PIXAR : 25 ANS D'ARTS ET D'ANIMATION

by Amidi Amid, John Lasseter (Preface), Rodolphe Lachat (Translator)

Over the past 25 years, Pixar's team of artists, writers, and directors have shaped the world of contemporary animation with their feature films and shorts. From classics such as Toy Story and A Bug's Life to recent masterpieces such as Up, Toy Story 3, and Cars 2, this comprehensive collection offers a behind-the-scenes tour of every Pixar film to date. Featuring a foreword by Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, the complete color scripts for every film published in full for the first time as well as stunning visual development art, The Art of Pixar is a treasure trove of rare artwork and an essential addition to the library of animation fans and Pixar enthusiasts.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Film, Reference, Art Design, Coffee Table Books, Design

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Schemer · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty good cursory examination of more like 16 years of pixar not really 25. the colourscript approach is interesting and does act as a neat way of laying these movies bare on a few pages to get the gists of their colour and atmosphere. I was genuinely surprised to see the range of artstyles present in the production of the movies. it does kind of sadden me how much charm the cars characters have when drawn with pastels compared to when they are rendered in the final movie. there is deceptively not that much text, only some dense introduction pages for each section which made me think I was gonna read more. the art does usually speak for itself though anyway. I’m sure the individual artbooks for each movie go more in depth in the word side anyway, so it’s not too bad. so yeah decent book for pixar fans interested in the movies from toy story to cars 2. THEY did make an updated version of this actually that I don’t have which is kind of sad. I was sorta disappointed when they didn’t have an inside out colourscript.

[Aurélien · Rating 5 out of 5]

For people interested in animation, Pixar and art in general, this is a beautiful, colorful book on the process and the art for many of the Pixar's films.

[LivThebooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautify artbook! Inspiering!

[Jaimie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointing book. I love the idea of colourscripts for animated films, but the way that the topic was presented did not do justice to the Pixar films at all. Having seen (and loved) the majority of films covered in this book I was very disappointed that I felt like I didn't recognize the films at all. Maybe the colour reproduction in the book isn't true to life, since I really hope that the designers didn't intend the films to hvae such dull and uninspiring colour palettes - thankfully in real life the filmsa re rife with colour and vibrancy! The one redeeming section of the book was the concept art, but a lot of this art is included in the "art of..." books for the individual films and it seemed like an afterthought to make the book a bit bigger...

[Patrícia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not just a book you look through because you want to see beautiful art from your favourite movies. This is a book you see again and again, you study from the colour scripts, you compare it to the movies and you learn from it. This is about art, storytelling, emotion and how they are manipulated by amazing teams of artists and directors. Not everything on film production is about making the most amazing detailed beautiful art you could ever make, this book is not for the casual fan of animation, this book is mostly for those who can learn from it.

[Angeline Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended for anyone interested in Pixar's colorscripting process.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

The Art of Pixar is a gorgeous book that represents the humble beginnings of an animation studio that is now loved by fans worldwide.

The first colorscript was drawn by Ralph Eggleston for Toy Story. That was in 1993 and it had enchanted John Lasseter, Steve Jobs and the rest of the then little studio. Today, many years and films later, it's nice to see that Pixar is still creating them, using them to communicate the emotional arc of their stories.

Collected within the 320 pages of this beautiful book are the colorscripts up to the latest movie Cars 2. Also included are the colorscripts for the many animated shorts that, if I'm not wrong, are all appearing in this book for the first time. The 100 over pages at the back are for selected pieces of art, one printed per page. These are the work from the last 25 years.

It's quite cool to see the artistic styles used by different artists to create the colorscripts. I love the pastel ones by Ralph Eggleston and Dominique R. Louis. The vector style art of Lou Romano for The Incredibles is still a refreshing departure of usual style of drawing them with pastel. Later on, the colorscript slowly evolved to being drawn digitally. The ones by Sharon Calahan for Cars 2 are so detailed I'm not sure if they aren't film stills.

The book claims to have the complete colorscripts but that's not exactly true. Since I have the other Pixar art books published by Chronicle Books, I went back to compare the content. I found out that the book didn't include some of the colorscripts that were featured in the earlier art books. Some from The Art of Finding Nemo weren't included. However, this book includes a lot of new colorscripts that aren't in the earlier books. In particular, there are many more extra pages of colorscripts for Cars and Cars 2. The colorscripts for Ratatouille in this book are not even in The Art of Ratatouille.

As for the selected pieces of art, many are from earlier art books. I guess there some are new pieces but I didn't do a detail comparison. Even if there are some duplication, you'll still want the book because of the colorscripts, all conveniently collected and beautifully laid out.

The Art of Pixar is a tribute to art, animation and the amazing people working at Pixar. It's an inspiring book authored by veteran animation writer Amid Amidi. Highly recommended.

[Capillya · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't have to be a fan of Pixar or Disney to read this book. You just have to love art. Of course, I can't imagine someone besides a Pixar fan picking up this book. The foreword and the few pages of copy are more than worth the half hour or so it takes to read them. The color scripts are just gorgeous, but like I said, the actual copy is a must-read.

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book. It's appropriate for those studying art, film or just for the hardcore fans of Pixar. it's a privilege to be able to see these pieces of art work that lead to the masterpieces that are the films.

[sixthreezy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfortunately not reporting this large book of pictures for SWON 2012, but it was worth the look through. Must-see for all Pixar fans!!! Pixar is TOO AWESOME!

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read several of the art of books before, a personal favourite being that of Finding Nemo. It is always crucial to the understanding of a good piece of art to know the background information. Every detail that was planned, changed, sketched, drafted again and then again until the final product was attained is incredibly important and yet often they go overlooked in the face of the finished product. In a fast paced world, these books (being in tangible book form) allow the art film of computer graphics and animated film to go beyond the virtual. Being something tangible, something you can hold in your hand, suddenly we remember that it was in fact figures such as both Davinci and Monet who held the canvas and painted it with nothing but their hands. Our computers are to us what their paintbrushes and oils were to them.

It is for this reason perhaps that I so enjoyed this collection. There were small differences and subtle changes suddenly made aware to me that I would never have seen prior. And the significance of colour schemes being explained was really quite enlightening. As a summary for the whole of Pixar and not just one movie, I do not think it could have been done much better. Only in one factor could it have been so: If it was even longer!

[Topaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of images from the archives but very little text or insight. The color scripts are interesting but not something you will look at more than once. The second half of the book has selected images from artwork of each world from the various movies. These are more detailed and interesting to look at.

Overall it’s a nice coffee table book or reference for an animator/designer’s library. You may only flip through it once or twice before putting it on the bookshelf. There are many of these available, you should be able to get a nice one for $10-15.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got to say a lot of the pastel artworks are horrifying. Me and my mom felt like some of them felt very Tim Burton like. I tried to draw myself with pastels over year ago and I didn't like it but today I learned I don't care for pastel artworks of others either. I think the only one I really enjoyed in pastels were the finding nemo ones. I also really was not fan the digtal art of the incrediables.

[Evelyn Blackwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my favorite art book. If not, it's gotta be damn close. I've used it as reference to help make my art stronger. And used it to re-inspire myself.
That and it's just damn fun to look at. Especially if you love Pixar movies.

Oddest thing about it tho; I'm not a fan of Cars, but the concept art for it is damn impressive.

[Kiani :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you really enjoy Pixar movies, especially the toy story ones, these books are great!
The concepts of these drawings and how they are able to create the whole movie in such story captures Is unbelievable.
Wow.

[Victoria Acuña · Rating 5 out of 5]

The insights of this book are amazing; it was very interesting to read and see how one of the most popular animation studios work with color and lighting. It's pretty easy and fast to read..

Love it, would recommend!

[Alyssa DeLeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was super interesting to read about color scripts and explore how they make a movie, but this is the kind of book I would need to look at little by little to stay engaged. By Toy Story 2 I was checked out. Really cool to see the breakdowns and art styles, though.

[Megangoldberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something about your smile makes me want to unravel its secrets. Perhaps we can explore them together tonight, with a touch that sparks a fire and a connection that allows desires to unfold naturally?

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book for color inspiration.

[Francine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've owned this book for many years but never really got around to reading it cover to cover, until today. I found the accompanying texts more interesting than the actual art.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice art book with very little text. It would have been nice if the storyline images were larger like the world building images in the back were but still lots of fun all around.

[Willow Bryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love these color strips. Beautiful, nostalgic, and extraordinary. The beauty of art on paper with the knowledge of how it translates to art on film is incredible.

[Meinardas Valkevičius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Čia ne knyga, o tikras meno kūrinys! Jei esate matę bent vieną Pixar studijos animacinį filmą ir norėtumėte pamatyti kaip atrodė art direction’as filmo, tai knyga kaip tik jums!👌

[Ayesha Ratnayake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming peek into the process of producing a visually stunning animated film. A study in light, colour and shadow!

[SassieMolassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the artwork, but I hated the layout. I found a lot of the art too narrow or small to actually appreciate. Flipping through the same layout of small pictures felt cumbersome.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun to look at all the concept art!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review from 2015

This book was gorgeous. I wouldn't suggest buying it though, because there aren't many words, mostly concept art, but it is just so epic and wonderful. *SQUEE*.

2016 review

Pixar inspires me. I call this "Pixarspiration". Pixar for me means Steve Jobs, innovation, and loveable characters who continue to inspire us for years to come (i.e. Toy Story 4 is coming out in a couple years, and that franchise started in 1995). Pixar for me means happiness, and inspiration through colour. For me, Pixar means a body of very, very special people who continue to push and stretch the boundaries of innovation. (I was reading about the rigging of Hank from Finding Dory and was stunned).

I want to keep my old review up because I guess over the past year, I have become so passionate about Pixar, and it's interesting how I've changed. I would really like to own this book as well as all of the other Art Of books, but each book is at least $40, and it all adds up fast. I'm going to try to look for Art Of books at second hand bookstores. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know. I don't really care about the condition, as long as all the pages are there, really.

Pixar is my passion. I hope to grow a Pixar library over the next few years. So far the only Art Of Pixar books I own are The Art of Monsters University, Monsters Inc, and The Good Dinosaur.

[✦ Viola ✦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book is primarily pictures of color scrips and concept art (absolutely lovely to look at btw), I liked the little nuggets of wisdom the 10 pages of text offered us.

I would’ve loved to have even more text, but if that was to take away some images or make them smaller, then I wouldn’t change a thing about the book.



My takeaways that stuck to mind upon a quick read:
- The way to convey mood in a film scene is through COLOR (+light) and MUSIC. No matter what the characters are doing or saying, the audience can feel what’s going on through the use of color, light, and music.
- In Toy Story 3, blue was intentionally used for things that felt safe. For example Andy’s room, his blue jeans, his mom’s car, etc. and pink & Magenta were associated with danger. Depending on each scene, one or the other color was intentionally used or avoided.
- Always consider how much saturation/desaturation and light/dark you use in each and every scene. When is color taken away and when does it come back? (e.g. In UP the flashbacks of Carl’s life with Ellie was very colorful, and when she died, everything became desaturated until Russell’s colorful sash of badges and Kevin the colorful bird were introduced to his life.)

[Tory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it's obviously the point of these colorscripts to capture the color and mood of the films, but it's still incredible to me how much just looking at them feels like actually watching them. It brings back all the nostalgia and sweet memories of being a kid. There's just nothing like the images Andy's light-filled room with the drifting cloud wallpaper, or the quiet blue world of Finding Nemo. There are some stand-alone pieces of art in the last section titled "Worlds" that are amazing as well. I'd say the only colorscript I wasn't that in love with was The Incredibles. It has a very sharp and angular style, too angular for me. But yeah, this book is a beautiful collection of art. People who are fans of Pixar will especially like it, but even if you aren't it's still amazing.

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular look into the process that Pixar uses to create its wonderful films.
This is one of those rare “art of” books that fully deliver on that promise. There’s art galore and just enough text to get the right information to the reader.
The colorscripts alone are a must see for any Pixar/animation fan and are enough to make this an awesome book, yet there’s also some great visual development art for a look at how the worlds and characters come into being.
A definite must have.