New Trailer for Monsters University

Check this one out! Here is a new trailer for MU, aired in the UK. A lot more giveaways here. 

Makes me wonder what I have missed out on, by studying in Europe. The fraternity world is something I have seen only on movies. And these frat boys? man, they are monsters...

Wonder what I have done last year?

 

Sometimes I do too... time flew so fast. But now that it's no longer a secret... here's a clip of "The Blue Umbrella", a short I worked on with Saschka Unseld, our young and talented German director.

Enjoy this clip, while waiting for the full short. It will be out in theaters ahead of Monsters University.

What if...

What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?

Imagine you at MU

Makes me want to go back to college. My Italian campus was not nearly this cool.

BigRock

I also went to Milan, Verona, Parma and Treviso to see family and friends. I stopped and gave a seminar at BigRock training center. BigRock is located in the bucolic countryside of Treviso, in a large farmhouse, within an area starred with startups, that is quickly developing to become a technological hotspot in Italy, under the protection of, among others, venture capital firm H-Farm.

After visiting the school, and seeing the students work, I have to say I was very impressed with the improvements in CG training in Italy, which unfortunately used to be very hard to come by when I approached the subject about a decade ago. If most of these promising students should end up sticking in Italy, I think good things might happen there too.

An Italian Break

It has been a long and engaging year working on an undisclosed project, for an undisclosed Pixar short  - I know that's not very informative is it? Ok I can say it will be screening in theatres before Monsters University. More news to come soon.

So now that the project has wrapped, I took some time off to spend in my dear home town of Torino. I did not stop there all the time though. With my dad, we took some time to go up to the top of the Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Western Europe. The weather did not seem to agree with us though, so we settled with travelling under the tallest mountain in Western Europe, and go to France instead. The french border patrol seemed less than eager to let us pass, perhaps because of my Californian driving license... but eventually gave in.

So we could enjoy the snow and the wonders of Savoiarde cuisine: Charbonnade (grilled meats), Raclette (French cheese molten by coals and served over potatoes) and Vin Chaud (mulled wine).


 

Back in Italy, on my way to an interview for a local radio, I found that street signs are either getting more graphic, or our cycling habits have been affected by Carmageddon. 

It's good to find that some things have not changed though. I filled up with what I consider our staples, such as espresso, or polenta with sausages, all the way to some of our specialties, like donkey salami and gnocchi alla bava (drowling gnocchi, served with a Fontina cheese and nutmeg sauce). 

Our cuisine keeps surprising me with things I didn't know even as a local. Note to self: try making ravioli with walnut cream, or veal escalopes with hazelnut gravy. Also, check if in San Francisco you can get fresh hops, to cook in omelettes. Mmmm I am getting hungry as I am typing, at 2am.

Get your kids a proper education

The Documentary department at Pixar came up with this website. It is a full-on homepage for the Monster University, where most of the movie named after it takes place.

I worked on the movie for almost two years and seeing this site made me feel like it's becoming real. So exciting!

Enjoy!
http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/

P.s. If you are wondering if the four arm-ed shirts and sweaters at the university store are going to be available at some point, the answer is: YES! And I want one.

Siggraph 2012

Yes, it is indeed that time again.

This year I am not presenting anything myself, but a lot of good friends and colleagues will so I will try to attend many tech talks. Do not miss Inigo Quilez's presentation on real time visuals. A lot of that stuff was used, one way or another, on our procedural vegetation and dressing for Brave, it is breathtaking to see a demoscene artist bring this genius into a feature film.  

Otherwise, you will find me in the Renderman or Pixar Recruiting booth, or handing out posters and teapots, or in the open standards courses and Birds of a Feather.

I hope to see you there!

Another princess movie

or is it?

One of the most interesting reviews I have read so far.

Enjoy!

Brave

Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.

After so much inspiring work, we are starting to see the end approach. Brave is coming out this Summer, and it seems like the end of an era. People are starting to wrap, and the new projects are ramping up and taking on a lot of technical directors and artists.
 
I am one of the few here at Pixar, it feels like, who have never worked on this project directly. After Toy Story 3, I moved on almost directly onto La Luna and then Monsters University. Now I am working in the Tools department, where the software the artists use day by day is made. 

Hence, I have carefully avoided spoiling the story by seeing the reels in a long time. I want to see the movie in all its splendor, with untainted eyes. I can hardly wait.

La Luna is nominated by the Academy

Congratulations to Enrico Casarosa, and the whole Luna team for this nomination!
I couldn't be more proud of our work or more fond of the time I had working on it.

Now... no pressure Enrico, but it looks like Pixar rests on your shoulders this year!

Brave trailer is out

Finally, the trailer of upcoming adventure from Pixar, Brave, is out in the open. Enjoy!

Piazza dei Mestieri

I am back home, in San Francisco, munching on some delicious chocolate covered lemon zests. Thanks to all who got out of their way to come see me at View. It was great to see you all!

 Where do those zests come from? Other than my two regular presentations, I was invited somewhat last minute to meet and teach a workshop at an unusual school, called Piazza Dei Mestieri, in the heart of Torino. This school helps youngsters to learn a profession and there are many, diverse disciplines. Each discipline has a production workshop and that is how the school maintains itself, for the most part. In fact, tuition is free, as long as students can show their progress. There is a brewing school, as well as a pub. There is a hairdressing school, with a low-cost studio for the students to practice. There is a chocolate workshop. That's where the zests I am nibbling on come from.

Of course, if I taught a workshop there, it is because there is a specialization in computer graphics too. I am no master brewer or chocolatier - although I would not mind becoming one.

The campus is remarkable, it reminds me of an old piazza surrounded by traditional businesses and a cute restaurant on the terrace, that in the summer must be really nice. That same restaurant is where all the presenters of the View conference celebrated, with a gala dinner, the final evening of the event.

Should you pass by Torino, it is probably worth giving the pub at Piazza dei Mestieri a try. As far as I could tell, the beers they brew on site are worth it.

For those who haven't seen it yet, here is a teaser/extract from La Luna. Enjoy!

View 2011

It was at Siggraph conference that I met Maria Elena Gutierrez. For year now, she has been in charge of organizing the ViewFest and the View Conference in Torino (formerly known as Virtuality).

I remember Virtuality very well. Me and my friends, still studying or working on music videos, got inspired and compelled to push our skills so much because we wanted to be like the amazing people we saw there. 

I remember we sat at a pizzeria in the evening after this event, wishfully predicting what we were going to do in 10 years. One will be in Pixar, one in Dreamwoks. Maybe the other will be in Digital Domain or in Weta or perhaps in Japan. Cheers to that! I still remember the excitement in our eyes.  We did not sleep much. The following weeks were spent trying to work on some crazy project, like a sculpt project, a gutsy simulation or even a short about Evangelion, full CG, fully realistic. 

The short did not happen. But 10 years down the road, sure enough, one of us is at Pixar, one at Dreamworks, and one married a lovely Japanese lady and started an international business in Torino.

That is why I am excited to be on the other side this year. I'll be the one presenting at View. On the 22nd I will talk about the emigrant experience of a shader writer. And on the 24th I will teach an advanced workshop on shading on SIMD architectures.

I hope some of you can make it.

A coherent noise for non photorealistic applications

I hope you attended this year's Siggraph. It was in the enchanting city of Vancouver, and the weather was deceptively good, so much it probably helped the companies that were aggressively hiring there. I had several reasons to go this year. I am working on the integration of the 3d painting tool from The Foundry, Mari, as well as Autodesk Mudbox and Disney's Paint3d. So I had plenty of meetings to attend. I also presented a paper this year, my first one in fact. 

It was very exciting - read nerve wrecking - to be presenting the fast forward session. Twenty five thousand amazing people, the cream of the intelligentia in our field - were looking at me at the same time. Despite some technical issues with the videos in the presentation, that nobody seemed to notice, it went pretty well. 

Enrico Casarosa also presented his first work as a director in Pixar: La Luna - not to be confused with another short that also came out this year: Luna. I had the pleasure to help out a bit on this one, shading the stars, animating their effects, and a painting and shading a few props on the boat. 

Make sure you see it when it will be shown again, ahead of Brave in theaters!

"It gets better" - love, Pixar

Hello friends,
 
My friends and colleagues prepared a message that I found touching, and would like to pass on.
 

 
I hope you like it, because these are some of my best friends and some of the best, real people I had the honour of working with in my life.

Cars 2 first peek

 

First peek at the next movie my friends are working on. Enjoy!

Journey to the Center of America

Following the trend I started for myself last year, I made Siggraph be a part of a larger trip. I have been together with an American girl, Cynthia, for almost a year now, and in that period she spent a couple of months in Costa Rica. That was the chance I had been waiting for to visit!

Also, I found interesting that a tiny country like the central American republic had a wealth of six visual effects and animation companies representing it at Siggraph. Italy, with a population larger by one order of magnitude, had none. Needless to say, that tickled my curiosity.

If you expect a warm country to be a sunny country, without consulting when the rainy season happens, you'd be sorely disappointed. It rained every single day of the two weeks I spent there. Still, the Sun managed to poke through the clouds most mornings making sure I woke up early most days to enjoy the beautiful landscapes and fun action that was awaiting me.

Costa Rica truly is a beautiful place. Most of it is covered by verdant jungles and green hills, and the coasts can boast some fantastic beaches, where sea turtles seasonally lay their eggs. Small and medium coastal towns flourished (according to some got spoiled) because of western tourists and surfers, attracted by a stable democracy, awesome waves, and a cheap currency. 

I suppose we blended right into that category, although we were no surfers. We tried to keep out of the most beaten path where possible, and visited small towns. After Cynthia spent some weeks studying Spanish in a large and modern botanical research facility, we got to visit it, and learn a lot about coffee, cocoa, and the many local and unique species of plants of Costa Rica. The next stop was a long and strenuous white water rafting trip down the river towards the Pacific Ocean. Now, that was a lot of fun, even though Cynthia fell off the our boat and we had to fish her back into it. We did more snorkeling and saw fascinating mangrove forests, as well as whales and dolphins. But before I left, I had a chance, before heading back home, to visit a charming coffee farm up on the cliffs of Monteverde.

 Food is usually simple and filling. Rice and beans are omnipresent, as well as fried platanos and tropical, delicious fruits. Portions are huge and it is easy to get used to eat a lot. Perhaps unsurprisingly, obesity is a problem in Costa Rica too. 

Although the population of the country is relatively small, people are very different from place to place. Most people are devoted catholics and we arrived right in the middle of a great, huge pilgrimage. People from all over the country walked to Cartago, where a relic was being shown to people. Traffic in the only large city, San Jose, reminded me of the worst driving practices of us Italians, while the coastal regions are a true pleasure to cruise and the people there are way more laid back. 

As I think with pretty much everywhere I go, I wish I had more time to spend and explore this place. Unfortunately I have a limited amount of time to spend away from home. Fortunately, I love what I do at home, just as much as I love traveling.

Done, and done

Thanks to all who came to visit me at the Pixar booth. In such a short time it has been really hard to catch up with everyone I meant to, and I predictably failed to do so. Still, it has been great to see you all, even if only for such a short chat.

Being at the Pixar booth you get to meet all sorts of people. Other than old friends coming to say hi, most people came to ask about the giveaway of teapots and Toy Story 3 posters. There were many students who were trying to show their reels, and a few people interested in purchasing licenses of Renderman. Then again there were people that were just creepy. A recruiter told me there was a guy standing a few feet away, not approaching but never ceasing to stare at her. Another guy, which I will call "The Creep", came just to complain about the teapot design this year, and to interrogate me on my culture on the teapots. The Creep was easy to spot: fairly old, crazy Einstein-like hair, Toy Story shirt over a fake tattooed skin colored shirt. The Creep was at every party I was at and probably many more. He pretended to be a bouncer at The Foundry party, randomly attempting to reject people, including me, before disappearing. He also tried to crash the Renderman User Group. He did not make it because they recognized him for being the one escorted out the previous year for harassing the ladies attending the user group.

It also was a very productive session this year. This is perhaps the first year my primary purpose is not to find a job or to see the cool new papers and courses. I was there to address specific issues related to 3d painting, which is what I am working on now, and I was successful.

For a few years now there has been the feeling that Siggraph talks are getting less and less interesting. Or at least, less groundbreaking, addressing problems that have been already solved and improving on current techniques. I loved last year's keynote by Rob Cook, in which he said that while research on computer graphics for motion pictures might have slowed down, there are a lot of unexplored challenges that fall straight in the original definition of what Siggraph was born for: Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. Fields such as augmented reality, mobile gaming, social networks, are still in their infancy, and other fields we haven't even started to explore are waiting ahead. I am looking forward to see what research will bring us in these terms. Still, this year was very focused on improving current computer graphics solutions, so not as exciting as it could have been.

Parties were pretty good. I got invitations and joined the ones from Lucas (thanks Diego), Pixar Renderman, Siggraph Vancouver Chapter, Blur (thanks Alessandro), The Foundry (thanks Rob). It was interesting to see how different companies spent differently their party budgets. Pixar spent it on nice food and wine and a huge, quiet, conference room. Lucas hired a very nice club right next to the conference, with open bar and lovely ambiance. The Vancouver Chapter party coincided with the opening night of Blizzard Starcraft II, so both parties were held in that location, not far from the conference either, but the location was a lot less nice. Blur instead decided to limit invitations, hire a much smaller location, right in the middle of fashionable Hollywood, and enhance the show with gogo dancers and flaming shows and two open bars that required an hour of wait. Parking in Hollywood, however, was difficult and expensive, and the staff was surprisingly unfriendly. The Foundry, finally, were pretty smart and hired a very cool theatre near the convention and used most of the evening showing their technology and, when they were done, they put on a locally known DJ that prevented any further discussion with the volume of the music. A quieter upper floor with a separate bar was provided for those who wanted a productive business talk.

It is that time again

It is Siggraph time! And this time it happens to be close to home too! Los Angeles, one of the most populous metropolitan conglomerates, and one of the most loved and hated cities in the world. I feel like I belong more to the second group, since I love compact, walkable cities such as San Francisco, but still, Los Angeles has so much to offer, and I am not going to miss out.

I will be around, checking out some of the events, I will attend the Renderman User Group and, on Tuesday afternoon, I will be helping out at the Pixar booth, so if you have a minute, please come say hi!

Cars Toons

A week after coming back to the US, a lot of things have happened. I have learnt that the paper I submitted, together with Michael Kass, to the Siggraph committee fell just short of being accepted, although it will be adjusted and published on ACM Transactions on Graphics. 

I changed project, and started working on three shorts. Two of them are related to cars, and the series is called called Cars-Toons. They will not be released in the theatre, they will rather be available on DVD and on Disney Channel.

Some of them are actually already available on the net! Check them out:

Look forward to seeing the next ones!

Adiós

Its been a few weeks now, and I had time to think back on my week in Brazil. It has been great in many ways. I have met some really warm locals, I have caught up with some of my best friends, who gathered in Salvador from all over the world (Italy, UK, New Zealand, United States) to share this happy event with Alessandro and Taise. I tried as much as possible to make time to see the place too. And Salvador is certainly a place to see. In many ways.

The city has many faces. A pretty historical district, dotted by colorful houses, a high city and a low city connected by an enormous elevator. There are some touristy and pricey areas near the beach, those areas that host one of the craziest Carnival parades in the world. The city population is mostly black, although it is not hard to spot some beautiful mixture of races.

Poverty is a big issue. If I thought San Francisco had a lot of homeless people, Salvador definitely beat it it its richer city districts. Then there are the poorer city districts. We walked near one by chance, while trying to reach a local market. Taise refers to it as favela. And definitely, it met the expectations I had to see unsafe, old buildings, dirt roads, people sitting around. The city council did not seem to care, since they built a structurally questionable viaduct right above it.

As one might expect in a poor city, crime rate is high. Especially in the richer areas. Everyday I spent at the hostel I had a chance to hear about people being pick pocketed, or mugged, not just in the dark alleys we would tend to avoid anyway. That worried me a bit, since I already had lost my luggage, and easily stood out as a tourist despite my attempts at buying local clothes.

The beach was so beautiful though, and every morning you could see people of all ages working out there. Kids playing football, youngsters playing Frisbee or foot volleyball (which is amazing to see), adults jogging and seniors doing pushups, right there by the sea. I have to say, coming from the US, watching these people bodies felt like seeing the next step in human evolution. Although it was probably more like the previous step in human involution. 

Reading the press (yes, I found that I can read Portuguese), and watching news on TV, I got the feeling that Brazil is a country full of great people, proud of their country and of how quickly it is becoming a world power. I was saddened by the little sustainable it is though. People were boasting about finding some new oil reserves, and despite the widespread usage of biofuels, the origins of it can be partly connected to the destruction of the rainforest around the country. More in general, there seems to be little respect of an environment they have for so long taken for granted. Then again, as a westerner, who am I to throw the first stone.
 

What about the food? The local cuisine of Bahia derives its roots from Africa, more than from the rest of South America. Muqueca is definitely something to try. It is something between a Spanish paella and an mild Thai curry, made with African spices and coconut milk. It looks like a seafood soup, served with flour and rice separately. Something common to the rest of the country, they love their meat. Things as a churrasco are visible in many places, although they seem to be very much of a luxury meal, more for the tourists than for the locals. More in the everyday menu is the carne ao sol (meat dried of a day or two in the Sun), served with a delicious manioc and cheese puree. My drinks of choice, good for rehydrating from the burning sun, was almost always a raw coconut, which I recommend to try with the local liqueur, Cachasa.

Biem-Vindo

About a year ago my good friend Alessandro mentioned the fact that he was going to get married. And gave me about a year notice. So no excuses, although I´m pretty good at missing these important occasions, I was not going to do it this time.

There are really no good flights between San Francisco and Salvador - Bahia. All require at least two connections. To be safe, I planned extra time for the each and did not put anything too important in the checked-in backpack - with the notable exception of the suit I am supposed to wear at the wedding.

And of course, things went wrong. After an excruciating eight hours wait in Atlanta, the delay was long enough that I missed my connection in Brazilia. Besides, they also lost my luggage, and I still do not know its location at this time. The replacement flight from Brazilia to Salvador was also late. But it´s ok because I waited for my ride (which I am grateful for) for another hour at the airport. So overall, the trip took about 35 hours. And without my stuff.

It wasn´t all bad though. I had plenty of time to peruse my portuguese lesson podcast and to catch up with the world news. And once I got there, starving like a velocyraptor, I had two dinners. One italian, and one Brazilian.

  

So here I am, in Bahia, stuffed with carne ao sol, enjoying the sound of the waves and the comfortable couch of one of my best friends.

Circkus Animation

Ever wondered what on the world it is exactly that I do? CirkusProductions recently posted this cute video on Youtube which makes computer animation a bit more understandable for those who do not live with it every day.



Easy, isn't it?

Congratulations to the Up crew!

The Oscar night was fun! I was glad to see UP win the Best Animated Feature Award. It is so rewarding to see the hard work and incredible talent of all my friends and colleagues be recognized yet again. Congratulations as well for the Best original score. I really love and am moved by the soundtrack, written by Michael Giacchino.

I would like to take a minute to congratulate Mauro Fiore, for his Best Cinematography Award with Avatar, and thank him for representing with pride us immigrated Italian artists in the world. All the talented artists and technical directors at Weta in New Zealand did an amazing job with the movie, and greatly deserved the Best Visual Effects Award too.

I was a bit sad to see neither shorts "French Roast" or "Lady and the Reaper"  - the first Oscar nominated animated work from Spain - or the new Wallace and Gromit be rewarded for their fantastic job.

Finally, I think "Il Divo", my favourite Italian picture in the last few years, should have been in the short list for Best Foreign Movie Award, rather than for the Best Makeup Award, where it found itself unrealistically competing with sci-fi flicks like Star Trek.

What did you think?

Waiting for Oscar night - Legend of the Guardians

Friday night at Pixar I had a chance to see Alice in Wonderland. Other than being a very visually appealing movie, I was looking forward to that because before of the movie, I knew they would show the first trailer of "Legend of the Guardians" in 3D.

Only 6 months away from the due release, this movie from Zack Snyder and Animal Logic changed its name from "The Guardians of Ga'Hoole", the original books title, to avoid conflicting with the current release name of the new Dreamworks movie "The Guardians of Childhood". I had a very minor part while working at Animal Logic on this new release, and I am looking forward to seeing it in theaters. It will probably be contending for the next year's Academy Awards.

So here is the new trailer! Look forward to it!

Enjoy the Oscar Night!

New Toy Story 3 trailer

Here it is!

My first movie here at Pixar is getting closer to be finished, and a new HD trailer is now out.

A lot of story and new characters are revealed, so be warned!

Say cheese...

Ever wondered how mozzarellas are made? Lately a friend of mine wanted to find out, so we got together and tried. Several sets of instructions can be found online and the do not always agree on amounts. They do, however, agree that the heating temperatures must be precise if you want it to work. Which is especially hard if you have an electric stove. That is why we had to get a thermometer for food. Ours in particular was designed for frying and for candies (not sure what those two have in common other than being tasty and unhealthy).

At our first batch we tried an easier version of the instructions found online. Add the citric acid, then the rennet, heat, separate, swirl, separate more, drip the whey and keep the curd and so on. Once it seems separated enough you can work the cheese like a pizza dough. That's the fun part, because, depending on how much water you took out of it, it can be worked into fun shapes. 

So how did it turn out? Well... we forgot the salt. And a couple of hours after making it, it was incredibly squeaky on the teeth, like Haloumi. The next day it still did not look like mozzarella, but both taste and texture got surprisingly close to a nice Scamorza cheese. 

At our second batch we felt confident enough to try a trickier verision of the instructions, that required more time at each step. We hoped to get much closer to a proper mozzarella. But the curd never did set and we ended up making just a lot of Ricotta. It was not all bad though, because the ricotta that we did not devour immediately with honey and fruit, ended up going into a delicious Rigatoni al Forno, with homemade ragu and bechamel. No, I did not take a picture of the Rigatoni. We just ate them.

So, all right, the cheese never turned up the way we wanted it, but it still tasted good. And a significant part of that "good" was because it tasted like something we had made from scratch. It tasted like we earned it. Still, I have to try that mozzarella recipe again, then you'll see the amazing pizzas I will make with it!

Up nominated for 5 Academy Awards

Congratulations to everyone at Pixar for the five Academy Award nominations on Up. In particular for Best Animated Picture and, hear hear, Best Picture! Wish us good luck for the Night of the Oscars!

Here is a little thought that Pete Docter shared.

Also congratulations for, in my opinion, the most visually experimental and undoubtedly charming Animated Picture of the year: The Secret of Kells.