[Chapter 339: Unrealistic Plans]
Though the studio had undergone monumental changes over the past year, the way Pixar employees worked remained as laid-back as Eric had seen it a year ago. Aside from a young woman in the office area who spotted Eric and called out to a gaggle of her friends to request autographs, his arrival didn't attract much attention.
In a screening room, Eric, along with John Lasseter and several other Pixar leaders, watched the completed version of Toy Story. While the sound was muted, the finished segments were still incredibly engaging. Joanna, sitting next to Eric, seemed to be riveted from start to finish.
Compared to the original version Eric remembered, this iteration of Toy Story indeed had seen significant improvements in detail. The visuals were more delicate and realistic, and the toys' movements looked more dynamic.
After viewing the completed film, Eric and John Lasseter chatted for a bit, affirming the final product. Finally, John asked, "Eric, I assume you didn't come here just to check out our successful project today?"
Eric smiled slightly and pointed to Pixar's Chief Technology Officer sitting next to John, "Of course, actually, I came to see Mr. Ed Catmull."
Ed had not seemed particularly enthusiastic before Eric's arrival. If not for Eric's status as the big boss, Ed would have long retreated to his office to focus on technical matters. He preferred work over socializing.
When Eric suddenly pointed to him, Ed snapped out of whatever technical dilemma he had been mulling over, asking, "Me?"
"Yes, let's talk in the meeting room." Eric stood up and said.
...
They moved to the meeting room, where Eric took a seat at the head of the table. Allen pulled a stack of documents from his briefcase and distributed them to Ed and John.
"Originally, Stan Winston was supposed to join us, but something came up that kept him from attending, so I -- being the outsider -- have come to discuss this. Although I reviewed some information earlier, please feel free to point out anything that seems unrealistic."
Upon hearing Eric's serious tone, both Ed Catmull and John Lasseter nodded earnestly.
Eric quickly continued, "This is a plan I developed during the production of Ghost, with Stan's help. It outlines a software framework for visual effects technology. Take a look, and we can discuss it afterward."
As Ed and John opened the documents Allen had just handed them, John seemed to grasp it better, while Ed's face showed shock. With his background as a Ph.D. in computer technology, he understood the immense scale of Eric's proposal on a deeper level.
The document detailed a proposal that Ed found somewhat unrealistic. Eric hoped to create a top-tier tech team to engineer the computer graphics techniques used in future films.
Typically, when a film director encountered an issue -- say, wanting a living character to melt away like a wax candle -- the visual effects engineers would develop a corresponding program code specifically to solve that problem. Once resolved, however, the developed code would often become redundant data.
Eric envisioned repurposing that "useless" data into a fixed software suite that could be reused for similar effects in the future. Though many films had begun using computers for effects, the industry was still largely dominated by model effects at that time.
To Ed, Eric's plan seemed highly impractical and extremely wasteful. After all, developing the particular code to solve a visual effects problem was already quite time-consuming. Creating software from that code would consume even more time and money. Furthermore, the question of whether the resulting software could be reused later was a formidable one.
After both men read through Eric's plan, they lifted their heads in unison.
Eric shrugged, "Alright, just let me know if you have any questions. John, why don't you go first?"
"Eric, I don't see the need for this. It's a huge waste," John Lasseter bluntly stated his opinion.
"And you, Ed?"
"I share John's view. This is incredibly wasteful," Ed replied. "Take Toy Story, for instance: to enhance the realism of Woody's facial expressions, our team spent a month crafting the appropriate program code. Creating software from that code would certainly take longer than writing the code itself. Plus, once it became software, it would require ongoing upgrades and maintenance with future hardware shifts -- which is another expense. Not to mention the software's future usability is highly uncertain; even if Toy Story had sequels, it might only be used three or four times, maybe five at most."
Eric nodded, "I understand your points, but I've already proposed a solution in the plan. We will establish a professional evaluation team to assess the usability of visual effects programs, categorize the code developed by technicians to solve specific visual effects issues, and then select the most viable programs for software engineering."
John Lasseter still inquired, "Eric, I want to know, why are you doing this? There aren't that many films using computer effects at the moment, and compared to those, model effects are much cheaper and often more realistic. I can't imagine any producer abandoning affordable and realistic model effects for expensive, potentially subpar computer effects."
Eric replied, "Because I have a feeling that computer effects will become the mainstream in visual effects moving forward. Right now, I can't prove my point, but it won't be long before you see it -- once James Cameron's Terminator 2 and my Jurassic Park project are finished, you'll surely understand."
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