Paul Topolos

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Digital Matte Painter

Pixar Animation Studios

Bio

As a youth, Paul Topolos was a big fan of epic films and particularly fascinated by the establishing shots in those films that took him to other places. When he eventually found out that many of those shots were built around matte paintings, he realized what he wanted to build his career around. Paul joined Pixar Animation Studios in 2002 as a matte painter on the Academy® Award-winning film, The Incredibles. He then worked on Cars before his work on the upcoming Disney-Pixar’s Ratatouille, scheduled to release in June 29, 2007. Paul is responsible for creating many of the Paris cityscapes and backgrounds that appears in the film. Prior to Pixar, Paul worked at the Lucas companies in both the game and film divisions. For LucasArts, he drew storyboards, concept designs and built, painted, art directed and lit 3D sets for video games. At Lucasfilm, Paul was a storyboard artist on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and the matte painter in the pre-visualization department on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. His last work is the Pixar film Wall-E.

Abstract

A year in the life of WALL-E. From concept designs to final images I will show the artistic journey of one artist on WALL-E.

Paul Topolos had spent many years painting robots, space ships, and planets before coming to Pixar Animation Studios. It was a genre he was a little apprehensive to return to, but the beauty of the storytelling in WALL•E restored his faith in science fiction. It was a busy year to get everything done on WALL•E. There were concept designs, matte paintings, color scripts, and animation fixes to be finished under a very tight deadline. Through images, interviews, and stories the creative journey of one artist's year on WALL• will be shared.