For 30 years, the geniuses at Pixar have made us smile and weep simultaneously, crafting visual and emotional joy with clever stories and winning characters. Through the stories and worlds they have brought to life, they have changed the face of cinema, proving animation can be every bit as sophisticated, mature, and heartfelt as anything in live-action. This year, with Elio, they’re about to do it one more time.
To celebrate the release of Pixar’s newest masterpiece, Elio, Geeks of Color was given the incredible opportunity to visit the Pixar campus for a full behind-the-scenes look at how the magic comes to life. It was a day packed with artistry, whimsy, and fun, getting the opportunity to chat with several of the artists and storytellers behind the film, and even getting first-hand experiences with voice acting, animation, and sketching! It was a day so epic we couldn’t contain it all in one article. So, for this first part, join us as we detail all of the fun behind our experiences on campus, then come back for all of our interviews with the filmmakers later this week, including directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian!
Without further ado, here’s a full recap of everything we saw and did at Pixar Animation Studios!
Sneak Peak at Elio
Before seeing what went into the making of the movie, we were treated to a sneak peek at select scenes from Elio. Elio centers on a young boy, who is sent to live with his aunt after a personal tragedy. Lonely and inspired by a museum exhibit, Elio desperately tries to search the universe for life, hoping to be abducted by aliens, and to find where he belongs. Unexpectedly, he gets his wish, and is thrust into an adventure beyond anything he ever imagined, meeting several species of alien life forms, while holding the fate of world in his 11-year-old hands.
Watching scenes from the film was an absolute delight because outside of the various trailers, I had not seen anything from the film. The initial scenes that were selected gave us a really good idea of the look and tone of the movie. There was a very special intro from producer Mary Alice Drumm, as well as Shi and Sharafian! In total they walked us through three scenes from the film.
The first was the film’s opening sequence. Elio (Yonas Kibreab) and his Aunt Olga (played by Academy Award winner Zoe Saldaña) are having lunch at an Air and Space Museum. She tries to connect with him, but he’s understandably withdrawn. Running off by himself, he finds an exhibit containing the Voyager Golden Records, and begins to feel inspired by its message reaching out to extraterrestrial life in the universe. Feeling like he’ll no longer be alone out in the universe, Elio obsessively sets out to get abducted by aliens in order to find his place in the cosmos. The opening, as Pixar is accustomed to, is a bit of an emotional tearjerker, but with some really charming moments of levity, that set up the character and his relationship with his aunt incredibly well.
The next scene followed Elio as he’s abducted by aliens and brought to a place called The Communiverse. He meets a liquid supercomputer named OOOOO (Shirley Henderson). OOOOO can help make anything, and creates a new cape and clothes for Elio, before he’s sent out to meet the rest of the aliens in The Communiverse.
Similar to the United Nations, aliens from places across the galaxy gather as ambassadors for their planets to work together to find peace and help one another. Elio has been elected the ambassador for what the others refer to as “Uh…Earth.” We are introduced to three other ambassadors: Questa (Jameela Jamil), a red flatworm-esque alien, Helix (Brandon Moon), a blue almost slug-like alien, and Tegman (Matthias Schweighöfer), a stone-like alien with two eyes and a mouth.
They introduce him to all aspects of The Communiverse, including the bathroom. We were then introduced to Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), who wants to join The Communiverse. Unfortunately, due to his belligerent and violent nature, the other ambassadors deny his application, and, as you can imagine, Lord Grigon doesn’t like being told no.
Lastely, we were shown a scene where Elio befriends Grigon’s son, Glordon (Remy Edgerly). Unlike his father, Glordon is just a regular, innocent kid. He and Elio end up becoming fast friends, doing fun and crazy stuff around The Communiverse. Glordon agrees to help Elio try to calm his father down by staging a ruse where he’d be a bargaining chip for Elio and the other ambassadors.
Overall, the footage was charming and adorable. Elio and Glordon’s relationship seems like the stuff of Pixar legend, dating back to buddy comedies like Toy Story and Monsters Inc., proving that after 30 years, these filmmakers have not lost a single ounce of heart or magic. The animation is stunning and the design work was incredible. It filled me with so much anticipation to immerse myself in all aspects of the creation of these elements for the rest of the day to come.
Animate an Alien
The first activity we were treated to was a demonstration of what it took for several animators at Pixar to bring a character to life for a second of film. With every movie, the animators behind each character come up with increasingly harder challenges, learning and adapting to bring their skills over to the next projects to come. Elio was no exception.
The demo was conducted by two of Elio‘s Animation Supervisors, Jude Brownbill and Travis Hathaway. Brownbill and Hathaway discussed how creating the look and feel of the aliens from scratch was a really big challenge, because they needed to make hundreds of characters from The Communiverse feel unique and interesting. They looked to inspiration from real life creatures, such as flatworms, sea cucumbers, tardigrades, eels, seadragons, and more. The movements of these creatures also inspired the movements of many of the ones seen in the film.
After a brief and fun introduction, it was time for us to put our animation skills to the test. If I could go on a brief tangent – this was meaningful for me. When I was in college, I dreamed about being a Pixar animator. While I never got the chance to do it professionally, being able to put my hands on the mouse and get to work in their software, Renderman, was honestly one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had!
In front of me was the program, and displayed on it was a character I had just briefly met the night before: OOOOO, the liquid supercomputer. This character was a lot more challenging because of how many different ways it could be animated and the various ways it could move. Brownbill and Hathaway came around and gave everyone advice on how to set key frames and influence the movements of the characters, so thankfully I had help. With their guidance, I was able to stretch and squash our new favorite AI character in ways I never dreamed could be possible.
However, knowing that it took the amount of time it did just to move OOOOO for a single second was a stark reminder that it takes a lot of creativity and patience to do what these geniuses do. It’s no wonder the process of making a Pixar movie takes years for a feature-length film. It’s infinitely more complex than the demo we received as well, because every layer and element that goes into making these films needs to come together seamlessly. At the end of the day, it allowed us to look at Brownbill, Hathaway, and the entire team at Pixar with so much reverence and respect given how much hard work they put into bringing to life our favorite characters.
A Well Lit Gallery Tour
While it would have been amazing to stay all day making OOOOO move and dance, it was time for us to head over to meet Ernesto Nemisio, the Lighting Art Director for Elio. Though still quite young, Nemisio’s history with Pixar dates back to the first Incredibles movie. He brought with him a wealth of experience and amazing facts about the making of Elio.
We were given a guided tour by Nemisio showcasing the early concept art and maquettes from Elio. Adorning the walls were all sorts of incredibly interesting pieces of artwork depicting the progress of how the character and setting designs for Elio and The Communiverse evolved over the years everyone worked on them.
Early designs and challenges included trying to show how Grigon and Glordon looked over the years, and how armor was created for Grigon to make him look a lot more menacing than the rest of the alien species we meet. There were sketches of how The Communiverse evolved over the years as well, and artwork showcasing the various alien environments represented within the environment for each of the ambassadors.
We asked Nemisio about how much things evolve during the entire process, and whether or not he and the other filmmakers are iteratively changing things up to the very end.
“Up until the very end. Absolutely. And that’s a part of it. If the movie didn’t change at all story-wise, I think a lot of us would have half as much artwork for the film. But because of all the changes, we’re constantly redoing specific sequences. And that always requires new paintings, because like it’s not as simple as just changing the color. A lot of times there’s a different set, different dialogue, and different emotions being conveyed,” Nemisio stated. “So that means changing the lighting at different times of days, and different palates. Even in the design the characters change a lot…the sets sometimes change in size and scale in refinement. We’re constantly revising.”
How To Draw
Next, we were given the opportunity to work on some of our sketching skills with Pixar Animator, Matt Nolte. From Cars to Elio, Nolte has been with the company for almost 20 years, wearing several hats along the way. He is an accomplished 2D animator, production designer, character sketch artist, and character animation director. He demonstrated how to draw Glordon.
The exercise should be familiar to anyone who has ever gone to the Animation Academy attraction in Disney’s California Adventure. However, to head into a building at the Pixar campus, to be greeted simultaneously by the Heimlich Chew-Chew Train from A Bug’s Land, and a group of Pixar staff members racing RC cars across the hallway was a completely different experience. We were able to meet Nolte in a room containing a table with dozens of crayons and sketch pads, all for us to have a calming, very Zen art lesson.
Immediately, Nolte made us feel at ease, wanting to know more about us as individuals and reporters first, as he instructed us on the very steps it took to construct our very own Glordons on paper. Laid back but talented in his approach to artwork, Nolte guided us with a swift and intricate hand in creating Glordon’s segments, and expressive, but eyeless face, as well as his tiny legs. All in all it was a fun and relaxing experience with an expert animator and a box of crayons.
Voice Acting with Elio Himself
Naturally, bringing a character to life via animation is only one part of its creation. The soul of the character lies within the vocal performance behind it. Where would the Genie be without Robin Williams, or Donkey without Eddie Murphy? Like those examples, Elio would be nothing if not for the talented actor portraying him, Yonas Kibreab.
Kibreab is a 14-year-old mixed Filipino/African American actor (whoo! a fellow geek of color!) who has appeared in many shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Raven’s Home, and Better Things. He will be making his official big-screen debut as the voice of Elio, and he’s absolutely adorable.
So to our surprise, our next adventure took us to Pixar’s recording booth, where we were fortunate enough to not only meet Kibreab, and take a picture with him, but also voice act along side him! As we haven’t ever done this before, we needed some guidance. Thankfully, we had Pixar Recording Engineer Vince Caro there to help with everything!
The recording session was so much fun. Caro instructed myself and Kibreab to approach a stand with our lines from the script on top of it, and a microphone hanging down for each of us. In front of us was a monitor, with a scene from Elio queued up and ready to play. Caro told us that we would be playing the part of Glordon in this scene, and to watch for the faint red line. Once it made it to the end of the screen, following Kibreab’s reciting his lines, it would be on us to say our lines.
Of course, being next to a pro like Kibreab was incredibly intimidating to say the least. He actually *is* Elio. Thankfully, for confidence, I rocked an Elio costume, which the talented young actor appreciated! At last, it was our time to deliver the line, which in this case, was “I’m a bargaining chip!” in a chipper and pleasant demeanor (credit to the hilarious writers at Pixar for that one). Although I don’t necessarily think I should quit my day job, I don’t think I did poorly either. If Elio, himself, and Caro, thought it was good, I will take the compliments.
Stepping Into the Communiverse
Following the surreal experience of acting alongside Kibreab, our final activity for the afternoon was an experience that represented a fairly new development for the Pixar team. We were given the chance to check out a VR demonstration used in creating the sets for the film. And guiding us through this activity was Pixar’s David Luoh, Set Supervisor for Elio, who walked us through how The Communiverse was constructed.
While VR technology has been around for a while, the advancements of recent years have finally gotten it to a place where Pixar can now use it to visualize the environments they are creating for their films. Luoh stated that the team began using VR with Toy Story 4, and it has been a huge help for them on every film since. Through the use of an Occulus, Luoh and his team are able to map out the spaces and environments that will be brought to life in every movie, allowing them to design the most finite details necessary for bringing a world they are creating to life on screen. This includes understanding how big a set might be, how long it would take for the characters to walk through it, and how to achieve the best look and feel to make everything feel tangible and lived-in.
For the demonstration, we were allowed to view two environments: Glordon’s room and The Communiverse. For Glordon’s room, we were able to essentially walk through the cave-like stony caverns of Glordon’s and Grigon’s home world. There are pools of lava sitting in random pits across the floor, like hot tubs. Adorning the walls were silky webs, a feature that Glordon and Grigon can produce. It felt a bit cold and other worldly. Hanging up as well was an exosuit, which Grigon and Glordon wear whenever they need to go into battle, like armor protecting their squishy bodies. It was so immersive and a lot of fun, and one could see how helpful it would be in animating these settings for the film.
We next were able to step into The Communiverse itself. Though according to the filmmakers, the space station is supposedly quite small, the world we experienced was so richly detailed, you couldn’t tell that the entire setting was only 1.7 mi in diameter. We were able to explore three levels of The Communiverse, including a ground level, a central level, and an upper level. Oddly enough, we could use the Occulus controls to teleport down to each level, but had to climb up to get back to the upper halves of the station. The entier look felt like a big Apple store, with white and futuristic discs spinning all over you. Each floor featured some of the characters from the film that you could come face to face with, including Questa, Tegman, Helix, Elio, and Glordon. Overall it was a lot of fun, but also so much more complex than anyone would imagine.
When we look to the screen and see the amazing work Pixar has brought to us, the first thing we always think is “that’s gorgeous.” It’s impossible not to look at what they have created over the past few decades and acknowledge the beauty in all of it, as well as the sophisticated contributions they have made to cinema. However, the one thing no one ever sees or can even fathom is how complex and challenging it is to bring these stories to the screen. But thanks to the hard work, dedication, and incredible talent each and every single person in every department of the animation studio has put into every frame, we have been able to fall in love with their masterpieces time and time again. We are so grateful we got to see this in action for Elio. It’s truly going to be out of this world!
We have so much more to share with you all from our visit to Pixar including personal 1:1 interviews with all of the amazing crew members we encountered during this visit. So stay tuned to Geeks Of Color to learn more about what it takes to create another Pixar masterpiece!