This Day In Pixar: Ricky Nierva

Showing posts with label Ricky Nierva. Show all posts

Friday, January 9, 2015

Art to Heart Philippine Typhoon Benefit Auctions

Art to Heart is giving you an opportunity to buy some awesome artwork and movie memorabilia, while at the same time helping those affected by Typhoon Haiyan which devastated the Philippines in November of 2013. The artwork and memorabilia, much of it Pixar-related, is being auctioned off with the proceeds going to International Disaster Volunteers to help rebuild the areas damaged by the typhoon.

There are a couple of auctions you can take part of. The first is an online-only auction that ends Sunday, January 11 at 8pm PST. This auction contains 20 items, many signed by Pixarians. Some of the items up for bid include The Art of A Bug's Life, signed by co-director Andrew Stanton, The Art of Pixar, signed by John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, and a limited edition Brave Merida & Elinor Bear Pin, of which only 650 were made and were sold exclusively by the Pixar Studio Store.

A second online auction featuring original artwork will begin immediately after the first auction ends Sunday and will run until January 15th. This artwork will then go to a live auction at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco on January 16th. The highest bid on each piece during the online auction will become the opening bid for the live auction. They will ship the artwork to the winner if not present for the live auction for $10. Artists such as Dice Tsutsumi, Jason Deamer, Matt Jones and Ricky Nierva have donated artwork.

Typhoon Nina
by Ronnie del Carmen

Which piece catches my eye the most? I'd have to say Typhoon Nina by Ronnie del Carmen. I am a huge fan of Nina and have a couple of books Ronnie has authored and illustrated. I could sit for hours and admire Ronnie's illustrations; there's a depth to Nina's expressions that I find mesmerizing.

So head over to the Art to Heart website and take a look at both auctions and the items up for bid. If you live near San Francisco, the artwork is available for viewing at 111 Minna. And if you're able, make a bid on one of these one-of-a-kind items, and help make a positive impact.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Pixarians at The Walt Disney Family Museum

I have never been to The Walt Disney Family Museum, but I think it would be well worth a trip to San Francisco just to go there! In addition to the film screenings, galleries and special programs, they have a constant flow of artists and animators coming through to give lectures and demonstrations. With Pixar right across the bay from the museum, it's not surprising that many of these talks are led by Pixarians. And it looks like there is a great slate of upcoming talks featuring some of these Pixar artists! I previously wrote about some of these events, and thought now would be a good time to refresh that list.

The first event is called Over There with Steve Pilcher, who was the production designer on Brave. Steve will read from his soon-to-be-released children's book Over There and then do a book signing. Tickets are $20 for adult non-members or $12 for members. The program takes place tomorrow, Saturday, September 20 at 2:30pm! It looks like tickets are still available!

Ronnie del Carmen

Next is a 5 part talk called Animation Basics: Breaking Down the Magic. Part 1 will focus on story, the use of storyboards and the development of the script and will be hosted by Inside Out co-director Ronnie del Carmen. This event will take place on Saturday, October 25th.

Ricky Nierva

Part 2 of the Animation Basics series is subtitled Character and is taking place Saturday, December 6th. This event will cover character development, the use of maquettes and the importance of casting and voice. It will feature a number of Pixarians, including production designer Ricky Nierva, art director Matt Nolte, character sculptor Jerome Ranft, producer and casting director Kevin Reher and casting manager Natalie Lyon!

Dates and hosts of parts 3 through 5 haven't been announced yet, so keep an eye on the museum's calendar!

The last event I want to mention is the CalArts Fall Open House, being held on Saturday, October 18th. Alumni and staff from the world-renowned school will host a reception and discussion regarding its programs and admission requirements. This is an awesome way for prospective students to meet some of the leading artists and instructors in animation. With the large number of CalArts graduates at Pixar, while I don't know for sure, I can't help but think there will some at this event. Registration for it will begin on October 1st.

Tickets for these events may run out, so if you're planning on going you should buy them sooner rather than later!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Monsters University Related Merchandise

Monsters University merchandise at Barnes & Noble

YES!! It's almost here! I of course mean the release of Monsters University! It's been 3 years since we first heard about Pixar going back to explore the monster world, and I'm very excited to see this film! As with all Pixar films, there is some great merchandise available. Other sites have done a wonderful job showing off a lot of it, including The Pixar Post with articles on the "Build-A-Scarer" plushes and the Series One Vinylmation that is now available. I wanted to highlight some of the books and other merchandise that has caught my eye.

To start with, if you haven't visited the official Monsters University store, you need to! Disney and Pixar have done an awesome job marketing this film, and the Monsters University website is a great example. The site looks just like a regular university site with campus maps, lists of courses, current events and a store that you can buy real merchandise. It's been difficult for me to control my impulse to buy everything; I have limited myself to only a 2 armed MU hoodie (I wanted the 4 arm version but my wife said she wouldn't let me wear it in public with her. What's up with that?!?!)

As for books, as usual there are a wide variety with my favorite being The Art of Monsters University. I just ordered mine, as I knew I'd want to look through it and was afraid of spoilers. The Art of books have great concept art and usually contain little stories and anecdotes about the development of the movie. Karen Paik is a great choice for author; she has previously written To Infinity and Beyond!, a great book on the founding of Pixar, plus worked on The Art of Ratatouille and The Art of Cars 2. In anticipation of the new book, I have been looking through my copy of The Art of Monsters, Inc.; I especially love the drawings of the Monstropolis neighborhoods done by Harley Jessup, the monster drawings by Geefwee Boedoe and Ricky Nierva, and paintings by Dominique Louis.

I also bought the Monsters University Fearbook. This is a "yearbook" style book, and I think it will be a lot of fun! From the book's description:

Go beyond the screen with the Monsters University Fearbook. Learn all about the fraternities and clubs on campus; find out who is most likely to become a Scarer and who is the class clown; get recaps of the year's highlights; see the monsters' class photos; and more. This 80-page full-color yearbook, which also includes ads, memory pages, and signature pages, is perfect for anyone who wishes THEY could attend MU.

Monsters University Fearbook is authored by Calliope Glass and illustrated by Disney artist Lorelay Bove.

I'm a huge fan of movie soundtracks, especially for Pixar films! I am looking forward to the Monsters University soundtrack. The Monsters, Inc. soundtrack is one of my favorites, from the fun music over the opening credits, to the scare floor theme, the emotion of Boo's theme and the song "If I Didn't Have You", so I can't wait to hear how these themes may be worked into the new soundtrack, and hear all the new music. I love the track "Roar" that was already released and could be heard on the "It All Began Here" trailer. The Monsters University soundtrack will be available on June 18, 2013.

One note, many of the books give away the entire story from the film, so if you don't want to be spoiled then I recommend waiting until after seeing the film before cracking them open. And even with the soundtrack, individual track titles may allude to plot points, so again, be careful!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Monsters University Blogger Press Event

A lucky group of about 2 dozen bloggers will be converging on Emeryville next week for the Monsters University Bloggers Press Event!

The event begins Monday the 8th with a reception at the Pixar studio, where the bloggers will get to view footage of Monsters University and see the short film The Blue Umbrella. Things really take off on the 9th with a day full of classes, including:

English 101: How to Tell a Great Story (led by Kelsey Mann, Story Supervisor)
Anthropology 152: Monsterizing the World (Dice Tsutsumi, Shading/Lighting Art Director; Robert Kondo, Sets Art Director)
Sociology 203: The Deconstruction of a Character (Ricky Nierva, Production Designer; Jason Deamer, Character Art Director; Daniela Strijleva, Character Designer)
Dramatic Arts: Bringing a Character to Life (Scott Clark, Supervising Animator)
Physics 250: Global Illumination (Jean-Claude Kalache, Director of Photography-Lighting; Sanjay Bakshi, Supervising Technical Director; Christine Waggoner, Simulation Supervisor)
Roundtable interviews with Monsters University director Dan Scanlon, producer Kori Rae, and director of The Blue Umbrella, Saschka Unseld.

It looks like there will also be fun events like a tailgate lunch and college type activities.

Finally, on Wednesday, the group will spend the day touring the Walt Disney Family Museum. It sounds like an awesome experience!

Here is the list of bloggers I know of that will be attending the event. I'm missing a few, and if you notice only 1 Pixar blogger (@ThePixarTimes) has stated they are attending. I'm guessing there will be a few more announced over the next couple of days, and I will update this list once that happens.

An alternate method would be to look for tweets with the #MonstersUEvent hashtag.

As a side note, almost exactly 1 year ago I published my first blog post. The topic? The Brave Blogger Press Event! Wow, time has sped by! In that first year, I published about 60 posts (not including a couple dozen more that I started but haven't finished!!) and have met some amazing people! For those of you who read these posts, or follow and chat with me on Twitter, I am very grateful! I realize posts have been few and far between the last few months. But I think things will be getting back to order and you'll be seeing posts from me on a more regular (i.e. frequent) basis.

Monsters University opens in the U.S. on June 21! Who else will be attending opening day?