Jan 12, 2017

Learn 3 Storytelling Tricks from John Lasseter

Animation director John Lasseter was born on this day, January 12, in 1957. Now 60 years old, he is as influential as he has ever been, not only steering the creative team at Pixar, the studio he helped build, but also Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he serves as chief creative officer.

Lasseter, who won two student Academy Awards and one regular Academy Award before he even directed his first feature film, has a knack for communicating ideas to audiences. Unlike many filmmakers, however, he rarely discusses his creative philosophy in public interviews. So, in honor of his birthday today, we're presenting some rare insights into his storytelling craft that Lasseter shared during a SIGGRAPH '94 paper entitled “Tricks to Animating Characters with a Computer.”

The examples that Lasseter cites in this talk are taken from his early shorts (Luxo Jr., Red's Dream,) but at the time of the talk, he was deep into the production of his first feature, Toy Story. As such, we can view this advice as representative of the ideas that he was applying in the production of that trailblazing film, which would soon revolutionize the animation industry and lead us to where we are today.