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==Development== ''Geri's Game'' was Pixar's first original short film since 1989, when ''[[Knick Knack]]'' was released. It was directed and written by [[Jan Pinkava]], who joined the studio in 1993 to work on their [[TV commercials]] while the other directors and writers were preoccupied with the production of ''[[Toy Story]]'', and had been continuously approaching executive producer [[Darla K. Anderson]] with the proposal that the studio make a new short film.<ref name="20 years">{{cite web|title='Geri's Game' Turns 20: Director Jan Pinkava Reflects On The Game-Changing Pixar Short|date=25 November 2017|url=http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/geris-game-turns-20-director-jan-pinkava-reflects-game-changing-pixar-short-154646.html|publisher=Cartoor Brew|access-date=November 26, 2017}}</ref> === Initial conception === Work on the short began shortly after the release of ''[[Toy Story]]'' and during early production of ''[[A Bug's Life]]'', when [[Ed Catmull]] decided that the studio should resurrect its short films production as a way to bring new animators and storytellers into Pixar, and as a way to further push [[research and development]] for the studio.<ref name="New Face">{{cite magazine|last=Robertson |first=Barbara |title=Meet Geri: The New Face of Animation |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/glmiller/public/computational-geometry/15-852-F08/RelatedWork/meet-geri.pdf |magazine=Computer Graphics World |date=February 1998 |access-date=May 7, 2018}}</ref> For the first of these shorts, which would be the first one made in 8 years, Catmull wanted Pixar to create a story which featured a human as its central protagonist. Upon Anderson's suggestion, he reached out to Pinkava to direct the short.<ref name="20 years" /> According to Pinkava himself, Catmull said he could direct the short as long as it starred a human character and had a serviceable story behind it.<ref name="20 years" /> When trying to brainstorm a concept, Pinkava asked himself if he would be able to come up with a story that featured only one character, which would both give it an artistic edge and make development easier on the technical side of things, as coming up with just a single stylized, but credible, human character was hard enough.<ref name="New Face" /><ref name="20 years" /> He designed an elderly character {{En dash}} belonging to the polar opposite age sector of Billy,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tin Toy 1988 Film Short Pixar|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7x4qUKWCf0|access-date=February 25, 2021|website=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead YouTube link|date=February 2022}}</ref> the infant character in ''[[Tin Toy]]'', and one of Pixar's earliest attempts at creating a human character. He felt it would be interesting to animate a character with the body language of an old man, similar to how Billy was animated with the gesticulations of a baby. === Story evolution === After spending time [[storyboarding]] and [[brainstorming]] ideas, Pinkava came up with three different concepts starring an elderly male character; one of these concepts was about him playfully riding up and down an elevator, while another one involved him playing a game of [[chess]] against himself. The latter idea was inspired by Pinkava and his elderly relatives' love of chess—particularly his grandfather, an avid chess player who would often play rounds of the game with only himself.<ref>{{cite web|title=Interview with Jan|url=http://www.pixar.com/artistscorner/jan/interview.html|publisher=Pixar|access-date=August 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304214836/http://www.pixar.com/artistscorner/jan/interview.html|archive-date=March 4, 2012|date=February 2002}}</ref><ref name="20 years" /> Pinkava [[Pitch (filmmaking)|pitched]] an early [[animatic]] version of the chess story, and was turned down and given a second chance to restart and further develop the story. After giving a second pitch with a more structured plot, the project was [[green-lit]] and [[Karen Dufilho-Rosen|Karen Dufilho]] was issued to produce the project.<ref name="20 years" /> Pinkava, who grew up in [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], was inspired by the works of Czech filmmaker and storywriter [[Jiří Trnka]], particularly his [[stop-motion]] puppet films; Trnka's characters, usually human ones, were [[marionette]] puppets that had vastly [[stylization|stylized]] body and facial features, which Pinkava similarly applied somewhat to Geri's character design, with facial attributes such as his nose and chin.<ref name="20 years"/> Pinkava did several [[maquette]]s of different designs for Geri before settling on his final appearance, which he then sculpted into a (3D) clay model that was baked by [[Jerome Ranft]] and digitally scanned into Pixar's animation software. (Ranft initially was the clay sculptor for the character, working on his head and hands, but after receiving continuous suggestions on how to tweak the model, he reportedly handed the sculpting utensil to Pinkava, simply telling him, "You do it," while smiling.)<ref name="20 years"/> === Technology === Geri's voice (vocal intonations) came from Pixar writer [[Bob Peterson (filmmaker)|Bob Peterson]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Geri's Game (1997)|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b811719c9|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160928010733/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b811719c9|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 28, 2016|publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=September 10, 2016}}</ref> Peterson wanted Pixar to be able to create a short that could technologically push the studio to new heights; specifically, he wanted Pixar to create a short film featuring a character that could display both convincing-looking skin and realistic cloth animation.<ref name="20 years" /> The first Pixar short film with a human main character, ''Geri's Game'' was produced with the goal of "[taking] human and [[cloth animation]] to new heights".<ref>[http://www.pixar.com/shorts/gg/behind.html ''Geri's Game'' - Behind the Scenes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414121059/http://www.pixar.com/shorts/gg/behind.html |date=2012-04-14 }} at Pixar</ref><ref>Robertson, Barbara. [http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/PDFs/meet-geri.pdf "Meet Geri: The New Face of Animation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511225647/http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/PDFs/meet-geri.pdf |date=2011-05-11 }}, ''Computer Graphics World'', 1998.</ref><ref>{{citation | first1= T | last1= DeRose | first2= M | last2= Kass | first3= T | last3= Truong | title= Subdivision surfaces in character animation | url= http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~decarlo/readings/derose98.pdf | work= Proceedings of [[SIGGRAPH]] 1998 | year= 1998 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070113014127/http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~decarlo/readings/derose98.pdf | archive-date= 2007-01-13 }}</ref> To achieve the goal of producing a believable 3D human character, two people were brought on to do research for the project: [[Michael Kass]], who did the calculations behind the physics for a dynamic cloth system, and Tony DeRose, who made use of [[subdivision surfaces]], a technique invented by Catmull in conjunction with [[Silicon Graphics]] founder [[James H. Clark|Jim Clark]], which allowed for more lifelike skin surfaces.<ref name="20 years" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Subdivision Surfaces in Character Animation|url=http://graphics.pixar.com/library/Geri/paper.pdf|website=graphics.pixar.com|access-date=14 April 2015}}</ref> Previously, most 3D character surfaces were crafted using several [[non-uniform rational B-spline]]s (NURBS) that had to be "stitched" together, which made for less expressive movement and caused models to frequently tear. The use of subdivision surfacing, which renders a character's skin as one large surface, allowed for smoother object movement, as well as more intricate detail. DeRose had been working on the technology at the [[University of Washington]], and had already brought subdivision surfaces to [[CAD]] makers, who were ultimately unconvinced, and held their faith in NURBS, before bringing it to Pixar, which was much more receptive.<ref name="New Face" /> On the clothing side, after toiling endlessly by candlelight, Kass managed to create a system which could simulate the movement of cloth, at which point the team realized that the suit jacket they had modeled did not fit with Geri's movement outside of a default [[T-pose]]. According to Pinkava, [[Steve Jobs]], upon a hearing about the issue, had offered to help him by enlisting tailor [[Giorgio Armani]] to help them design an outfit for Geri, which he ultimately declined.<ref name="20 years" /> The development of a dynamic cloth simulator made several changes to the way that animators work; for instance, the animation, when completed, needed to be sent to the simulator, which would automatically insert Geri's jacket and calculate its movements, rather than being directly sourced to the [[3D rendering|renderer]] after being finished. Geri also needed to be animated 30 [[Film frame|frames]] in advance in order to get the simulation going, and animators could not "cheat" by having off-camera body parts go unanimated, as it would affect how the simulating program moved the clothing.<ref name="New Face" /> Like other Pixar shorts, ''Geri's Game'' contains no [[spoken dialogue]], and so is driven only by the actions and [[Facial expression|expressions]] of its main character. To further push the ability to convey the film's story, extra detail was put into Geri's facial [[Rigging (computer graphics)|rigging]] compared to previous rigging methods, with rigger Paul Aichele giving the character hundreds of face controls for animators to use.<ref name="20 years" /> These new, more detailed rigging methods went on to be used in ''[[A Bug's Life]]'', which was being worked on at the same time.<ref name="20 years" /> === Staff === Like previous short films made by Pixar, ''Geri's Game'' was made by a temporary branch of Pixar employees, and was separate from the people working on the studio's feature films. It took roughly a year to produce, according to Pinkava, largely due to the amount of time allotted to developing the [[cloth simulation]].<ref name="20 years" /> While the short was being made, most of Pixar Studios was preoccupied with making ''A Bug's Life''. Despite this, there were 18 different animators<ref name="New Face" /> that worked on the project (including Pixar storywriter [[Pete Docter]], who contributed a few scenes out of sheer interest<ref name="20 years" />). Despite being preoccupied directing ''A Bug's Life'', [[John Lasseter]] suggested adding a scene in which Geri checks to make sure he is alright after seeing his alter ego stage a heart attack and keel over; Lasseter physically staged out the entire scene to Pinkava.<ref name="20 years" />
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