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Chris Landreth Free Seminar
A talk entitled 'Psychorealism and 3D Animation: Moving Beyond the Uncanny Valley.' Followed by a Q&A.
WHEN: 02/07/2009 to 02/07/2009
WHERE: University of Technology, Sydney Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, 3rd Floor, Lecture Theatre 322 702 – 730 Harris Street (next to the ABC)
STATE: NSW
COUNTRY: AUS
Thursday 2nd July, 2009
5:00am - 6:30pm
Cost : Free
Oscar winning, animation director, Chris Landreth is one of the true legends of the contemporary creative animation scene, Landreth has been at the absolute forefront of computer animation development for a decade. His films – The End, Bingo and Ryan – represented groundbreaking leaps in pushing technology to its limits to show the breadth of what animation was capable of depicting on the screen. Landreth was nominated for an Academy Award for The End, with Ryan winning the Oscar for Best
Short Animation in 2005.
This seminar presentation will go beyond Landreth’s films and provide insight into his successful marriage of creativity and technology. Landreth will talk about "Psychorealism", the use of art and animation to depict the realism of one's emotional and spiritual state. He explores the "Uncanny Valley" (the "creepy" effect experienced when CGI characters are too realistic, leading to a feeling of revulsion in the viewer) and how his latest film The Spine attempts to avoid this problem. He also shows how his animators used a Method-acting approach to nick subtle gestures, ticks, and micro-expressions in their characters' faces and bodies, and explains how his crew balanced realism and stylization to create characters who are Uncanny in a positive way. Landreth’s talk will be followed by a Q&A.
UTS is only ten minutes walk from Central Station, Eddy Avenue and Railway Square bus stops.
Parking is available for those with a disability or special need to drive: Peter Johnson Building, Basement Car Park, 702-730 Harris St. Ultimo.
Chris Landreth
Biography
Armed with a degree in Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois, Chris Landreth joined Alias|Wavefront in 1994, where it was his job to define, test and abuse animation software, in-house, before it was released to the public. In addition to well-mannered software, this work resulted in the production of animated short films, including The End (1995) and Bingo (1998). Chris was a senior animator at Alias |Wavelength when his film “The End” was nominated for an Academy Award in 1995. “The End” brought a shimmer and fluidity to computer animation that had not been seen before. It also introduced us to an animator who clearly was not afraid to push his imagination.
His next film Bingo, a five minute computer animated adaptation of a live theatre performance called Disregard This Play by the Chicago-based theatre company The Neo-Futurists, wrote the bible for the then fledgling animation software package, Maya. The End and Bingo have received wide international recognition and numerous awards.
Landreth then turned his attentions to a biography of animator Ryan Larkin, while at the same time challenging notions of documentary and animation. The legend of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin is now well known. Larkin had made several extraordinary films for the National Film Board of Canada in the late 1960’s including “Walking”, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Larkin disintegrated, becoming a homeless panhandler before becoming the subject of Landreth’s animated
documentary Ryan in 2004. The film became a phenomena, screening at countless festivals, provoking terabytes of on-line discussion, sparkingseveral books and – to some extent – resurrecting Larkin’s career, or at least his reputation as a gifted, instinctual animator and artist.
Ryan the film was totally unique, its design stripped the charactersback to something much less than their full physical states, exposing, literally and metaphorically, their inner selves. The film won theAcademy Award for Best Short Animation in 2005 and has taken outcountless awards worldwide.
Landreth’s latest film, The Spine, is hot off the press, premiering atthe prestigious Annecy International Animation Festival this year to critical acclaim. The Spine is the latest chapter in the work ofone of the most influential and fascinating practitioners working in therealm of CGI animation.
