Good Hair Everywhere

I am taking a moment to appreciate 3D animated hair and fur.

Take Sully’s fur from Monsters Inc., for example. Just from looking at it, we are able to imagine what it feels like. We have a good idea of what Sully would feel like if we were able to pat him. The fact that we can compare a real textural feeling to something animated by a cold, hard computer is pretty amazing.

Hair is pretty cool too. Merida’s hair from Brave is probably the most beautiful hair in the entire animated world, as far as I’m concerned. It’s wild and big and out of control and probably took so much memory to create. But every curl behaves like we would expect hair to behave. It moves so naturally in relation to Merida and adds character to her character. It must’ve taken a lot of work to control every curl in order to make her hair look uncontrollable.

 

Another set of good hair is Rapunzel from Tangled. What’s really amazing about that animation is the sheer amount of hair that had to be considered. The hair at least 10 times longer than Rapunzel herself and it’s used as a prop throughout the movie—it’s a lasso, it’s a rope, it’s a ladder… In animating this hair, utility had to be taken into consideration all the while keeping things silky, shiny, and smooth.

This video showing a variety of hair related goofs with Rapunzel’s hair gives a little bit of insight into the physics of good hair.

All My Favorites!

Because all of my post have been amazing I really just wanted to go out with a bang. So I figured I would share my top five favorite animation stuff. These can range from movies to clips. Lets get ready to rumble!!

5

Paperman (styled as paperman) is a 2012 black-and-white 3D hand-drawn/computer animatedromantic comedy short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and directed by John Kahrs. The short blends traditional animation and computer animation. 

4

Wreck-It Ralph is a 2012 American computer-animated family-comedy film[4] produced byWalt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.[5] It is the 52nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

3

Up is a 2009 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. By tying thousands of balloons to his home, 78-year-old Carl sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America and to complete a promise made to his lifelong love. 

2

Tangled is a 2010 American computer animated musical fantasy-comedy film produced byWalt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on theGerman fairy tale "Rapunzel" in the collection of folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm, it is the 50th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

1

I honestly could not pick which of the Toy Story movies I liked best so I picked all of them! Toy Story is a CGI animated film series and Disney media franchise that began with the original 1995 film, Toy Story, produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The franchise focuses on a group of toys that secretly come to life and end up unexpectedly embarking on life-changing adventures.

Animation Inspiration

This week I was in desperate need of inspiration for our title sequence projects. I'm going to get a bit nostalgic on you because I immediately thought of my favorite title sequence I absolutely loved as a child growing up. It was the title sequence from 101 Dalmatians:

I love this sequence because it is absolutely fun and thrilling to watch. As a child, there were not very many interesting title sequences and more often than not, we would end up fast-forwarding through them. Yet, I ALWAYS watched this specific title sequence because I never knew what was going to come next. I vividly remember dancing to it even when I was little because even the music is fantastic.

Upon watching it again, I was shocked to realize that I recognized several techniques that we have already learned in class! For example, the spot revealing or erasing the words or even the spots pulsating to the music. I was thrilled to find out that my favorite sequence as a kid, I actually understood now as a college student! 

I kept thinking of other sequences that I enjoyed. Here is another one from Tangled, though I believe it is the ending credits:

I think what is great about this title sequence is that we can see more of the story being told. Aspects of character development and fun story moments that weren't necessarily in the feature are seen. I think this is the hardest part for title sequences or ending credits: making them interesting and entertaining enough to hold peoples interest. I'm always happily surprised when I find I have sat through one and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Another one that I really, really enjoyed, that is not an animation, is from Sherlock Holmes. 

I love the style and the feel of this sequence. It is not only interesting, but it fits with the period of the film with the images changing to what looks like drawings on old parchment. Here we see the story revealed, but in a increasingly interesting way. I came across this tutorial on how it was made by AgezMedia on youtube when I first looked for this video:

I didn't get through all of it yet, and it is very advanced, but it was incredibly fascinating to learn.

After looking into all of these, I think I'm ready to give my title sequence a try. It will be a challenge to make something intriguing, unique and entertaining, but if these examples can do it, I'm sure I can too. 

Here are some student examples that I came across during my search on youtube. They are all for Pixar's film UP. 

By Amber Capogrossi

Tangled!

Sooooooo I don't know if any of you have had to opportunity to see the Disney film Tangled, but I seriously love this movie. Tangled is the story of Rapunzel with a twist: Rapunzel was kidnapped as a baby when it was discovered by an evil witch that her hair of gold had magical properties. Her famous locks had the capability to heal injuries and restore youth and beauty when she sang a magic song. It sounds kind of weird, I'm well aware, but once you dig a little deeper into the story, it makes much more sense.

There are many things that make this film so enjoyable. The cast who voices the characters was simply perfect, led by Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi (CHUCK, for those of you who might know him from the NBC comedy of the same name) as Flynn Rider, a thief who finds Rapunzel by chance and agrees to help her in her quest to go to a festival in the castle (where she doesn't know it, but she is actually the princess. Sorry I'm not sorry for that spoiler...). In addition, I thought it was pretty interesting that apart from Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, not very many of the characters actually speak. For example, Rapunzels' best friend is a chameleon named Pascual, and Flynn Rider is aided in his quest to save Rapunzel by a white horse named Maximus. Neither of these characters speak (because they're animals-DUH.) but they provide a lot of comedy in the film. The king and queen never speak either, and upon being reunited with their long-lost daughter, I think it makes all the difference to how the audience reacts to the film. You wouldn't necessarily think that an animated film would reconsider the use of voice in this way, but I personally think it makes it that much more powerful.

Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and the chameleon, Pascual

However, I think the best part about this film, apart from the flawless animation is definitely the writing. In any animation, the story is almost always the most important aspect, and in this case that is most definitely true. Writing a film that is animated and making that film suitable and enjoyable for all ages is an admirable feat, and Tangled accomplishes this and much more.

I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate the animation of Rapunzel's hair in this film. To me, animating hair seems like a really tough job, and I feel like more recent animated films, such as The Incredibles, have done a really cool job of making hair look super realistic. In a film about a girl with super long hair, it definitely has to look as real as possible, and I think their use of animation is fantastic. It looks so realistic, as does the entire film, but I think learning about animation and then watching this film gave me a greater appreciation for how this film was made.

If you haven't seen Tangled, I highly recommend it. Even though it's a G-rated childrens movie, it's very classic disney and it will not disappoint. If you do give it a chance, let me know, I'd love to hear what you think! See you all tomorrow...

An Animation Thanksgiving

I have found a new love for anything animated. One of my all-time favorite shows has always been Family Guy, but I have taken this love to movies now. I spend a considerable amount of time watching new shows and movies on my parents new TV. I was able to plug an HDMI cord right into their laptop and watch anything on Netflix in full HD. Before my friends got back into town I spent my first night home watching one of the best animated movies I've ever seen, Tangled.
After watching this movie, I was amazed that the transition from 2D animated classics, like Aladdin and the Lion King, to what is now 3D animation like Tangled. The colors and life-like motions within the world of this movie were very realistic. This is because the Director, Byron Howard, and Head of Story, Nathan Greno, wanted to take the classic Disney movie look and put an entirely new twist on it.

Art Director of the film, David Goetz, states that, “When you look at old [Disney] movies, you can see that they’re consistent about using these shapes to compose with. That gives the shows a visual continuity, a grace and flow. So, we tried to leverage off that.”

He is referring to what they took from the classic 2D animated Disney movies. They wanted to use the elegance of the classics and but the most realistic touch in the new 3D world. That involved making grass and wood look like real grass and wood. The main challenge was Rapunzel's hair. She uses her hair in this movie like a second pair of hands. This was a challenge for the producers to make the hair flow in a realistic way when she is whipping it all around fighting off enemies and transporting herself around her tower.



Overall I was blown away at the realism and work that was done for this movie. With the use of 40 different animators and even more in higher ranks than that. So far this is tied for my favorite animated movie with the new film Rio. I suggest to watch these back to back because the new advances in 3D animation and the use of CGI with literally blow your mind. My next animated movies to watch are Gnomeo and Juliet, Bolt, and Up.

Tangled

So this weekend I re-watched Tangled with a few of my friends and while we all love the movie, we noticed that the hair lengths of Rapunzel change often depending on what Rapunzel is doing in the scene.

For example, when Rapunzel is running away from the "Snuggly Duckling," she rounds up all of her hair within seconds and runs away carrying it all by herself.

But a few shots later, Flynn Rider has to help Rapunzel gather up her hair, so that they can run away from the rushing water. So unlike the other scene, she now has too much hair to carry all by herself... Not to mention that a few shots earlier, her hair was long enough to run all the way up to the window in the tower with a bit extra to spare.

We wondered whether or not the animators had decided on a set length of her hair? Was it whatever fit the story? Or were they set on the length of a football field, for example? I figured that the animators had set a specific length for the purpose of continuity, but had to change the length so that the story could be better played out. They knew that Rapunzel had extremely lengthy hair but had a difficult time making the length continuous.

Yet, after I did some research, I realized that hair is quite difficult to animate, and the graphic artists might have been concentrating more on the appearance of the hair, rather than the specific length; after all, an audience is more likely to notice hair that is flat or doesn't fall properly, than hair that changes in length by a few feet.

In fact, Byron Howard, a co-director of "Tangled," said "They tell you never to do long hair in CG because it’s one of the most difficult, most complicated things to do... at its core, this movie is about a girl with 70 feet of hair, and if you can’t get that right, then you don’t have a movie."

In the video below, the directors and animators actually go into how difficult it was to animate the hair, but why it was so important from a symbolic and storyline standpoint.

CNN also provides an inside look at the other techniques the animators used to create Rapunzel's hair, but the video is unable to be embedded, so here is the link.

Basically the animators had to experiment in real life with fishing wire in order to see how hair shines and moves, especially at a length of 70 feet. From there they used sketches and computer simulations to actually animate the hair.

The LA Times has a really good article on the challenges the directors faced with animation and provides two videos showing the before and after examples of the animation. 

Overall, I find that Tangled is a really good example of how something that seems so simple, can turn out to be so difficult. Not only are the animators responsible for animating the weight and movement of the hair, but they are responsible for 70 feet of a plot driving force. So while we may have a way to go in making our animation technology a bit more advanced, Tangled is a really good example for how much work is necessary in a professional animation industry.