How did you get the opportunity to write and direct Geri’s Game?
I arrived here in ’93 to direct commercials. A few years later, Pixar wanted to make a short film that had a human character in it. I had been waving my hands saying, "Please, please, please! I want to make a short film!" So Ed Catmull said, "Maybe you can make a short film, if you have a human character in it." I had a drawer full of short-film ideas, but none of them had a human character in them. So I had to come up with a new idea. We knew it would be hard to do human characters, so we wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

So you took that to the extreme.
Yes. I thought, what kind of story could you tell with one character? You always need conflict. How do you get conflict with one character? What kind of character could this be? Then I thought about how John [Lasseter] had done a human baby in Tin Toy, but no one had done an old person. Old people have such great character in their faces. You can see so much more in an old face.

Was Geri based on anyone in particular?
He was loosely based on my grandfather. My grandfather had a very active mind and was a tenacious chess player. I remember my grandfather playing chess with himself, like playing solitaire. The games would go on for hours.

Much like in the short.
Oh, you noticed that the game took all day—that’s wonderful. That was kind of a background thing that only some people might notice. We worked hard to get it. It’s just the flavor, but it really helps to make it richer and more believable.

How did people react when you pitched your idea for Geri’s Game?
When I first suggested it to people, everyone was like, "What’s that? An old man playing chess with himself? Is that going to be interesting?" They said it didn’t sound like a great idea for a short when I put it that way. I wasn’t really selling the idea too well. Everyone was pretty supportive, but I kept getting these looks. The first storyboards I put together were not that great, but everyone was very patient and helped me along through the bumps. I had some story sessions with Joe Ranft, Andrew Stanton and Pete Doctor and got some great ideas from John. We made the movie and it turned out OK.

Just OK? It won the Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film!
Yeah. My head was so enormous. That was wonderful. I think Geri’s Game was as successful as a short film can be—it won all kinds of awards in animation festivals all over the place. But more importantly, it was released as the short in front of A Bug’s Life. So it got major distribution with a hit feature film. Literally millions of people got to see Geri’s Game.

How did you go about creating Geri’s two personalities and keeping them consistent?
For me, as a director, it was quite a challenge because we had about 18 animators working on it. So it was like 18 different actors playing two characters, if you think of it that way. It was a challenge to make it feel like these were two personalities and make it consistent enough so that you always knew who was who—and that you also knew they were the same guy as well. It was important for me to be very clear and work closely with the animators to make sure they were all on the same page.

Is it easier for computer animation to do manmade objects?
Our medium loves to do simple manmade objects. Creating and animating sophisticated characters, their clothing and anything organic is usually extremely difficult. And because of those difficulties, there are certain things that computer animation finds tough to get into. But in theory our medium can do anything. We shouldn’t have any barriers. Really, we’re still at the beginning of what computer animation can do, and we’ll push back the limitations. Step by step. Bit by bit.

How did you get started in animation?
I was a really keen animator as a kid. I made home movies and had a lot of success with that in the [United Kingdom]. In my mid-teens, I won a national BBC TV children’s movie competition for an animated film. Everyone said, "You’ve got a future as an animator." But I was always kind of frustrated with how long it took. In those days, I really didn’t have the patience to be an animator. Then along came this thing called the "microchip revolution." Like a lot of kids, I became obsessed with computers. I went to college to study computer science. Of course, I refocused all my work into the direction of computer graphics and animation.

Was there one pivotal moment that changed your focus back to animation?
I became aware of what was happening here at Pixar. I saw John Lasseter’s short films. Seeing Luxo Jr. was like a seminal event. It was such an achievement at the time—a beautiful idea beautifully done. It was because of that film that I pursued computer animation.

After receiving your B.S. in computer science and PhD in theoretical robotics, had you finally acquired enough patience to endure the tedious animation process?
Finishing up my PhD was like getting out of prison. Yes, through all of my excessive academia I had learned some patience. Patience to really do it. You have to have patience and tenacity to beat these machines into submission. You have to fight, because anything that is new is all clunky. John will tell you that everyone who was at Pixar in the old days had to fight very hard to make the shorts and commercials. They really trail-blazed.

Sounds like you found the perfect match for your favorite interests.
Yes. I found a way of basically marrying my love for animation with my computer-technical education. I was lucky to bring those two together at the right time and get into this wonderful world of computer animation.

What do you absolutely love about your job?
Seeing the movie come together. Seeing the characters come to life. Seeing people react to them. The entire process is magical and insanely technically amazing. It’s just about telling a story, but there are all these artists and scientists working together to make it come to life. It’s a strange thing we do. I marvel at it.

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