Pixar animator discusses his work on upcoming film


Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. - Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan

Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. – Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan

An animation team from Disney Pixar was on campus Thursday night to show an exclusive behind-the-scenes screening of their upcoming adventure animation film The Good Dinosaur. To promote the film’s upcoming release, Pixar invited the USC community to the screening to learn about the character animations in the film.

Character Art Director Matt Nolte presented the film and several of his animations at the event and answered questions from the audience after the screening.

Several students and School of Cinematic Arts staff and faculty attended the event held in the SCI building. The attendees were treated to short clips, sequences and concept art created by Nolte and his animation team.

The protagonist of the film is a young dinosaur, Arlo, who is accidentally separated from his family and home. Journeying to find his way back home, Arlo befriends a human cave-boy that he names Spot.

Nolte said that a lot of the great ideas for the drawing and animation of his characters came from Peter Sohn, the director of the film.

Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. - Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan

Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. – Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan

“He is an amazing craftsman and writer. He allows us to help him and I think that is pretty cool,” Nolte said.

Nolte pointed out the primary drawings and sketches that were used in developing the characters. He also mentioned the difficulties in the process of making the characters come to life.

Nolte debated with his animation team over how to design the jaw structure of the dinosaurs in the film. He had to deviate from scientific accuracy in order to create a suitable character for the film.

“We had fun working [to] create these dinosaurs. I grew up a dinosaur fan … I was a T-Rex fan, so I was very stoked to work with these characters,” Nolte said about his enthusiasm for creating the characters of Arlo and his dinosaur family members.

Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. - Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan

Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. – Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan

When showing clips from the film, Nolte highlighted scenes of nature depicted in the movie. Nolte said that he is satisfied with the movie’s depictions of the environment as the director wanted to make the world in the film feel natural and real, a world before human civilization.

“A lot of Pixar films talk a lot. I think it is really cool that this one doesn’t during the first few moments” Nolte said.

Nolte explained that this would allow the audience to appreciate the vivid and realistic depiction of natural scenery in the movie.

This screening at USC is part of a promotional tour for the film that Walt Disney Studios and Pixar is sponsoring at several college campuses.

Nolte told the USC audience that he enjoyed being on tour showing his animations to different audiences.

“It’s been really fun to see the responses … it’s fun for me to see,” he said.

The Good Dinosaur is scheduled for release on Nov. 25.

Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. - Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan

Jurassic film · Matt Nolte, character art director for The Good Dinosaur, speaks at the School of Cinematic Arts Thursday evening. – Dina Colunga | Daily Trojan