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8 cgw w i n t e r 2 0 1 9 we find a range of unique characters, many inspired by old Norse myths and folklore of the Nordic region. Effects and animation worked very closely, especially since there are some characters that required the departments to develop new workflows and work collabo- ratively with other departments to bring the characters to life, says Becky Bresee, head of animation. This is particularly true of Nokk and Gale. It also extended to Elsa, as she be- comes more forceful in releasing her magic from her fingertips. In this film, the family is together now, so there are more characters in the scenes, as opposed to the original, which oen fea- tured just one in a shot. "Not only do they all have to have motion, but more importantly, emotion," says Bresee. And, there were a lot of long shots to animate – most were 30 seconds or more, with the character barely moving, just emoting. "It's animation gold, though. There aren't many opportunities for an animator to get to work on shots like that, and this movie is full of them," says Marlon West, head of effects animation. Anna, Elsa, d the Gg The central figures of Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven have returned in Frozen 2. Although the artists jumped onto the sequel shortly aer the original film had debuted, a lot had changed technologically in that span of time, requiring updates to the models. Of course, one of the most noticeable changes to the characters, particularly the sisters, is their new costumes, which are more suitable for travel and whose colors are more complimentary to the fall season. Designing the wardrobe for the characters was no light affair, requiring many iterations to the garments, the details of which are astonishing. Yet, the design of the clothing had to work hand in glove with animation, enabling the characters to move unhindered under strenuous motion. "The outfits are complex and challenging from a simulation standpoint," says David Suroveic, technical animation supervisor. "They are multi-layered, heavily detailed with items like beads, gems, and embroidery, and contain a significant amount of fabric. Multi- ple layers are always challenging because they are complicated for the solvers to simulate, complicated for the artists to clean up, and have to perform in a stylized way." According to Suroveic, dressing Anna in pants and a dress, with a cloak on top, re- sulted in the densest model they had on the film and, therefore, the most challenging to manage when she was extremely active. "It might be a heavy, inhibiting outfit in terms of motion, but we still have to make that work and move gracefully," he adds. Elsa, mean- while, is in lighter, more ethereal clothing of tulle and silks. Kristoff's outfit visually looks similar to that from the first movie, albeit with a few differ- ent color schemes and embroidery details. However, the underlying tech was updated, giving his outfit an entire re-tailoring to better fit his body, thanks to the use of Marvelous Designer, a 3D tool for designing clothing and fabrics, which actually tailors clothes to the body. (Previously, the animators used traditional 3D modeling techniques.) His hair, too, went through a full redo in terms of grooming. "We made advancements in both our grooming technologies as well as our hair simulation technologies, making some big improvements that we wanted to fold into that here," Suroveic says. As a result of the advanced technolo- gies, the tech animators also significantly reduced the amount of Elsa's hair, while still making it appear as rich and lush as it had been in the original movie. It was also sim- ulated with fewer curves, resulting in faster sim times. In fact, Elsa sports a few hairstyle iterations this go around, as opposed to just her single braid. A YOUNG ELSA AND ANNA HEAR TALES OF AN ENCHANTED FOREST FROM THEIR FATHER, THE KING. ADVANCES IN HAIR AND CLOTH WERE SOME OF THE UPDATES TO THE RETURNING CAST.