the film that resembles an actual ad for a real world university. I did not work on this promo, but it gives you a glimpse at the massive sets:
And here's a behind the scenes not on the film's disc. You can see halfway through the video a mini interview with Saschka Unseld, a former colleague from the Camera and Staging department (also know as Layout department) who's now doing some cutting edge interactive films at Oculus Story Studio, and who directed the short film that plays in front of Monsters University, "Blue Umbrella".