The School of the World Creator.

Great animation talent drawn to California, to Pixar - no studio in Hollywood is more successful. At the university house relaxes draftsman elite. They learn young German, including Tanja Krampfert: for example, as the sun is really shining.

 

It is not easy to be a god. Who wants to create worlds, nothing wrest something new, every little thing needs to think, each tree only invent every hill shape of each grain of dust in the air specially set. Even the light requires attention - especially the light.

Karsten Lemm
Trickfilmerin Krampfert: "Do you want us to start?"

"From the Earth seen from the sun appears to us big or small?" Asks Samuel Daffner. Twelve faces turn to him and he just gives himself the answer: "Small, is not it? Small and intense." A flashlight flashes on, Daffner lights in the darkened room: How similar is with the sun in space.

"So we need our system to say the distance, the intensity and also, what color the light is." A projector hums, Daffner typing commands into the computer lines with computer codes scurry across the screen.

The creator of the world are aspiring Funny, they learn at Pixar University in California. It is a strahlendblauer spring day, but in Room 305, at the seminar for newcomers on the grounds of the film studios in Emeryville near San Francisco, remembers nothing of it. Curtains block the sun, because they are in the artificial lighting of the universe would only disturb.

In three series sit a dozen young women and men at long tables, in front of monitors, the designs of a digital landscape show. Technology and art of the hand: In a moment, everything revolves around file formats and instructions, next to the shadow patterns, surface textures and gradients.

"At Pixar to work has always been my dream"

Tanja Krampfert is today in the morning has come, "Ball Games" was still missing the final touch. The first exercise in the new film employers, because everything is right. "We are in the cinema", promulgated Daffner and knipst the light. The projector throws images of a small table lamp on the wall, with the rubber balls to play - sometimes it jumps through the area, sometimes with friends, at times it flits past the camera, sometimes they are hidden behind trees.

Every student has the task of a story with this table lamp to tell. Luxo Jr. Because history itself, he was the eponymous hero of the short film, with Pixar 1986 for the first time all eyes are turned on (the Oscar of the jury included). Until today, the Fidele Small jumps in front of every image through the film, makes the "i" in the Pixar logo and check platt pertly to the audience.

At the moment, Luxo Jr. flabbergasted shaking his head. From left to right, from all sides jump balls to him - not playing with them, they play with him. Krampferts classmates laugh. "Very nice," says Daffner, Brandet to applause. "The animation and timing are excellent." The 32-year-old German radiates. Recently sat Krampfert for Wallace & Gromit in England, designed to stunt the renowned figures Aardman studios in Bristol. But then, completely unexpectedly, the call from California: Do you want us to start?

"Technical Director" should be more you have not told her - but that already passed. "At Pixar to work has always been my dream," says Krampfert. "Unterm Christmas was every year a Pixar DVD or a book on computer animation." Now it has three weeks to absorb knowledge of what they need to help one of the most successful film studios in the world to play their role.

A university as a playground for new ideas

Pixar stands for "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," "Wall-E" and half a dozen other classics of modern cinema. For over 20 years show the Californians their audience, small or large, how much fun you can prepare computers - if they are properly white. And while other Hollywood studios in their sag and failures have Pixar has yet not a single flop landed on the canvas.

One of the reasons because there is no doubt Randy Nelson, the hotel's own university. "Most companies are limited to job training," says the dean of Pixar University. "But training goes deeper - it is a long-term investment in people. And people are our most important asset."

In Hollywood, he says, are mostly ideas - which means money, with which one can act. At Pixar, on the other hand had all the creative freedom, to have something new to discover their own limits to break through. Only then can the Fun Factory reliably produce hits. "The university is a wonderful playground for new ideas," says Nelson, "and it is enormously valuable as a laboratory. Someone who is usually quite inconspicuous, shows in a course may lead."

As Nelson was 1997 to Pixar, had the young movie studio a few hundred employees and tried to separate the growth in railways to steer. "The challenge was not just the next film to overcome, but an unlimited number of movies - continued to be creative," says Nelson, a bustling mid-face with narrow and wide grin. He was at an early age on Broadway juggler and speaks with wider issue of gestures, as if he thought could better capture. "A company full of people who always continue to learn, is hard to beat," says the academy boss. "An innovative program you can save money. This is all by itself."