Making this project was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and seeing as Thanksgiving is in a while (for the Americans, at least) I thought I'd share this little animation I did last year. I had the idea for this animation a while back when I found some audio that Tom Hanks (the voice actor for Woody) did for a ABC television short for Toy Story back in 1998, I think. When I found the audio, it was only about a week until Thanksgiving, so I decided to work with a real deadline for once. I started animating Woody which was actually not that hard. Buzz was a nightmare because his rig was garbage. Especially his eyes. If you could see this big enough, you'd see his eye sometimes comes off the whites. Everything that you can see here is done by me; the surfacing, the modeling, the animation, lighting, the audio editing, the compositing, the rendering, etc. After I had finished the animation somehow, I began surfacing, lighting and rendering. Woody is super complex and it took forever to just be able to see a super noisy image. I wanted the lighting to stay true to Toy Story, so I got inspiration from multiple color scripts Pixar had done for the Toy Story movies. After a week, I rendered the whole thing (which rendered 14 hours straight (and is still noisy, sadly)), and edited the audio. Sadly, when I tried to render with motion blur, Woody got smudged and his teeth would appear out of his mouth which was... creepy, so sadly there's no motion blur. Also, there is no depth-of-field because that would cause a lot of noise that I was not willing to spend weeks rendering out. But here's the final product anyway! Note, you may need to click the flag a few times, aheh. Also, if you don't believe I actually did this, there's some proof inside. :} (And yes, I am aware that Buzz looks creepily not-accurate, I tried okay– XD)
I'd like to thank Tom Hanks for having such an iconic voice and Buzz for having such a clueless face. I'd also like to thank the color red for existing. I'd also like to thank all the people at Pixar for the work they do and how it inspires me. I'd also like to thank Renderman for being awesome, albeit slow, heh. I'd also like to thank each of Woody's shaders, individually, by name, for the pain the brought me. I'd also like to not thank Buzz's rig, which has scarred me for life. I'd also like to thank the Art of Toy Story books which supplied me with color scripts and the burning passion to keep going. I'd also like to thank Randy Newman for the score that I put as the background music. I'd also like to thank Scratch for beautifying my work of art in such high quality, so much so that you can see all the work I put into this; every little paint chip on that lamp in the background, every single stitch on Woody and every single scratch on Buzz. I'd also like to thank Woody's eye shader for getting broken half way though. Because that made me a better person. I'd also like to thank those fake trees in the background. Hey, gotta cut quality where you don't need it. B] I'd also like to thank the idea of trees. Whether it be real or fake. I'd also like to thank Steve Jobs for... everything. Without him, I couldn't do anything. Or, well, I probably could do /something/, but definitely not this. Also, Pixar probably wouldn't exist. Or Toy Story. So, yeah, thanks, Steve. I'd also like to thank rocks for letting me talk to them when I have problems. Much appreciated, rocks. Also, thanks to them for being all rocky and stuff. I'd also like to thank Thanksgiving, because I think it's cool. I'd also like to thank "thanking" because that's also cool. I'd also like to thank Ed Catmull for the work he did to make CGI what it is today. I'd also like to thank Bob Saget. Yeah, he has nothing to do with this but he's /Bob Saget/ so how can you not, am I right? I'd also like to thank the Toy Story soundtrack for keeping me sane while I worked for hours on end. I'd also like to thank birds for being birds and stuff. I wish there was one in here but, yeah, there isn't so– I'd also like to thank Disney movies for teaching me how to animate. 10/10, would definitely recommend. :} I'd also like to thank Maya for crashing a ton. It gave me the gift of persistence. :') I'd also like to thank subsurface scattering for being messed up in Woody's hand. But... it's already rendered so, what are you gonna do– I'd also like to thank glass for being glass. It's clear and reflective and problematic, but it's cool. Just don't break it– I'd also like to thank plastic for all it's plastic-ness. It's also kind of toxic, but that's besides the point. I'd also like to thank dirt for making my life complicated, along with the lives of every Pixar employee. And finally, I'd like to thank you all for watching! I really appreciate it. :) Ask me anything and I'll probably answer you. XD Just take a moment to think of what you're thankful for. :} Happy Thanksgiving!
