2018 January PASO Magazine #201

In the mid-1980s, newscasts supplied
nightly a forensic evidence of
a piercing national recession, the
Chernobyl disaster, multiple terrorist
attacks, the Soviet-Afghan War, the
Challenger space shuttle explosion
and John Lennon’s assassination.
These were sobering tragedies that
underscored turmoil indicative of the
world in which we live.
As these events flashed in images
on our TV screens, and children all
over the nation did as they always have
– they sat under the shade of a tree or
at an urban playground and dreamed.
Inside their imaginations were color,
characters and wonder. More than a
fleeting thought, they became real as
kids put pencil to paper.
Michael was one of them. He simply
loved to draw. And he never stopped.
“As a kid, the challenge of having something
in my imagination, what I saw in my
head at 11 or 12 years old, was to get it
out of my head and onto paper,” said Michael
Venturini. “After high school, I found
an animation trade school in Vancouver.
Then I found a job at Warner Brothers and
saw that I was in way over my head.”
For a long time, the student had taken a
literal approach to his art, in which he perceived
animation to be “a series of drawings,
joining one image to another,” but
more was yet to be discovered.
“Through more experience, I realized
what I was really doing was acting,” said
Venturini, “but I couldn’t draw what I was
imagining. So, I doubled down to become
a better draftsman. Then an opportunity at
Pixar came up.”
For 18 years, the Paso kid’s virtual pencil
box has supplied two big-screen giants
– Warner Bros. Animation and Pixar
Animation Studios, a Walt Disney Studios
subsidiary. Pixar’s blockbuster credits include
“Toy Story,” “Monsters Inc.,” “Finding
Dory,” “The Incredibles,” “Cars,” “Ratatouille,”
“Up,” “Inside Out,” and “The Good Dinosaur,”
to name a few.
By Melissa Chavez
For the releases of “Ratatouille”
(2007) and “Up” (2009), Venturini was a
directing animator and both films won
Oscars for Best Animated Feature Film.
He began leading his department as a
supervising animator with colleague
Bobby Podesta for “Toy Story 3,” which
won an Oscar in 2011, followed by “The
Good Dinosaur.”
At Pixar, acting classes are provided
for animators, and biologists are even
brought in to help animators learn certain
physical aspects.
“When I was an animator, I looked to
films that challenged me professionally
to consider the emotion that brings a
character to life,” said Venturini. “You
have to love being observational and be a
student of that. And you have to understand
why people (the characters) make
the choices they do, be interested in
composition and constructing movement.
Every new film is a process of
educating ourselves – how do fish actually
swim? In our film, ‘Up,’ how do
dogs move? And, alpha behavior differs
between types of dogs. As a supervisor,
I understand the environment the actor
needs to thrive, and I want to create that
environment.
“Is the actor good with physical comedy?
Are they good with emotional performances?
We all start out as artists, but
we start becoming performers. Likewise,
animators research the voice actors’
movements by watching their live action
film performances, in efforts of helping
their drawn characters convey their
choices.”
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20 PASO Magazine, January 2018