With the highly anticipated Toy Story 3 set for its premiere June 18, Pixar animator Andrew Gordon and story artist Matthew Luhn will be making a first-time visit to Toronto to pass along some tricks of the animation trade to the local community.

Presented by the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts, the pair will be teaching a two-day master class (June 18-19) to appeal from the youngest student to the seasoned animator, and they’re certainly qualified to do it. Combined, Gordon and Luhn have worked on every Pixar film out of the gate.

VanArts grad Gordon also heads up the animation internship at Pixar and recalls being inspired by attending master classes in the past as a student. Having already presented these classes in Vancouver and Montreal, he’s hoping to pay it forward in Toronto.

‘Some of them have been so inspiring that you go back to your desk and say, ‘I want to try something different. He made me think in a different way.’ And that ultimately, is sometimes that’s more valuable,’ notes Gordon. ‘We talk about everything from demo reels to character acting, polish, facial animation.’

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The two have drawn new experiences from each film they’ve worked on and are looking forward to sharing these nuggets of wisdom. For example, facial animation from Monsters Inc. is at a higher level in the more recent The Incredibles or Ratatouille, and Gordon says he’s garnered more lessons in areas such as micro-expressions and acting.

‘It’s always evolving, we’ve learned something new every show,’ he observes. ‘And you try to apply it and use it again. You take work, whether it’s your own or others, and say, ‘Why does this work? Why is this so good? Let’s deconstruct it.”

Luhn adds, ‘I know when I speak, and when I teach, I try to always think: what is something that these students can get from me that they’re not just going to get from a book? Because you can get a book on how to storyboard or animate, but what is unique that we can bring to these talks?’

Interestingly, Luhn has his own real life toy story: his father wanted to work for Disney as a child, but instead inherited the family business: running toy stores in San Francisco.

‘I started off as an animator on Toy Story when there were less than 100 people and (Pixar chief creative officer) John Lasseter was driving his beat-up Honda. Nobody was making a lot of money. We’ve worked on some of the greatest animated movies and we do have something to offer.’

Gordon, meanwhile, was drawn to the field when he was inspired by point-and-click adventure video games as a child. To that end, he’s hoping that game animators will also be drawn to the master class, as the lessons being taught will also apply to convergent streams.

Adds Luhn, ‘I think a lot of the game companies realize that now, that the technology is going to continue to get better, but the people who are going to lead that industry are the ones who have interesting stories and characters. The animation is getting incredible, and as soon as they get the uncanny valley out of a lot of the characters, that’s going to get even better.’

For more information on the master class, head over to //www.vanarts.com/events/pixar-artists-masterclass-toronto