Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can't create it if you don't have one.
Interpretation
Animation captures life-like qualities, which can only be achieved through genuine experiences.
In this quote, Brad Bird emphasizes that the essence of animation lies in its ability to evoke real emotions and life-like qualities. He suggests that animators must draw from their own experiences and understanding of life to create engaging and believable characters and stories, as authenticity is key to the art of animation.
In practice
During a talk on animation techniques at a film school.
For me, I try as much as possible to just think about being in the movie theatre, having the lights dim, and what would I want to see on the screen. That puts me in the frame of mind that made me want to be in the movie business to begin with.
I never heard one word in Pixar about, 'Will kids get this?' I don't think it's important that they get everything. I think that it's important that they get engaged, interested.
I've known since I was five that I wanted to be a writer.
Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people - the beauty within themselves.
I'll tell you something, and this is true: I've never been able to write a film which I didn't respect. I just can't do it. I'm very happy about all the films I haven't done.
I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf.
I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity.
There are other singers of ranchera music who sing very beautifully, but you can tell from the way they sing that they never lived on a ranch. They never knew what it was to milk a cow, to birth a calf, to shoe a horse. I've lived all that.
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