A wonderful treat that we happened to be part of was a visit from Chris Sasaki, illustrator and character designer at Pixar. He spent a good hour giving us an informal chat on how he got to where he is now and what it takes to be part of such a large and respectable company.
I had never heard of Chris beforehand but after meeting him I did a little research on what he's worked on - some of which he told us (Monsters University, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and various other projects). I really love his art style as it varies so much and he is so adaptable to whatever they seem to ask of him. His work first comes across as very traditional looking - rough lines, bold colours and textures, very detailed line work. Actually, most of it is digital and as he so rightly told us, it's mostly being created for digital content so it has to be adaptable and tried in different ways.
Here are a few pieces of Chris' work that I fell in love with:
I love the obvious textures and very illustrative style. His characters stand out and have personality that you instantly understand. I think that's what makes a good character designer - the ability to inflict the character's emotions and personalities easily upon on the audience. I really feel for those whales and the narwhal as they all seem so sad and cranky (possibly because they're being hunted by us in vast numbers), but it really makes you feel empathy just from a simple piece of work.
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