io9.com: Pixar’s new movie The Good Dinosaur takes place in a bizarre alternate history—what if the dinosaurs weren’t wiped out 65 million years ago? But the process of making this wild, ambitious film required a very different counterfactual: What if the way animators create scenery and characters had been turned on its head?
7 comments:
This has got to be the best use of a geological survey anyone has ever come up with. The adfab class was recently trying to use a similar survey of Pittsburgh to make a physical 3-d model and I'm pretty sure that failed spectacularly. Obviously their resources are significantly smaller than Pixar's but what they were trying to do was much easier. I wonder what kind of overhaul they had to have to get people who could turn a topographical map into a a complete rendered landscape. It sounds like a process that would involve whole new levels of collaboration with artists, and in this case people who had no exposure to such things. Imagine how cool it would be to consult on a project like that where you help turn data into the landscape for the next big movie of year. I also totally never noticed the landscape thing. I have memories from every pixar movie of the landscape and apparently that was just the first shot.
Pixar is so important!! I am absolutely in love with this idea of the purposeful juxtaposition of realism in the scenic design and the characters. The initial paintings towards the end of the article are stunning and are such striking images. I feel that something that has bothered me in past animated films is that when you notice that the animation style of the characters doesn't quite match the visual background or vice versa. It takes you out of the moment, when with "The Good Dinosaur" the two elements balance each other out and creating a visually intriguing image. Additionally, I think that juxtaposition of the two styles will appeal to the older and younger generations. Children will be completely engrossed and entertained by the style of the characters and dinosaurs, while audiences will be taken back by the extreme realistic beauty of the backgrounds and sets. I hope to see this in person and experience this event.
I think I have written a similar comment to this one before, but I think that this article brings it up again. Pixar is probable the one of the best companies in the world, if it is not the best! It is really complicated to create a creative and collaborative work environment and then sustain it. This definitely shows in their films because not only have they been both innovative and imaginative, but they have also successfully incorporated everyone’s ideas into the film which is extremely hard to do. When you work at Pixar you are able to be fully open. No one’s idea is not important, and just because you have been at the company longer than someone else does not mean that your idea is better than one of the new employees. That is something that I really respect that everyone is truly on the same playing field.
Aaah this is so cool! It's so interesting to hear about new techniques and ways of applying technological advances being invented for the sake of storytelling. Pixar is constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of computer-generated films, and always in the interest of serving the project rather than plugging their latest advances into a movie that may not actually need them. Like Isaac, I had never realized that Pixar movies used wide landscape shots so sparsely, which is another example of the skill demonstrated by their animators and storytellers. Using the USGS data is such a cool push forward, because it not only makes the story stronger to have those shots in there, but it also makes it easier for them to put the movie together. I am very excited to see this, and to see how the realistic landscape plays out with the goofy dinosaur in front of it!
When the trailer for this movie first came out, 90% of the comments were complaining about how such cartoony, unrealistic characters were "trapped" in such a gorgeous background setting. The dinosaurs (especially the main one) looked goofy when set against the vast, almost photorealistic shots of canyons and mountains. However, after reading this article I have much more of an appreciation for this design choice and am very excited to see how this plays out in the actual movie. I loved seeing the final shots of the landscapes, and I think it was a good choice to make them just realistic enough to evoke a sense of wanderlust and vastness, but also add a painting-like feel to them so it's not too real. I still think the main dinosaur Arlo looks odd compared to the other dinosaurs in this fictional world, but maybe that will enhance his character instead of detract. I think it was interesting to hear about how nature is basically another character instead of just a setting for the events to take place in.
Pixar always as such an interesting design process. I'd love to work on their production team because they do such a through job of considering all the elements of storytelling. For example they thoroughly consider how to denote specific locations of importance, how a character's movement informs the audience's reception of their personality and how grounding an audience in a realistic world adds real weight to the cartoonish character's journey, creating a much more personable, relatable and inviting narrative. It sounds like pixar is once again bringing us high quality work with The Good Dinosaur, but is also just as importantly growing and pushing the bounds of what computer animation can do. Fully rendered environments are a huge endeavor even in single shots, but with the wide expansive environment this film demands Pixar had a huge challenge to face and it sounds like they've met it well. As a constant innovator and ever so resourceful company I think Pixar is a prime model of what most art company's should strive for, a company that understands storytelling and consistently works to explore new frontiers.
I, just like the rest of the world am in love with Pixar. I love to see the process of animation, and am a huge nerd about all of the processes and this article makes me so happy. I'm from Montana, which has so many fossils and is a huge center for paleontology, so this is a great setting. and seeing all Those beautiful landscapes- they're perfect. I love how they didn't just decide to go as realistic as possible- even though they could have. the artistry and the animation is still there when they render the background as a painting. I know what I'll be doing thanksgiving.
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