www.engadget.com: Disney's upcoming animated film Big Hero 6, about a boy and his soft robot (and a gang of super-powered friends), is perhaps the largest big-budget mash-up you'll ever see. Every aspect of the film's production represents a virtual collision of worlds. The story, something co-director Don Hall calls "one of the more obscure titles in the Marvel universe," has been completely re-imagined for parent company Disney.
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Seeing how far the computing power of animated films has come is quite impressive. I am currently doing a research project on the comparisons of the original Tron from 1982 to the newer Tron 2010. When the team made the original computer generated environments for Tron they had made an experimental computer that created malleable 3d environments. The rendering time though for these vast complex environments turned out to be 10 minutes a frame. Which for the length of Tron meant 16 days just to render the environments. They also made the unfortunate mistake of creating the environments and then filming the live action scenes and superimposing them on top of the CG. Which proved insane near impossible to accurately line up and led to the team spending weeks adjusted the already existing environments to line up better through cuts and adjustments. Granted this time line of rendering is still substantially smaller then that of animating the computer generating environment.
It is always encouraging to read stories such as this one, in which a team of innovators has an idea, but not the tools to achieve it, so they make their own tools. The fact that they are able to create exactly the necessary processing software whether it is for hair or snow or lighting or any other effect. This is why Disney is the leader in animation. When told that there is no program to simulate how hair flows in and out of a knot, they make one. It's companies like Disney and Pixar and Apple that are partially responsible for the current DIY revolution. The generation that grew up on the products of these companies is following in the footsteps of the founders of the companies themselves.
Hey look, Carnegie Mellon University did robotics research for this film. What a surprise.
Think about how awesome this project is. Thinking about rendering a single frame in Vectorworks, with 2 indirect lighting bounces, it takes my computer about 90 seconds. Think about 280 minutes of high definition content, @ 32 frames per second (if it’s 2D, twice that if it’s 3D), with 6 lighting bounces. According to my calculation, it would take my computer 6 years running nonstop to fully render the movie, in 3D. Imagine how powerful this supercomputer must be to render this movie, and re-render content that changes towards the end of production. It’s pretty impressive.
Well, let's start off by saying that I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The main robot is so cute!!! It's pretty awesome that a CMU student was the inspiration for him (not surprising at all!) and I love that they put so much time into doing research. I think when we speak of the future we think that we can do anything because, well, who knows what will happen in the future!? But because they did so much research, well, hey, this is an actual possibility for the future. I am always amazed by how much work goes into making an animated film. Now a days, we are so jaded that we think, oh, animation is so much easier now because everything is done on the computer. But the fact that places like Disney created an entire program to simulate how hair flows, sounds ridiculous, but is probably extremely complicated. It's awesome!
This article completely blew my mind and I even read it again to truly take in all the information. Disney has done something truly incredible with their Hyperion program (by the way...has anyone played Borderlands?) and I'm sure this tool is going to give them an even sharper edge in terms of animation and quality of film. I can't wait to see what they do with it next. I love that they are making a film that celebrates science and technology; every little kid sitting at home tinkering with their parent's computers and thinking about how uninterested in princesses they are is going to have an absolute ball with this film. Also the fact that all of the super powers are created through technology is so neat for this story. One thing I loved talking to my mom about when I was older was about how she'd gotten me to use my imagination when I was younger. She said that she tried very hard to keep from telling me that anything was impossible. She said that little kids don't need to know there are limitations, they just need to know that with creativity and determination will get you really far. Frank's calculations are a really great way to compare how powerful this equipment is and how impressive it is that they've developed it themselves. Working in that studio must be so invigorating at this point in time--they've refused to say no to an idea. Imagine how much longer it would have taken to do this movie without this equipment. Woof.
Another thing I'd like to point out about this article is that those students developing the inflatable robotic arm must feel so good about themselves.
I love how Carnegie Mellon played such a prominent role in helping this movie come to life, but watch out Disney, don't let technology replace the power of storytelling that has made your films so popular. Need we revisit the sad excuses for movies that were made by Disney/Pixar in 2011 and 2013. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Cars 2 and Planes. This movie is a landmark in animation rendering and robotics, but like the article said, all of that will most likely go unnoticed by the audience, so I hope the story is just as intriguing as the technology that went into making it. Another good example of how the story became a victim to technology is "Avatar". That 2009 movie with the blue people with weird sex tails... yeah. The visual effects took years and years to finish, and looked great on a big IMAX screen, but 5 years later, watching the same movie on a 15in screen computer leaves a story that is severely lacking in substance without any appreciation for the outstanding visual effects. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Big Hero 6 is going to be a box office hit, but the only thing that will allow it to last the test of time is how well the story is told. Technology is always evolving, but a good story can last a lifetime.
In just a span of a few years, animation technology has multiply by well let’s just say a lot. The amount that is going into this production, is well beyond what I will probably be able to experience in my time, but have had the ability to see through movies the progressions that have been made to make animation rendering possible. The amount of time and energy spent on this project, should definitely make a technology innovation like this one worthwhile. This is just a beginning I’m sure with more advances to come. What’s the next step from here? Of course, just when you think you’ve found your limits in your work, something breaks those barriers, and new limits have to be found. With Big Hero 6 coming out, yeah I guess I think I might take the time to go and watch it. It brings to life the research advances that have been made and enhances them to show what they can possibly do in the future.
Wow! I am not sure people realize just how insane that is to have 55000 core computer!!! My reaction was "WHAT!?! That has to be a mistake!". Then again, it is Disney, but 55000 cores is a lot! Currently most home users have 1-4 cores on a single processor and most servers have 2-16 cores on one or two processors. Besides being excited for this movie just because I am excited for it, now I really want to see it just to understand why the rendering computer used was necessary. Also, CMU needs to talk about all the things CMU students do and keep the other students informed.
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