Pixar Celebrates the Art of the Colorscript

The Art of Pixar is a celebration of one of the most consequential steps in the production of a Pixar film: the colorscript. (If you don't know what a colorscript is, the book explains it better than I can.)

Though its roots reach back three quarters of a century, the modern colorscript—embraced by animated picture directors—owes much to Pixar.

A distinctive feature of The Art of Pixar is that it is very light on text. Excluding short captions, only nine of its 320 pages contain writing. But the text that is there (by Amid Amidi and John Lasseter) is appropriately rich in knowledge of the subject.

There are some remarkable facts about Pixar's world-class archival department, the Pixar Living Archives, which is made up of over a million pieces (and counting).

However, the focus is always on the art form. This is the first time that all of Pixar's colorscripts have been published in their complete form, from Luxo, Jr. and Toy Story to Cars 2 and La Luna.

This collection probably doesn't have the wide appeal of, say, The Art of Cars 2. It's better suited for readers looking for the 'deep cuts' or those with more than a passing interest in Pixar's filmmaking process or art in general.

The Art of Pixar is published by Chronicle Books and will arrive in bookstores next month.