Animation and Legal Issues

In this article we will be examining a few past legal problems that had popped up for two of the biggest animation studios in the United States today, Pixar and Dreamworks. Below I have provided links to articles involving legal issues that these two companies ran into over the past few years. So without further ado, our first article.

Lighting firm Luxo sues over sale of Luxo Jr. lamp with 'Up" Blu-ray disc

Now as a 3D animator I know all to well how important it is to reference animation and cg models from real life. The problem is that most items not created by imagination, such as a car or a computer or say a lamp are patented and copyrighted. Pixar's mascot Luxo Jr. was modeled after Norwegian company Luxo's real life lamp. Until Pixar attempted to sell their mascot, Luxo Jr., along with their latest movie 'Up', seemingly everything was alright between the lamp company Luxo and Pixar. It is unclear if Pixar had settled with Luxo or not, but the moral of this story is clear. Make sure that if you are attempting to sell something that you referenced from another real life object or person, that they are copyright free or that you have written permissions.

Next article.

Man who says dreamworks stole 'Kung Fu Panda' wins round in court

In this report we see a current legal problem that Dreamworks is having. A Mr. Terence Dunn claims that he had pitched the idea to Dreamworks and that they turned him down. A few months later, they announce 'Kung Fu Panda', what he says was his pitch months earlier. Now, thanks to Judge O'Donnell's ruling they are currently looking into whether it can be proven that Dreamworks was able to access Terence's work before 'Kung Fu Panda' was created. Since there has been no ruling or evidence yet, it is pretty much impossible for us to know if Dunn's claim is true. An interesting story; one that I think teaches us to not only be careful of who we pitch our ideas to, but also how we pitch them.

Last article.

Court rejects publicity rights claim over Pixar's lead car in Cars

As our last article will show, people may try to sue you over the smallest detail. In this story we see an apparently "famous" race car driver claiming that the design of the main character in Pixar's movie 'Cars', was based on a car that he owns. The court even went on record saying, "a fictional, talking, driver-less red race car with the number 95 on it cannot be construed as a likeness of a driver of a similarly colored/numbered race car."

That is the end of todays article and I hope that you had gotten something out of these lessons.

Reference: 

Verrier, R. 2009. Lighting firm Luxo sues over sale of Luxo Jr. lamp with 'Up' Blu-ray disc. Retrieved February 28th, 2011 from: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/07/business/fi-pixar7

Belloni, M. 2010. Man Who Says DreamWorks Stole 'Kung Fu Panda' Wins Round in Court. Retrieved February 28th, 2011 from: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/man-dreamworks-stole-kung-fu-56811

Masnick, M. 2010. Court Rejects Publicity Rights Claim Over Pixar's Lead Car In Cars. Retrieved February 28th, 2011 from: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101217/04203712317/court-rejects-publicity-rights-claim-over-pixars-lead-car-cars.shtml

Getting Comfortable

Comfort is something that a lot of people seek. They wish to enjoy comfort at home, most likely wish they had some level of it at work and it can be seen as many other things in non-verbal communication.

So today we will attempt to understand what a person might look like when they are comfortable around other people. In business this can be very useful because if someone is not comfortable around you then it is likely they won’t trust you. Watching comfort and discomfort between two individuals can be a very interesting yet subtle show. So to help you understand this show I will now give example of what people may look like when they are comfortable around each other.

The single thing that I find most interesting when it comes to the topic of comfort between two individuals is mirroring. You may have seen this and had not recognized what it meant at the time. As the picture below shows there are two people sitting opposite from each other. You will notice that the way that they are sitting almost directly mirrors the other persons “pose”. What this tells us is that they could be very comfortable around each other. Mirroring happens in facial emotions as well. If one person smiles the other person may smile. If one person is crying, the other may begin to start tearing up.

Another way of telling a person’s comfort level with another is by how close they are to that person. Lets look again at the photo above. Look at how close these two individuals are sitting to each other; they are almost touching each other legs. People who are uncomfortable with the other person would most likely have their legs almost pressed against the legs of the chair, trying to keep as much distance from the other person as possible.

There are a few subtle signs that you should also attempt to notice such as when a person moves an object out of their way to get a better view of the other person. Another would be just how openly they are showing their torso and inner arms. This shows signs of openness as well as comfort because people are a lot less likely to show their vital spots to those they find discomforting.

Notice these signs and you may be able to connect with others more easily when first meeting them.

For the Animators: Animators can use this information in many different ways. Depending on if two characters are supposed to be comfortable with each other you may have them close or farther apart. You may also have them mirror each other; however if you do this, it is best to make it as subtle and almost unnoticeable as possible or something may seem “off” to the audience.

References: Picture -http://www.learnbodylanguage.org/male_flirting_3.html

Interview with Travis Blaise

Recently I had the chance to interview a man by the name of Travis Blaise. In addition to having an awesome last name he also has awesome work experiences. So to begin the interview I started with the standard question. Could you tell us about some of your prior work experiences?


Little did I know what was to come. Travis told me that one of the first movies he had worked on was Beauty and the Beast, then moving on to Aladdin, Lion King and Pocahontas. In between which he worked on a Roger Rabbit cartoon as well as the Aladdin and Lion King video games for the Sega Genesis console. After that he moved on to animate Frollo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, villains in Mulan, Kerchek and others in Tarzan, characters in Lilo and Stitch, Koda from Brother Bear and Goofy in a cartoon.

After the Disney animation studio had closed down Travis went on to animate George in the movie Curious George as well as nearly 24 music videos for the cartoon series Class of 3000. These days Travis is a free lancer doing commercials, pilots for some television shows and working with friends he had made in the industry.

I went on to ask him if he ever considered body language when drawing and animating. Travis said, "I think body language is extremely important, especially in animation. It's the art of story telling without saying a word. In a lot of my practice over the years I have been observing. I have a gift to see things, see it in my head and then put it down on paper. To me it comes down to observing life. In traditional animation and 3D animation it's about the posing."

Interested in his thoughts about networking I continued the interview by asking for his thoughts on the importance of making contacts and networking. To this he responded, "I think it's vital, in any industry you're in. Really trying to meet people on a friend level. Most of the people in my network are friends. It's like friends first, then let's see what we can do later."

As usual I decided to finish off the interview with a question that I like to ask because I find that it informs us of things that we would normally have to learn by experience. I asked Travis if there was one thing that you would tell an aspiring animator, what would it be? He replied, "Just enjoy your life. Really just observe and try to have fun with what you're doing. Even if I don't have any money, I don't care because I love what I do. Find your passion and keep it."

After the interview was over I thanked Travis repeatedly and then bid him to have a good day. I hope you enjoyed this article and have gotten something from it. So, in the words of Mr. Blaise, "Find your passion and keep it."

References:
Koda: http://www.animatedheroes.com/koda.html
Kerchak: http://wdfanimation2.tripod.com/kerchak.html
Frollo: http://www.movievillains.com/archives/2004/06/judge_claude_fr.html
Goofy: http://disneyexclusiveonline.com/content/Mickey_-_Friends.htm