Alexx Sanchez
asanch16@uwyo.edu
Last Thursday, Michael O’Brien, Technical Effects Lead for Pixar Studios, visited the University of Wyoming to discuss with geology and graphic design students about the latest project he worked on called “The Good Dinosaur.”
O’Brien said “The Good Dinosaur” is different from other Pixar movies because he thinks that Pixar took a lot of chances.
Pixar is well-known for its “what if” movies including, what if robots could fall in love or what if cars could talk. Now, “The Good Dinosaur” asks what if the asteroid did not wipe out the dinosaurs?
The plot follows a timid Apatosaurus named Arlo who gets separated from his family after being washed away in a flash flood and has to find his way home. Along the way, Arlo makes an unlikely friend with a fearless human named Spot. Together, they experience an incredible journey to get Arlo home and face their biggest enemy—nature.
O’Brien said “The Good Dinosaur” is different from other Pixar movies because he thinks that Pixar took a lot of chances.
“I’m very proud of it and I am very proud of all the work that we do, but this one in particular I feel like Pixar will take a chance on storylines that are not typical for animation,” O’Brien said. “I really like it. It feels like a different movie, but it fits into our culture. For me, I feel that it’s just been a great experience.”
Before working for Pixar, O’Brien worked as a software developer, Alias/Wavefront, in downtown Seattle. The company realized they were struggling to find someone who could translate their intelligence into something artists could use. Therefore, his job was to be the bridge between art and technology. O’Brien said he had to be able to understand the math behind the software developing and how to control the math to meet artists’ needs.
One day, O’Brien received a call from someone looking for his specific skills.
“I got a call from a guy saying, ‘is this kind of what you do?’ I said, ‘yeah, that is exactly what I do.’ He said, ‘well, I need somebody who does that.’ I said, ‘where do you work?’ He said, ‘I work at Pixar.’ I responded, ‘I’m in. Let’s go,’” O’Brien said. “He then said, ‘I’m actually down the street.’ And I realize that I am wearing shorts and t-shirt and told him that I am not really dressed for an interview. I kind of meant more like I am excited, not let’s do an interview right now. But he said, ‘let’s do an interview right now.’ I went down and met him. It went really well and I was really excited.”
From that day on, O’Brien worked on a number of well-known movies. He started out in the tools department for movies like “Monsters Inc.” and “The Incredibles” and in the production department for “Finding Nemo”. Later he worked his way up to becoming Technical Effects Lead for the Pixar short “LAVA” and “The Good Dinosaur.”
As Technical Effects Lead, his job was to watch the reels and to figure out how they can program it to make it work and look believable.
“I will sign up to mitigate and manage the software so I will get to make pictures,” O’Brien said. “Creating the tools then using them because if I don’t get to use the tools I don’t feel like I get enough perspective to know where we want to go with them.”
In “The Good Dinosaur”, he worked on the software that created the underwater river scenes, which were some of the most difficult parts to program.
One aspect residents of Wyoming will appreciate about “The Good Dinosaur” is that Wyoming is one of the places of inspiration for the movie’s background.
In fact, Wyoming residents may recognize some of the scenery since the data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for Wyoming was used to create a more accurate terrain for the movie.
“We actually used some of the USGS data as a starting point for big layout scouts,” O’Brien said. “We definitely take some license with putting in some waypoints and for some artistic choices. For the most part, most of it is based off of the actual data.”
For college students who want to get involved in companies like Pixar, O’Brien said that students needed to work hard and to not let limitations stop them.
“My background is that actually I have a degree in computer engineering, physics and math. I come from a very technical background. The college I went to didn’t have an art program at all so I had to take classes outside of my college,” O’Brien said. “One of the things I learned is, art is not something you are born with. You have to constantly work at it so I don’t think going to a college without a program is not the limiting factor. It’s what you want to do with that is.”
“The Good Dinosaur” opens in theaters Thanksgiving weekend.
