Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare"

This year's group of Oscar-nominated animated short film directors exemplifies creativity and diversity in their approach to design, story and animation style.  In a series of in-depth and personal interviews, they share their insights and opinions about their films, from initial ideas to production techniques and challenges.  Read them all exclusively on AWN.com.

Every year the group takes a photo in front of this gigantic statue of Po from Kung Fu Panda. This year's tour group includes (from left to right) John Kahrs (Paperman), Tim Reckart (Head Over Heels), David Silverman (Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"), Minkyu Lee (Adam and Dog), Fondhla Cronin O'Reilly (Head Over Heels) and Ron Diamond.

By Kira Formina

Today, February 14th, is Valentine’s Day, and there’s plenty of love in the air aimed at the directors of the nominated animated shorts.  Two more have joined us today - Paperman director John Kahrs and Adam and Dog director Minkyu Lee.  We are all greeted by host Victor Fuste in the PDI/DreamWorks lobby. The group decides to have lunch during the screening and come up for the Q&A session afterwards.

Apple Computers Q&A

By Kira Formina

It’s the first day of the Northern-California leg of the annual AWN Oscar® Showcase Tour, a crisp, foggy morning in San Francisco. At about 9:20 am, already running a few minutes late, the four of us pile into the van on the way to Electronic Arts. Ron Diamond, the inexhaustible host and promoter of this unique event, takes the wheel as Tim Reckart navigates, while Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly and I are in the back.

Bob and I, standing on the far left of the first row, join in the dramatic pose while 3-D stereo pictures of the entire group are being taken in front of the main campus fountain.

By Cima Balser

In all our travels, we’ve always found animation studios to be great fun to visit.  UPA in its day had a bookcase filled with faux books, with carefully lettered titles on the bindings, such as “Brain Surgery Can Be Fun.” 

During the entire time Yellow Submarine was being produced there, the receptionist at the entrance never recovered from shock as each day he watched the Carnaby-clothed artists march in and out.  One day there was a serious complaint from the tenant downstairs, and soon after the crew was reprimanded by a shamefaced John Coates.  We heard that a very, very large billboard size poster with carefully lettered “POOP” was being lowered and waved across all the windows of the office below. 

So yes, animators have traditionally played and had fun, along with their real work. However, as Bob and I tagged along with Ron and Dan’s group to DreamWorks’s campus in Glendale, we found that the bar had been lifted higher than we could have ever imagined.

No lounge is complete without the means to dispense fine adult beverages.

Pictorial by Dan Sarto

Our final studio tour this year is DreamWorks Animation, a bustling campus that serves as HQ for the company's ever-growing global operations.  Having released two features, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss In Boots, since our last visit, both of which are nominated for an Oscar this year, the studio continues to expand its slate of productions.  The recently announced plans for a studio in China serve as further illustration of these expansion efforts. 

Each year on the Oscar Showcase Tour, our day at DreamWorks is always great.  The studio goes out of its way to provide a full day of demonstrations, a great lunch with executives and a packed screening of the nominated shorts.  Of all the stops on the tour, DreamWorks always shares the most detailed and intimate look at films in progress, which for an assembly of animation directors and producers, is always a welcome treat.  This year was no different.

Overlooking Disney's Plaza of Legends.

By Zoe Chevat

Fresh from our morning at the ARL, we were greeted in the lobby of Disney’s whimsical animation building by Stephanie Morse, Talent Development Coordinator. Ms. Morse, who served as our tireless guide on a very tight schedule, ushered the nominees into the screening theater for a quick introduction. Then, leaving the lunchtime crowd to watch the nominated shorts, our band set out on a fast-paced tour of the neighboring Disney lot.

We were only able to take a few pictures and none of the work directly. Just to the left of the group, off camera, is the long table where staff had graciously laid out some pre-tour requested artwork.

By Zoe Chevat

Thursday morning found our traveling band of Oscar short animation nominees and AWN staff trekking eastward for a morning at the Animation Resource Library (ARL). The definitive, company-owned archive for all Disney production materials, ARL is something of an in-house secret, appropriately hidden from prying eyes in a low-slung concrete building surrounded by warehouses.

Inside is a different story. The unassuming exterior plays host to over 60 million pieces of original production artwork, from clean-up drawings to rare painted-glass backgrounds used on the (now-defunct) massive multi-plane setup. The collection covers everything surviving from Disney's early days, up through present shows, with sketches from the "Alice" shorts of the 1920s holding the title of oldest artifact.

The Paramount Studio tour begins. (From left to right) Brandon Oldenburg, Bonnie Thompson, Patrick Doyon, Marc Bertrand, me, Amanda Forbis, Ron Diamond, Sue Goffe, Grant Orchard and Wendy Tilby.

Pictorial by Dan Sarto

Paramount Studios is one of the oldest and most venerable of the big Hollywood studios.  Founded in 1912, the studio has been home to some of the greatest films in movie history, including The Godfather franchise, The Ten Commandments and Read Window.  While the studio has been distributing animated films for some time through its relationship with DreamWorks, only announced last July it announced it was getting back into the animation production business.  Our group spent the entire day on the lot and were not disappointed.

Backlot Stage 20.

By Zoe Chevat

Wednesday afternoon found the Oscar shorts nominees at 20th Century Fox's sprawling backlot, located in the heart of Century City. After checking in at the Little Theater, used by the studio for on-site screenings, it was off for some behind-the-scenes looks at one of television's biggest studios.

The campus itself is sun-lit and greenery-filled, dotted with elaborate topiary that resembles horses, elephants, and, in the case of the bushes in front of The Simpsons offices, Bart Simpson. But, though things were relatively quiet when we were there, we know that behind soundproof doors the truth is quite the opposite. With dozens of on-site and off-site productions going at once, Fox's soundstages currently house the permanent sets for many of their TV network's long-running hits, including Bones and House. We were lucky enough to be taken through the Bones set, where shooting is down for the season, but there are plenty of autopsy tables, fabricated cadavers, and chemical bottles still around. Large sets for multi-season hits like Bones, which cost millions of dollars to construct, will stay intact for the duration of the show's time on air, until final cancellation.

All assembled for the SPA/SPI leg of the tour: (From left to right) Sue Goffe (producer, A Morning Stroll), Grant Orchard (director, A Morning Stroll) Michael Fukushima (producer, Dimanche/Sunday), Marcy Page (producer, Wild Life), Bonnie Thompson (producer, Wild Life), Marc Bertrand (producer, Dimanche/Sunday), Patrick Doyon (director, Dimanche/Sunday), Wendy Tilby (director, Wild Life), Amanda Forbis (director, Wild Life) and Ron Diamond (president, AWN.com and executive producer, Acme Filmworks).

By Zoe Chevat

Next stop on our whirlwind Oscar-nominee tour was Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks, which share a campus not five minutes from the main Sony lot. There, we were greeted by Don Levy, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Sony Pictures Digital, and our enthusiastic host for this inside look at the company's animation and VFX divisions. Though originally an VFX company, still known for their work on tentpole hits like Hancock and the Raimi Spider-Man franchise, it eventually occurred to the team at Sony that their pipeline was already in place for in-house animation. Taking a page from legendary special effects and animation giant, Ray Harryhausen, for whom their on-site screening theater is named, the company has stepped up its game in recent years with films like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Arthur Christmas, with many more projects in the pipeline.

After a quick word to the lunchtime crowd in the screening theater, many of whom are up to their necks putting finishing touches on MIB3, the latest action blockbuster to come through Imageworks’ doors, our group was off to take a look at “how it’s done at Sony.”