Onward
Pixar Animation Studios | 2020
Feature Film
Role: Layout Lead
Onward was the second Pixar movie in which I had a lead position (after Coco), and this time I shared it with Jan Pfenninger, which greatly helped to ease the burden of managing all the responsibilities that come with a lead position while trying to complete my own shots as a layout artist.
I had previously worked with Dan Scanlon, the director, on Monsters University, and looked forward to learn a lot from his comedy instincts, while at the same time trying to bring a more grandiose, epic adventure flair in the appropriate moments, since the movie slowly morphs from a suburban comedy that just happens to have fantasy creatures in it to an actual epic Fantasy quest. Adam Habib was the Director of Photography for Layout, his first time As a D.P. in a Pixar movie, and guided out little team with skill, a great eye for detail and a great sense of humor.
I worked on too many things throughout the movie to list it all, but I can highlight the opening sequence showing the transformation from World of Magic to boring modern world, the sequence when the spell fails and only half of their dad is brought back, the sequence where the van runs out of gas and the brothers need to use magic to try to get more gas out of a nearly empty can, as well as bits and pieces here and there, like the brothers exploring an underground cave and some stuff on the climactic ending with the “school dragon” (which was a huge sequence and probably involved everybody on the Layout team!).