Pete Paquette

I can remember watching Aladdin in the theaters and realizing that I wanted to animate…in 2D.  When I started my degree in computer animation at Ringling, I took a course in 2D animation and was happy as a clam.  Unfortunately around the same time there was a movement in the industry by a few notorious executives that “2D was dead”.  Ugh…It still makes me sick to my stomach.  So I put aside my aspirations of being a 2D animator and focused on actually learning how to use a computer.  I never stopped drawing.  Even when figure drawing was no longer a requirement in the later years at Ringling, I would spend time at a figure drawing club called FEWS and I would spend a great deal of time drawing everything with my buddy Ben Sprout.

Once I got into the industry, I was amazed to find that most of the animators didn’t draw.  I even heard some people claim that they didn’t need to know how to draw.  I still feel like the better animators out there can thumbnail ideas and successfully pitch their ideas with drawings alone.  I am a mentor at animationmentor.com and I am relentless in telling my students how important drawing is to animation.  In my opinion, there is NO BETTER WAY to learn the basics of body mechanics and posing than figure drawing.

Shortly after the completion of Ice Age 2, I started playing around with a program called Plastic Animation Paper.  I can remember using it to turn around ideas very quickly to the director at the time and it proved to be extremely efficient.  I can remember asking Blue Sky studio to consider buying the software and they went a step further.  With the guidance of Scott Carroll and I, a R&D genius named Hugo Ayala created an in-house software that is much more intuitive than anything available on the market to this day.

Blue Sky has embraced this work flow and is still used to this day.  Here is a shot that I animated on “Rio” showing it’s progress from it’s 2D choreography through it’s completion.

I am extremely happy to report that my new job at 38 Studios has fully embraced and supported this work flow of mine.  I now use a program called FlipBook to pitch ideas, but it’s nowhere near as intuitive as Hugo’s program.  If Blue Sky ever decided to market his software to the public, I’d be first in line.

Shortly after my departure from Blue Sky, another treehouse member, Paul Downs, got an opportunity to work closer to family as well.  Honorary treehouse member, Jeff Gabor, has moved in along with lead animator, Melvin Tan.  This blog created by the new lost boyz chronicles the transition along with some pretty inspiring animation posts.

A few months ago, I thought it would be fun to create a game based off our PG-13 puppet show “Treehouse Studios“.  I wanted to create a NES style fighting game so Nick and I could “fight” in front of the department on my last day.  I started playing around a bit in a program called Game Maker and quickly realized I didn’t have the programming chops to do EXACTLY what I wanted with the game.  I recruited my brother Jeff, who is a self-taught game programmer, and all of my game-play ideas quickly became reality.

The partnership with my brother has been nothing short of amazing.  So much in fact, that we plan to release future casual games under the the name of “E-Swell! Games“.

This 2-player demo is available for the Mac here.  We are currently porting the demo to the PC and we have plans to release it for the iPhone.  The full game will also have a single-player feature.

In an earlier post I talked about how the Norman Rockwell Museum was hosting an exhibit about The Animation Art Of Blue Sky Studios.  The entire treehouse got invited to do a talk on animation this past weekend.  We kept it very casual and had a lot of fun talking about our process.  It was an honor to be showcased among the amazing work of Norman Rockwell!!

One of the members of the audience was the creator of Dinotopia, James Gurney.  He did caricatures of us all as we talked.

The Lost Boyz in the Treehouse replica.

There was also an outdoor exhibit of robot sculptures inspired by the movie “Robots”.  My son LOVED them.

At the end of the day, our families got together for dinner at The Red Lion Inn.

Eight years later, my time at Blue Sky Studios comes to an end.  Friday was my last day at Blue Sky Studios and it was incredibly bittersweet.  It all started with an amazing comic strip by Bobby Pontillas. He perfectly captured how I was feeling.

The team also bombarded the dry-erase board with caricatures of yours-truly.

Here are some of my favorites of the bunch:

When we got back from a goodbye lunch, there was a department meeting in the acorn theater.  They made me sit in a chair in the front of the room while I watched a couple videos:

Josh Spencer put together an anthology of all my shortest shots (and cut some down as well).:

My fellow Treehouser’s  tore me a new one too:

It was a fantastic send-off.  I couldn’t ask for anything more.  Thanks to all my friends who made my last day a memorable one!!  I will miss you all!!

Fellow Blue Sky animator Bobby Pontillas did a demo on character design today.  Since it’s my last week at Blue Sky, he decided to use me to show his process.  Thanks Bobby!!

A couple of weeks ago a representative  of Blue Sky marketing came to the treehouse and asked if I could do a formal introduction for a visiting artist.  I had no idea who it was, so I agreed.  When I found out is was Jules Bass from Rankin/Bass I was immediately overwhelmed and humbled.  This man’s work had been a major staple in my entire family’s life.  How do I even begin to say what his work meant to me as an animator??  After hours of writing and re-writing, I finally finished up.

I’ve always considered myself a good public speaker.  I’ve never had any problems giving demo’s, talking animation, etc.  This to me was different and  I was ironically so nervous, I forgot some major points of what I wanted to say.   Here’s the unabridged version of what I wrote:

“When I think of a Rankin/Bass production, my mind takes me back to the days before DVR and VCR when you had only one chance a year to watch one of these beloved holiday specials and if you unfortunately missed it, you felt like you missed a piece of that holiday season.  Through the years, watching these shows became just as important a family tradition as trimming the tree or hunting eggs and each of them have strong moral themes and values that have taught past and future generations right from wrong.  
 Our speaker today has introduced generations to Frosty, Rudolph, The Heat Miser, Sunny The Easter Bunny and Amalthea the unicorn….and that only begins to scratch the surface.  It is an absolute honor to introduce Mr. Jules Bass. “

It was very casual and he was extremely open about discussing the production of his films. Out of all his stories he had for us, a couple things really stood out for me. Of course, I’m paraphrasing.

” I asked the storyboard artist, what’s with the line of guys signing and dancing with hats??  He said, “I don’t know.  I thought it was funny.”" - describing “The Heat Miser Song” sequence from “The Year Without a Santa Claus”

“You never know what the public will like.  Nobody really knows what they’re doing.”

This past weekend, The Normal Rockwell Museum opened “‘Ice Age’ to the Digital Age: The 3D Animation Art of Blue Sky Studios” . My fellow treehouse members and I did an  interview about the culture of the animation department that is playing at the exhibit.  The folks at the museum also made a replica of our treehouse!!  Nick Bruno, Scott Carroll, Paul Downs and I will be talking at the Museum’s Blue Skies! Family Festival Day on Saturday, July 16.