Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/426320
34 cgw n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 ew things are more important to a dog than food, but a dog has little choice about which food lands in the bowl. It is a dog's conundrum, and meat for a charming short animated film written and direct- ed by Pixar's Patrick Osborne. Osborne cooked up the idea of using food to drive a story aer beta-testing a friend's "1 Second Everyday" app. "I shot one second of every dinner I had every day," Osborne says. "The video of every meal was neat. So, I came up with the idea of telling some kind of story of a family using dinner cues to push the story along." Osborne blended the "one dinner every day" idea into a coming-of-age story about Winston, a Boston terrier, and food choices made by the humans who feed him. Al- though no one calls the human characters by name in the film, Osborne named them aer his grandparents. James is the single guy who adopts Winston, and Kirby is the girl he meets. Osborne, who had been head of animation on "Paperman," was working on Big Hero 6 when the opportunity to propose a short film arose. He developed his story at night, aer work. The success of Disney Animation's shorts "Paperman" and "Get a Horse" had led the studio to offer others the chance to pitch short-film ideas using a process much like that at Pixar. "We pitch three ideas be- cause John [Lasseter, chief cre- ative officer at Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios] likes to see who you are in a broad sense," Osborne says. "But, he only talked about 'Feast.'" As soon as he said, 'Go,' the pitch became a promise. It was daunting to realize I would be making something that had to live up to 'Paperman' and 'Get a Horse,' and the whole history of Disney shorts. But, the studio gave me lots of support." That support would be need- ed because Osborne envisioned a short film with a unique, untested look. Jim Reardon became Osborne's story men- tor; Jeff Turley, the production designer; and Josh Staub, the visual effects supervisor. Osborne had studied painting and animation at Ringling Col- lege of Art and Design, and he still paints – life drawing, figure painting. He brought paintings he and his friends had created to the pitch. "I wanted to bring those choices and sensibility into 3D," Osborne says. With that in mind, Osborne made a commitment to the production designer. "My promise to Jeff [Turley] was, 'We will make your paint- ings move,' " he says. S I M P L E B U T N O T E A S Y "Some people put brushstrokes in an image to make it look like a painting," Osborne explains. "But brushstrokes are the result of paper texture and paint, and that doesn't make sense in 3D animation. Where does paper texture live in depth and mo- tion? It's better to think about what makes a good painting." F IMAGES ©2014 WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS