CMU School of Drama


Monday, March 24, 2014

How Disney used blast scenario simulation software for Frozen

DVICE: Unless you’re living under a rock (or haven’t been around any children lately), you've been bombarded with commercials, songs, and scenes from Disney’s Oscar-winning film, Frozen. Fortunately, there's something to actually get geeked out about concerning the movie: a blast scenario computer simulation program built by University of Missouri engineers was responsible for most of the snow effects seen on-screen.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm blown away by the capabilities of computers these days. While watching the movie, I didn't even notice these ridiculously mind blowing snow effects. Every little detail of the snow being included in the calculations creates an amazingly realistic world. I just wish there was an actual, real world simulation that would give the same effect that we could use on stage.

Katie Pyne said...

Wow, what a great use of modern technology. In theater, we're constantly using regular things for their unintended purpose. This is a great example of that. When I saw the movie, I was intrigued on how they achieved this effect because it looked so real. I've seen a lot of up-close stills from the movie and the amount of detail that the animators put into each and every frame is astonishing. It would only make sense that the snow would be as detailed as well. Well done, Disney.

Emily Bordelon said...

This is a really cool insight to how Disney made such realistic looking animated snow. When watching "Frozen", I didn't think so much about the snow because it was so prevalent and so well done. It moved the way snow does both with its surrounding and the characters. In addition to looking realistic, the snow was made to look magical in some scenes. This is a really neat program, and I look forward to more realistic elements in future films.