Don't be afraid of the blank sheets: Ricky Nierva at TEDxAthens 2013 "Uncharted Waters"

Ricky Nierva, art director at Pixar, spoke at TEDxAthens 2013 of the fear of white pages and how drawings generate feelings.

I am Ricky Nierva and I am an artist.

I am very very lucky to say that I am

a production designer
at Pixar Animation Studios,

which is one of the best
animation studios in the world.

It is hard to believe,
but I've been in the industry,

animation industry,
for almost 20 years now.

And one thing that really terrifies me,

other that being on the stage right now,

is this. Right here.

This blank sheet of paper.

This is very very intimidating
to an artist, I think.

Its emptiness could be very intimidating.

There is so many opportunities,

so many possibilities
of what could be on this thing.

You know, I have a little, a quick story

about a theater and
a director at a theater,

where the director came to work,
during rehearsals,

the director opened the door
to the theater

and noticed, on the stage,

that the dancers
were basically doing nothing.

Some dancers were stretching,
some dancers were,

you know, reading a book or something,

but they were basically doing nothing.

And the director, bewildered,

walked down to the front of the stage

and he noticed the choreographer
had his head in his hands

and he looks at the choreographer
and angrily says:

"What 's going on here?"

And the choreographer
looks at the director and goes:

"Nothing is happening. It's nothing,
you know, it's just not working. Nothing."

And the director looks at the choreographer
and says:

"Well do something, so I can change it!"

(Laughter)

So, being a production designer

is a very intimidating thing.

A production designer
is basically in charge

of the overall look of the film.

And that's very scary because

at Pixar a colleague has said to me,

his name is Jason Deamer,
he's an art director at Pixar,

has said: "Pain is temporary,
suck is forever".

(Laughter)

So, I'm gonna do, the theme here is

"Uncharted Waters" and do something crazy

and I just said "suck",

so I'm gonna do something
that hopefully doesn't suck too badly

and I'm gonna make this
more relaxing to me.

So I'm going to just--

OK, that sucked but,

there's a point behind this.

Basically, where do you begin, right?

Apple and Pixar founder Steve Jobs

has said, let's see here,

"Design is not just what it looks like
and feels like,

design is how it works."

Film making is a purely collaborative

art form, and that's why
I love it so much.

To make a film's design work,

the art must support the story.

and at Pixar we try to tell
the best stories that we possibly can.

You know, the first time I got
to production design

was on the movie "Up",

and for those that have not seen it,

you need to leave right now and watch it.

(Laughter)

But I apologize if I ruin
the film for you,

when I say, it's about a story, about a man

named Carl Fredricksen.

And Carl Fredricksen,
in the beginning of the film,

we meet him as a very young child

and he meets the love of his life,
her name is Ellie,

they fall in love, they get married,

they go through all the trials
and tribulations of life.

You get to a point were they get old

and Ellie dies.

Again, I'm sorry if i ruined it for you,

but, that's in the first five minutes
of the movie

and I think it's the most beautiful
five minutes of the movie.

It's a really powerful setup

to Carl Fredricksen's story.

And then Carl, basically, at that point

starts being boxed in,

starts being stuck in his ways.

He's basically unchanged man.

So, the approach I took to designing that

is all based upon that idea,

and if you bear with me here,

I'm gonna show you a bit about how I think

about designing for that movie.

And it all started with this.

A simple square.

Basically, I go to work,

I draw that, I show the director

and then I go home and

turn on the Internet.

OK that was a joke.

(Laughter)

It takes some time to translate the jokes,
I'm sure.

No, it starts with a simple idea,

the square.

And the square to me, while I'm designing,

it's static, it's not dynamic,

it's solid and stable,

but it's also basically boxed in.

So, as I'm thinking of these things
while I'm designing

on the shape,

things come together.

And all of these ideas,

and here's some square glasses,

is supported by that square.

He's got square ears,

and this is basically Carl Fredricksen

see, hold your applause, I'm not done yet.

(Laughter)

He's got a square body.

Uncharted waters, I don't normally
draw in front of people like this.

So, you're getting first time stuff
going on here.

He's got square hands,

a lot of squares to support that simple,

simple idea.

Carl Fredrickson.

(Applause)

So, another character that takes Carl
through his journey

and actually tries to change him

and make him a more
well-rounded character,

is a character named Russel.

And what's simpler shape
that contrasts that square

but a circle?

So, I'll get here

So, the circle symbolizes positivity
and moving forward.

It's a very dynamic thing,

It's all of these things that

need to help Carl get more well-rounded.

So Russel was based upon this idea.

It's kind of like a balloon shape.

And Russel, is this wilderness explorer.

A very positive kid.

And he's got all these circular motifs
all around his body.

Like that.

And he has, well, I'm not done yet.

(Laughter)

I wanted to show you all the details
around his body,

which are very circular.

And we think about all theses things,

you know, he's got this sash,

and part of the story

is that he's collecting all of these badges

as a wilderness explorer

and it's all these circular things

and each badge has a story,

but right here is this empty one.

He's trying to get the
"Assisting the elderly" badge,

and by design it's over his heart.

And one of these things is that
they would work with each other.

You have the square and the circle.

But for Carl there's also a story point

of this circular symbol right over his heart,

and that's the Ellie badge.

So you need to watch the movie in order to

understand what's going on there.

But, you know, we think about all of these things

as we design and it's a very long process.

You know, it takes an average of four years

to make an animated film at Pixar.

And we also, while we are thinking
of making the movie,

we have fun putting these simple shapes

all over the movie.

So you can see here, where Carl wakes up,

on his side of the bed
are the square symbology,

and on her side is this circle symbology.

And so, you know, it's fun to do this

and we have kind of these ideas,

but the main point is to not see it

while you are watching the movie,

but you should feel it.

If we do our job right,
you don't notice this stuff,

but you feel it.

It's also here,

in picture frames around the house.

If Carl is by himself, he's in
a square picture frame.

If Ellie is in the picture frame by herself,
she's in an oval picture frame.

Someone asked: "What if they're
in the picture together?"

Well, it's a square frame with an oval mat.

(Laughter)

You can see in this image,
Russel is literally

separated from from Carl with lighting.

It's just cut right through the shot.

And all of these things
support that simple idea,

basing upon that simple idea
of circle and squares.

You can see the circular motif
all around his design

and his very colorful,
very saturated color.

And Carl's desaturated.

So he's trying to get
color back into Carl,

he's trying to get him more well rounded.

Very clearly it's in the prop design.

Carl and Ellie's chair,

you can see the circle and square

shape vocabulary there, shape language.

And at the end of the film, after Carl
has gone through his adventure,

you can see that he's
a more softened character.

He's more well rounded.

You know, he's tanned,

he has more life in him.

And the idea of this, is that

it's a process of making things simple.

But we all know that simple is

not necessarily simpler.

Pablo Picasso, the famous artist has said:

"It has taken me four years
to paint like Rafael,

but a lifetime to paint like a child."

You know, kids have an amazing

directness to the way they draw
and express themselves.

This is a beautiful drawing
by my daughter Olivia,

who's actually in the audience right now.

(Applause)

Sleeping, bored.

(Laughter)

Uncharted waters,
this is what it's all about.

(Laughter)

She's never gonna forget that.

I'm never gonna forget it.

Oh my gosh, this is amazing.

Let me tell you about how amazingly
full of life she is.

(Laughter)

No, she drew this drawing and, you know,

young kids, they just jump in.

They're joyful when they create.

You know, Eugene was talking about that,

about the kids,

very young kids will just dive in.

You know, they're not afraid
of that blank piece of paper.

They can't wait to fill
that blank piece of paper.

They simplify down to it's purest essence.

You know, pure drawing
comes from the soul.

It comes from deep inside of you,

and that's how you can communicate.

You know, I've been drawing,

my first drawings are when

I think I was three years old.

I asked my mom:
"Who did these drawings on my bed?"

and she said: "You did".

"You found a permanent marker,

you destroyed your bed,

and then you went to the walls.

You kept going around the house".

And my mom, instead of getting angry,

she brought home paper for me to draw

on the paper instead of her walls.

So I'm very very thankful and appreciate

that she's an enabler and
she supports my addiction,

and, OK that was a joke.

I love my mom for doing that, really.

I would get completely lost
when I was a child,

and it's called "Getting in the zone"

where the world would just disappear,

and I would make sound effects
and I would just

completely lose myself and, you know,

as an artist, that's the thing
you try to strive for.

You know, getting in that zone.

Kids also, in terms of drawing,
they get to the heart of it.

My youngest daughter
who's also in the audience,

Lilly. She's not sleeping. Is she?

(Laughter) (Applause)

She's gonna kill me.

Oh my gosh, my kids are gonna kill me.

(Laughter)

Lilly, when she was around four years old,

she's about five,

maybe actually when she was
about three or four,

she drew this amazing drawing
of our pet dog right here.

Our dog, Kika.

Kika is a little Doxin,
a little wiener dog.

And I looked at the drawing,

I loved it, but I said

"Hey, Lilly, dogs only have four legs".

And she said "She's running, papa".

(Laughter)

Isn't that amazing?
That is so amazing to me.

And there's cave drawings, you know,

where there's animals running,
and there're multiple legs.

It's like the first animation, in a cave.

So, you know, it's just so inspirational.

I look at kids' drawings and that pure,

that purity in this things
that Ι just feed from.

And the last thing is,

ultimately kids are not afraid
of making mistakes.

My goal is to continue to draw

so some day I will be able
to draw like a child.

So, my last point is,
let's come back to this.

I would say if anything
you get out of this talk

is- don't be intimidated
by the blank sheet.

You know, start with something.

Start with a scribble,
start with something.

"Fail early, fail often"

That's a saying that we have
at the studio.

But you need to be brave
and take risks.

I'm gonna create something
out of this here.

Lets see--

It's a duck holding its egg
close to its body.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

Thank you.