Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1188718
This journey of discovery leads the characters out of Arendelle and into an enchanted forest where they meet Gale—a fluid and beautiful wind spirit. "The wind was the most important of the anthropomorphic spirits that came about in a lot of the folklore," says Lee. There was only one catch: How do you imbue an invisible character with personality? How do you visualize something that you can't see? FACING THE WIND "How do I draw wind?" wondered Bill Schwab, Art Director Characters, when he first tackled the concept of Gale. Inspired by the setting of the enchanted forest, he set about using sticks, leaves and debris to describe Gale and to envision how the wind spirit would interact with other characters. "The real challenge was the new characters and the fact that there had to be so much collaboration between departments," says Head of Animation Becky Bresee. "There were lots of ideas thrown out in the design process." The animation team started to run tests on how the leaves could move to show Gale's personality with the first trials inspired by Schwab's drawing of Olaf and Gale interacting. Animation Supervisor Trent Correy animated the scene then did drawovers to help inform the effects artists and seamlessly integrate the leaves that were hand animated with the ones done by effects. Heads of Animation Tony Smeed and Bresee questioned whether Gale always needed to carry debris to be identified in the scene. In the script, Jennifer Lee had written that upon meeting, Gale gives Elsa a hug, so the team began exploring what that interaction might look like in collaboration with tech animation, the department in charge of hair and cloth simulation. "There's a bit of pantomime—a lot of the animators draw first to indicate what the hair would be doing, what the cloth would be doing so that when we went into dailies the directors had an idea of the intention," says Bresee. "It was a big blend between our two departments." In another example, Gale comes through the window of the palace and sweeps through the bedroom. Correy along with Character Technical Director Cameron Black created a test where Correy would animate the Gale rig interacting with the bed, do some drawovers to help show what the performance might look like, and between the rig and drawings, tech animation would come up with simulations. "In the end, we can pull the Gale rig out and what you're left with is this feeling of wind blowing through the sheets," says Smeed. "The real challenge was the new characters and the fact that there had to be so much collaboration between departments... There were lots of ideas thrown out in the design process." – HEAD OF ANIMATION, BECKY BRESEE AFTER THE SUCCESS OF FROZEN, THE FILMMAKERS WERE CONFRONTED WITH A LINGERING QUESTION—WHERE DID ELSA GET HER POWERS? FOR INSPIRATION, THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM BEGAN EXPLORING FOLKTALES FROM NORWAY AND ICELAND: "WE STARTED SEEING THIS DEEP MYTHOLOGY AND THESE DEEP ROOTS IN MAGIC OF NATURE," SAYS DIRECTOR AND WRITER JENNIFER LEE. "WE STARTED TO SEE A STORY THAT FELT LIKE IT WAS ALWAYS THERE." you imbue an invisible character personality? How do you visualize something that you can't see? much F E AT U R E 40 KEYFRAME