John Lasseter and Car's

I decided to look at Pixar's cars due to the fact that my animation was based on trains and the movement of the two would be quite similar. The concept artists and director of art for Cars was John Lasseter. His movement of the cars is regarded as a stepping stone in CGI and tested the capability of animators.

John Lasseter has had a huge career over seeing all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer and he directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, and Cars 2. John Lasseter having worked on many animation titles brought key ideas to the project of Cars.

It was John Lasseter's idea to have the eyes be in the windshield. It separated the characters from from each other and allowed more expression in the eyes than if they were in the head lights. It also centralised the point of which you viewed the car. Eyes in the lights would have brought the focus to the bottom of the car ignoring the full detail of the vehicle. It also made the car's seem more human like with the car in a small way resembling a human face. Where as if the eyes were in the lights, would have resembled a creature like a snake. Lasseter also decided the characters would use their tires emphasising the human factor in the cars. Some cars are even shown shuffling sideways by moving their wheels about on their suspensions. These fundamentals of animation transferring human qualities into that of a car is what i need to be to be looking at for my animation and key points i need to pick up on for my future in animation.

John Lasseter's work is inspring to me as a producer, especially looking at his extensive career. Looking at Lasseter has helped me hugely on what track i need to be following. His animation techniques are brilliant and ingenuitive, and if it works for him i should take inspiration from his work to better my own.