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This. Is. Amazing.

<iframe src="http://www.collegehumor.com/e/6875542" width="600" height="338" frameborder="0"></iframe>

A testament to the film's popularity. And despite being Flash animated, it's SO well done. Excellent and hilarious.

I got to see some early tests and some other color animations that blew my mind. It was interesting to hear how reluctant ‘management’ was at first, and how it was due to the team already having some footage done (and backing from some Disney veterans) that it got green-lit.

Glen Keane gave a hand in doing turnarounds for George for the CG artists. and also, the test animation that can be seen in the How-To where Meg runs around the corner and throws her hair back was animated by Glen. I was told that he animated that scene completely digitally and one of the tricks he used with the cintique was to lay some paper (That thin brown paper bag material I think) on top so it had more of a tooth like traditional material.

It doesn't surprise me that that particular shot of Meg was animated by Keane. It's easily my favorite shot in the entire film. So well done.

Actually, he's referring to a test shot that wasn't used in the film. Meg comes around the corner, flips her hair up while she catches her balance on one leg, and continues chasing the paper airplane. Id find it if I was at home right now.

I also wish you guys could see the color tests that he mentioned. I saw them a few of them at inspire days and they were VERY cool. It literally looked like a moving visdev piece.

When John Kahrs pitched his idea for "Paperman," a black-and-white, dialogue-less short that relies on both 2-D and 3-D animation, the movie had no obvious commercial value for the studio. But it became a vehicle to develop a new in-house drawing tool called Meander that integrates expressive, hand-drawn animation with CG animation. "Paperman" won an Oscar, Kahrs' producer, Kristina Reed, has gone on to be producer on "Big Hero 6," and Kahrs is working on a new film as well.

"Yeah, I don't know why they did that," Kahrs said of his executives backing the film. "I guess it had something cool and exciting in it, and it made you feel something."

This. Is. Amazing.

<iframe src="http://www.collegehumor.com/e/6875542" width="600" height="338" frameborder="0"></iframe>

A testament to the film's popularity. And despite being Flash animated, it's SO well done. Excellent and hilarious.

Internally, meanwhile, Paperman is no longer a one-off – with Disney now committed to an ongoing shorts development programme. It also looks certain that we'll see further use of the hybridised ink-and-CG tool created for the project. “The system is flexible, so the art style is completely up to the art director,” says [Patrick] Osborne. “We're still playing around with the technique, but I can’t say any more than that at the moment.”

Oh yeah!

Now all we need is a WDAS contemporary (as in 1989 - present) shorts collection on Blu-ray to round them all up!









Yeah I wish.

I wonder if he will continue to develop the Paperman technique he's obviously passionate about at another studio.

With both Clay Kaytis and him leaving in the past two weeks, Disney's Animation department sure has taken a hit.

Well, I have this test that I’m doing that’s the next generation of the software that we used to make Paperman. It was really John [Lasseter] seeing what we did with Paperman and thinking, “Okay, what about this? Can you do a full color, organic environment with trees and foliage? Do a test that pushes it visually in another direction and let’s see what we can do with this technology.” So, it’s not necessarily saying, “We have a feature in development with this,” it’s more saying, “Let’s take the next step to get towards that.” I think it’s a really watchable technique. It draws me in, as a viewer, and it doesn't distract me. For John, it’s a big deal that it won’t be a distraction and that it draws you into the storytelling. That’s what I’m working on, right now. It’s a 90-second test that’s an in between project for me.

The only intriguing clue he dropped was to say that his next project will in fact be a visual opposite of Paperman, full of texture, saturated colors, and lush, tropical settings.

Kahrs is delving into another form of hybrid animation that takes place in a “lush, colorful, organic environment,” he said. “Basically the visual opposite of Paperman.”

Q: What would you like your next project to be?

John Kahrs: I’m already working on my next project. I’m storyboarding it.

Q: Is it going to be a short or a feature-length film?

John Kahrs: I don’t know if I’m ready for a feature yet, if that’s enough of a hint.

Q: Are there any other projects in the pipeline at Disney Animation which will make use the new technique?

John Kahrs: At Disney, you work on a lot of things at the same time. Let's say that at the moment I am the main bearer of this technique, and I'm trying to understand what it can lead to. We'll see what happens!

Q: Are you working on another short or something bigger? Will it make use of the same technique as in Paperman?

John Kahrs: Sorry, all I can say is that it will be in color! But the idea is to try and bring the technique to a new level.