Editing Geri's Game (section)

=== 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"/>