P.I.X.A.R Lighting:
Jaden McGrath 4/5/19
Right now, we will be discussing one of, if not the king animation studios in the profession of all time, P.I.X.A.R. More importantly, what happened behind the animation to bring some of their classic animated films to life on the screen. The two P.I.X.A.R animated movies that will be discussed are Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Starting off with Finding Nemo, it is a perfect example of how to combat unbelievable worlds and movements. In order to avoid it, they would connect with science and use it and the world that they know as a "backbone". It makes them ground themselves in something that is both recognizable and relatable. And seeing as how a major amount of the film takes place underwater, they took a clip of actual real underwater footage and recreates it using the computer. They would then break it back down so that they could see what elements make up the loo of the underwater world the film is set in for a majority of the runtime. One of the most important aspects of the animation was how the light would travel through the water. They accomplished this by coding up the light that copies the physics needed to make the scene appear as if it was set underwater. They would start with the visibility and then on the color. If the object was closest to the camera in a shot, then it would have much richer colors and the further the object was, the less rich the colors were as the red and green wavelengths were removed.
Now it should be noted that instead of wanting to create a perfectly scientifically based world, P.I.X.A.R more often wants to create a believable that is capable of sucking in its audience and engaging them into the story the film presents. A perfect example of this is the 2008 film, Wall-E. When the character of Wall-E came into lighting, the animators knew that they had a problem on their hands because they got so into making a convincing robot, that they made the binoculars that are his eyes almost optically perfect to the point where it was, "... a mess of reflections." The binoculars were crucial to the character because without a face or even normal dialogue, the movement of the binocular eyes were the only thing that could showed off Wall-E's emotions. So they went to work on the binoculars to try and find a solution that would make him maintain his robotic ways but fix the reflection issue. So they started with the three layers of lenses which are the flat-front lens, the concave lens, and the convex lens. Now they couldn't use faked abstract images because they did want somethings reflected in his eyes in the film, especially Wall-E's love interest Eve. How they eventually solved that problem was they accidentally added a light to Wall-E that leaked into his eyes which made the aperture blades light up and show through the eyes. now making it so that Wall-E had black eyes, grey aperture blades, and black pupils, it could now be shown and displayed that Wall-E has a soul.
Going back to Finding Nemo, P.I.X.A.R animator, Danielle Feinberg has stated that the jellyfish sequence in the were one of those unexpected moments that make you realize what you want to do with your life. In every movie, there are scenes that struggle to come together and the jellyfish scene from Finding Nemo was one of those scenes. Danielle has said that the director of the film, Andrew Stanton had a specific vision for the scene based on some footage of real jellyfish in the South Pacific and as they worked on it, talks with Stanton became more like questions about numbers and percentages. She has also said that it became about using their brains without their eyes and using science without art. She dug head in once the scene came to lighting and as she worked to equally balance the blues and pinks, the fog beams, she came across something. The next day she showed it to Andrew Stanton and the others working on the film as everyone was silent for a long portion of time once she played the scene for them, including Stanton. But then, everybody there began to applaud her for her work done to bring the scene to life in such a breathtaking and downright beautiful way.
Although I did really enjoy watching this TED Talk video, I have to admit that it was quite harder for me to make this summary using that format. I've been so used to doing summaries on articles that doing one on a video seemed a bit difficult at first. But as I kept watching and she kept explaining, it became just a tiny bit easier. Still, I do prefer the article format. But even then, I was till able to learn a few things like how Wall-E is given the glassy eye look at the end of the film where he loses his personality and goes back to his normal look once his personality comes back to him. It's a nice little touch of animation that I'll have to look out for next time I watch the film myself.
Unlike usual, I actually do have a few questions when regarding this video. For example, what was the hardest thing to apply lighting to between all of the films made by P.I.X.A.R? Which P.I.X.A.R film was the hardest to add lighting to? And has there even been a lighting job that Danielle Feinberg would wish she would've went back and made better? But as usual, I completely agree with what was said in the video because it is spoken by an animation professional who has more experience and knowledge than I do. I believe that this topic is very important to animation because without the proper lighting, your scene could look way off from how you really want it.
Right now, we will be discussing one of, if not the king animation studios in the profession of all time, P.I.X.A.R. More importantly, what happened behind the animation to bring some of their classic animated films to life on the screen. The two P.I.X.A.R animated movies that will be discussed are Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Starting off with Finding Nemo, it is a perfect example of how to combat unbelievable worlds and movements. In order to avoid it, they would connect with science and use it and the world that they know as a "backbone". It makes them ground themselves in something that is both recognizable and relatable. And seeing as how a major amount of the film takes place underwater, they took a clip of actual real underwater footage and recreates it using the computer. They would then break it back down so that they could see what elements make up the loo of the underwater world the film is set in for a majority of the runtime. One of the most important aspects of the animation was how the light would travel through the water. They accomplished this by coding up the light that copies the physics needed to make the scene appear as if it was set underwater. They would start with the visibility and then on the color. If the object was closest to the camera in a shot, then it would have much richer colors and the further the object was, the less rich the colors were as the red and green wavelengths were removed.
Now it should be noted that instead of wanting to create a perfectly scientifically based world, P.I.X.A.R more often wants to create a believable that is capable of sucking in its audience and engaging them into the story the film presents. A perfect example of this is the 2008 film, Wall-E. When the character of Wall-E came into lighting, the animators knew that they had a problem on their hands because they got so into making a convincing robot, that they made the binoculars that are his eyes almost optically perfect to the point where it was, "... a mess of reflections." The binoculars were crucial to the character because without a face or even normal dialogue, the movement of the binocular eyes were the only thing that could showed off Wall-E's emotions. So they went to work on the binoculars to try and find a solution that would make him maintain his robotic ways but fix the reflection issue. So they started with the three layers of lenses which are the flat-front lens, the concave lens, and the convex lens. Now they couldn't use faked abstract images because they did want somethings reflected in his eyes in the film, especially Wall-E's love interest Eve. How they eventually solved that problem was they accidentally added a light to Wall-E that leaked into his eyes which made the aperture blades light up and show through the eyes. now making it so that Wall-E had black eyes, grey aperture blades, and black pupils, it could now be shown and displayed that Wall-E has a soul.
Going back to Finding Nemo, P.I.X.A.R animator, Danielle Feinberg has stated that the jellyfish sequence in the were one of those unexpected moments that make you realize what you want to do with your life. In every movie, there are scenes that struggle to come together and the jellyfish scene from Finding Nemo was one of those scenes. Danielle has said that the director of the film, Andrew Stanton had a specific vision for the scene based on some footage of real jellyfish in the South Pacific and as they worked on it, talks with Stanton became more like questions about numbers and percentages. She has also said that it became about using their brains without their eyes and using science without art. She dug head in once the scene came to lighting and as she worked to equally balance the blues and pinks, the fog beams, she came across something. The next day she showed it to Andrew Stanton and the others working on the film as everyone was silent for a long portion of time once she played the scene for them, including Stanton. But then, everybody there began to applaud her for her work done to bring the scene to life in such a breathtaking and downright beautiful way.
Although I did really enjoy watching this TED Talk video, I have to admit that it was quite harder for me to make this summary using that format. I've been so used to doing summaries on articles that doing one on a video seemed a bit difficult at first. But as I kept watching and she kept explaining, it became just a tiny bit easier. Still, I do prefer the article format. But even then, I was till able to learn a few things like how Wall-E is given the glassy eye look at the end of the film where he loses his personality and goes back to his normal look once his personality comes back to him. It's a nice little touch of animation that I'll have to look out for next time I watch the film myself.
Unlike usual, I actually do have a few questions when regarding this video. For example, what was the hardest thing to apply lighting to between all of the films made by P.I.X.A.R? Which P.I.X.A.R film was the hardest to add lighting to? And has there even been a lighting job that Danielle Feinberg would wish she would've went back and made better? But as usual, I completely agree with what was said in the video because it is spoken by an animation professional who has more experience and knowledge than I do. I believe that this topic is very important to animation because without the proper lighting, your scene could look way off from how you really want it.
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