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Your favorite Pixar pals may be computer animated , but they actually start as hand-drawn sketches that are then interpreted as maquettes ( clay sculptures ). These maquettes are digitally scanned to create a virtual 3D model of the character .
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For many , Frozen Ever After is the most iconic example of Disney ’ s switch to computergenerated imagery for its Audio-Animatronics , but the technology came to the parks before Elsa and Anna ousted Maelstrom . Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was revolutionary for Disney World , as the dwarfs used new projection technology to animate facial expressions in more complex ways than had previously been seen on animatronics like Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland .
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But those hairy lessons weren ’ t enough for Disney . By the time Moana rolled around , animators were working with real hair models to understand how to animate wet hair since so much of the film takes place around water . Interestingly , the work Ward and co . did on Tangled influenced the computer animation of Moana , but not our heroine ’ s hair — instead , the movement of Rapunzel ’ s hair inspired the movement of the ocean in Moana .
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Designing background characters can take a lot of effort ; to speed up the process in WALL • E , modelers on the team built out a library of virtual parts that they could select to quickly design new robots . Kind of like the Mr . Potato Head of virtual robot assembly .
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The 2010s were a hairy time for computer animation . First came
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Pixar has a “ render farm ” that operates 24 / 7 . But you won ’ t find cows and corn here ; instead , this “ farm ” hosts tens of thousands of computers all rendering images for films in progress . In Cars 2 , it took an average of 11 hours to render each final image ; by the time Coco rolled around six years later , it took roughly 89 hours to render each image at final film quality . Learn more on page 54 .
PREVIOUS PAGE : Balloons from UP are projected on Cinderella Castle during Happily Ever After . PHOTOS BY JUDD HELMS
The settings of our favorite Pixar films are intricate , from the fantastical world of Onward to the bug ’ s-eye view of a dried up creek bed to the misty forests of Scotland . But the magic of computer animation is that none of it has to be arduously hand-drawn . For example , for Brave , Pixar wrote a program that generates fields of grass with unique blades of varying length , color , blade distribution , and curvature . Animators also used this program to animate the trees , moss , and rocks in the film .
Tangled , for which Kelly Ward , senior software engineer for Walt Disney Animation , had to develop natural movement for Rapunzel ’ s locks . The only problem ? Her hair is 70 feet long and weighs 60 to 80 pounds . Ward simulated 173 hairs to get the movement right (“ the hairs that are near each other … move similar to each other ”). Not long after , Pixar animators had to solve for an equally hairy problem : Merida ’ s famous curls .
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The first time projection mapping came to Disney World on a grand scale was for 2011 ’ s The Magic , The Memories and You ! on Cinderella Castle . Last year , Aaron Counterman , the Principal Video Designer of Disney Live Entertainment , shared with WDW Magazine that there are now double the amount of projectors for Cinderella Castle , responsible for the magic we see in Disney Enchantment .
The human face has just 43 muscles , but our favorite Pixar characters don ’ t emote with muscles . Instead , the Pixar rigging team has access to more than 700 controls that allow them to animate unique facial expressions in every frame .
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When Disney first unveiled its Tree of Life Awakenings , you could only spot them on the front of the Tree . But , as Counterman shared , “ guests passing between Africa and Asia after dark were seeing the back of the Tree , where nothing was happening .” Adding projections to the back of the tree wasn ’ t as simple as projecting the show on both sides : “ The animal details on the back of the Tree of Life are completely different , so it was really like creating a whole new show .”