Concept artwork by Jason Deamer - copyright Pixar |
Yesterday, the short film by Alan Barillaro, Piper, was announced and fans immediately fell in love with the the aptly named title-character, Piper (a baby sand piper bird). Today, additional details have been revealed regarding the roots of the story, the crew's research trips to the beach, and the visual design of the film (via in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter).
In the interview, Barillaro shared that Piper was originally thought up to support a technical test — but it wasn't until shortly thereafter (with encouragement from John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton) that he developed the idea into a short film.
“It wasn’t meant to be a short," Barillaro admitted. "I came up with the story because I wanted to look at software development (aimed at making computer animation more like live action production)."Along the lines of software development, Alan noted that the visuals of the film will have a painterly feel, with the team drawing inspiration from Norman Rockwell and macro photography. “At a glance it could be seen as realism, and then when you actually look at the artistry, everything is so deliberately exaggerated," Barillaro said. “And I love the painterly aspects of macro photography; the textures almost becomes a characters. I want to see computer animation fall into that world where lenses, just like in live action photography, can have a lot of expression."