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I wonder what John Lasseter thinks about the massive amounts of people leaving both of his studios in the past couple of years.

great, there goes the last hope of seeing anything that resembles a 2d feature film at Disney. Now I really hope Kahrs can develop a hybrid film elsewhere. My worry is that since he developed the technique at Disney they legally own the process & wont let any other studio be able to use it.

Didn't he already say his next project would not use that anyway, but something like it? I have a feeling he knew this was coming for quite some time and has been planning ahead.

Briefly: If you were hoping that you might eventually see a Disney animated feature from Paperman short director John Kahrs, it won’t happen any time soon. The filmmaker has moved on from Disney, as revealed by the “unofficial” Disney Animation Twitter account.





This seems like a situation driven by Kahrs, but we don’t know the reason for his departure. Hopefully it was a better situation than the changes at Pixar which led to Bob Peterson being pushed off The Good Dinosaur. We also don’t have any info on what Kahrs is up to next, but we’ll report on it when info becomes available. Having an Oscar-winning short on his reel should make getting the next job easier, however.

BUT while Kahrs was certainly the driving force behind Paperman, he wasn't necessarily the driving force behind the technique itself.

So what about John Kahrs leaving Disney Animation? It comes down to one word. Slots. With all the success that the studios are having, there are really only so many projects available. And with all these talented people there comes a time when you have to move on and expand your wings. And when you won an Oscar for Best Short there are going to be opportunities opening up for you. There are only so many projects at each company that need directors. But there are other companies/opportunities out there. John is simply one of those spreading his wings.

In a statement to TheWrap, Kahrs said he will develop his own projects elsewhere, but said that the split was “amicable.”

“I will miss working with them, and feel lucky to have played a part in the revitalization of the studio,” said Kahrs, whose last day was Friday. “They have an abundance of projects; an incredible development slate, but I've decided to develop my own projects and pursue directing elsewhere.”

“It was very amicable — they were very gracious about that — and I believe we all left the door open,” he added.

Disney also indicated it had no bad feelings about Kahrs exit. “John is an incredibly talented filmmaker and artist and all of us here at Walt Disney Animation Studios are proud of his vision for the stunning and innovative ‘Paperman,’” a studio spokesman said in a statement to TheWrap. “We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

The "we'd like you to direct" one? He's referring to Bob Peterson on Good Dinosaur.

It's one of the filmmaker and the exec standing back to back doing press.

Computer-Assisted Animation of Line and Paint in Disney's Paperman: We present a system which allows animators to combine CG animation's strengths -- temporal coherence, spatial stability, and precise control -- with traditional animation's expressive and pleasing line-based aesthetic. Our process begins as an ordinary 3D CG animation, but later steps occur in a light-weight and responsive 2D environment, where an artist can draw lines which the system can then automatically move through time using vector fields derived from the 3D animation, thereby maximizing the benefits of both environments. Unlike with an automated "toon-shader", the final look was directly in the hands of the artists in a familiar workflow, allowing their artistry and creative power to be fully utilized. This process was developed during production of the short film Paperman at Walt Disney Animation Studios, but its application is extensible to other styles of animation as well.