The Art of Pixar Short Films: Contest, Interview & Reviews

UPDATE: Thanks to everybody who entered! Here are the winners:
Maya Shavzin (who commented on this post)
Brad Blackman (who follows us on Cartoon Brew Twitter)
Fabian Molina (who is a member of our Cartoon Brew Facebook page)
Stay tuned…we’ve got a lot more contests coming up!

It’s give-away time on Cartoon Brew! We’ve got three sets of my new book The Art of Pixar Short Films and its companion DVD, the Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1. Here’s how to win a set:

* We will choose one winner from the comments section of this post. Anybody who posts a comment below, before 12am tonight, is automatically entered.

* A second set will be given away to a random subscriber to the Cartoon Brew Twitter account. If you’re already a subscriber, then you’re already entered. If not, just subscribe to our Twitter feed. Winner will be chosen tonight at 12am.

* A third winner will be randomly chosen tonight at 12am from subscribers to our new Cartoon Brew Facebook Page. To enter, just join the page. (Note: This is different from our Facebook group.)

Want to hear more about the book. Check out this interview I did with Mike Bastoli at The Pixar Blog.

Reviews of the book are starting to come in. A selection:

“[W]ith the Pixar Shorts book, Amid has written what I consider to be his best book. His writing style is fluid and easy to read, but he doesn’t dumb down the material. His focus is more on the people who made the films than the films themselves, although he smartly lays out what is so remarkable about each film.” (Ricky Grove/Renderosity)

“Author Amid Amidi gives wonderful insight into the Pixar process with stories and anecdotes you won’t find anywhere else…It’s kind of hard to do this book justice via a write-up, you really need to take a gander at all the beautiful art that is contained within. I’ve had it in my living room for a couple of weeks now and every time I have friends over they end up getting caught up in it for a good amount of time. The book is definitely an easy way to show off your passion for all that is Pixar.” (Monki/Ain’t It Cool News)

“[N]one of the art-of Pixar books to date have taken us behind the creative process, and deeper into the history of the company, the men and women who made the company the juggernaut it is today. That has changed with Mr. Amidi’s terrific The Art of Pixar Short Films. A lovingly packaged and in-depth look at not only the films themselves, but also a de-facto history of Pixar, and their critical importance in the development of digital animation in general. (Brett Warnock/Hey Bartender!)

“An always astute Amid Amidi has partnered with Chronicle Books to write a concise but fairly thorough and very smart monograph hidden in an “art of” that, frankly, looks like every other ‘art of’ book Chronicle has ever produced…Amidi provides some excellent historical information and carefully measured editorial observations in a smart, easy to read take on the development of Pixar via the amuse-bouche of animation.” (Rhett Wickham/Laughing Place)

“The writeup is great. There’s a short history of Pixar before it was even known as Pixar (founded in 1986). Following on, it details the making of each short film. There are interesting things like how depth map shadowing and tweening were used in Luxo Jr. or how John Lasseter would animate into the morning and sleep under his table.” (Parka/Parka Blogs)

“Going through the book, it’s obvious that Amidi wanted to give the spotlight to a wider variety of artists than what one often sees on DVD special features, where the main directors and producers generally get the spotlight. In this book, you get to see work from a large number of artists who contributed to the films. There is no conceit here in terms of making us think that any film is the product of one man; rather, the exuberance of Pixar collaboration is quite evident.” (Randall Cyrenne/Animated Views)

“I can really appreciate the difficulty of writing the establishing section, distilling highly technical systems and challenges in understandable terms while avoiding the obvious out of respect for the readers. As each short appears in the book, historic narrative is woven in order sustain the context of the films and their impact.” (Greg Ehrbar/MouseTracks)

“What’s particularly nice about The Art of Pixar Short Films isn’t its use of seldom-seen photographs…but — rather — that Amidi isn’t afraid to dig into the more controversial aspects of the Pixar story…Amid Amidi strikes just the right balance with this handsome new hardcover. There are just enough new stories to interest history buffs like myself. While — at the same time — there are enough great illustrations to be found in The Art of Pixar Short Films that animation professionals & students of the medium will probably want to pick up a copy of this new Chronicle Book just for inspiration and/or reference purposes.” (Jim Hill/Jim Hill Media)

“I’d like to start off by saying that The Art of Pixar Short Films by Cartoon Brew’s Amid Amidi is, in one word, beautiful!…The Art of Pixar Short Films will look great next to your other “Art of…” books, but on the inside it is more like To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios (also from Chronicle) although it focuses on the shorts in more detail than ever before!” (Martin/Pixar Planet)