“ HE TOUCHED THE BUTT ” With each film , the team at Pixar has encountered a new challenge that has led them to develop new software , process , or animation technique . They ’ ve gone from determining how to show light reflecting off Lightning McQueen ’ s body to accounting for the complex movement of a school of fish to animating the warm glow that defines Joy ’ s , well , joy .
The exhibit takes us through these challenges and triumphs while showcasing every step of Pixar ’ s production pipeline : Story & Art , Modeling , Rigging , Surfaces , Sets & Cameras , Animation , Simulation , Lighting , and Rendering .
And the best part ? Each of these stages is represented by one or more unique , hands-on experiences at the exhibit . Yes , forget typical museum etiquette : You can touch everything .
A chart details the production pipeline for Pixar films . PHOTO BY TIMOTHY MOORE
For example , you can explore how Pixar renders a single frame . ( It took about 89 hours to render each frame for Coco , but don ’ t worry : The exhibit ’ s simulation is roughly 15 seconds .)
You can also try your hand at generating genuine facial expressions that tell us how our favorite characters are feeling — but , if you ’ re like me , you ’ ll inadvertently leave Jessie looking a little inebriated .
In the hour we took to tour the exhibit , we also modeled a Toy Story 3 set using virtual building blocks , teamed up with Dory to explore how water alters lighting animation , worked with parabolas to grow a field of grass , created a frame-by-frame stop-motion animation , and used math to generate an admittedly rigid wave from Mike Wazowski .
“ Somebody ’ s poisoned the waterhole .” PHOTO BY TIMOTHY MOORE
The hands-on learning is accompanied by well-done videos featuring actual Pixar animators , engineers , sculptors , and more , giving us a behind-the-scenes look at everything from sculpting Lotso from clay to animating Mr . Incredible ’ s frame-byframe movements .
WHAT IS SCIENCE WITHOUT ART ? While the unique approach of this exhibit is exploring the science and math that create the magic of Pixar movies , I found myself geeking out over all the cool artwork inside as well . After all , this is an animation studio we ’ re talking about .
A cast urethane resin of Arlo from The Good Dinosaur , a wholly underrated Pixar film . PHOTO BY TIMOTHY MOORE
Among the cool pieces on display are cast urethane resin sculptures of iconic characters , like Heimlich , Arlo ( don ’ t get me started on how underappreciated The Good Dinosaur is ), Remy , and Russell . Within various experiences , you ’ ll also stumble upon larger statues of characters like Buzz , Edna , Dory , and WALL • E . But far and away , the coolest part of the exhibit for me was the massive reprints of concept art . “ Western Opening ” by Daisuke “ Dice ” Tsutsumi is a digital painting for Toy Story 3 that shows a massive , winged Hamm floating through the desert . Another digital painting created by multiple artists , “ Background