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n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5 c g w 1 5 the scene, while at the same time retain clarity. And the role of the raptors kept expanding as the scene came to life." The animators performed the T. rexes as if they were cowboys on horseback. They're still bipedal, but the modelers created the look by raising the front of the T. rex bodies into a position mimicking a rider on horseback, and the animators completed the illusion with acting choices. "It was a big challenge to do something different," says Ani- mator Kevin O'Hara. "Bipeds are not built to run like a horse." But, the clever gag worked. "There were times," Sohn says, "when the scenes looked like a Monty Python sketch – just give them a pair of coconuts. But we found a way to have fun without going into parody." For reference, Sohn took a team of animators and riggers on a research trip to a cattle ranch in eastern Oregon near the Idaho border. They went to see cattle but returned with stories about the family of ranchers. "The family had dedicated their lives to working on this ranch," Sohn says. "We were inspired by their love and re- sponsibility to one another. Joe [the rancher] inspired Butch [the T. rex father voiced by Sam Elliott]. We wanted to respect their toughness and humanity." All the research trips were eye-openers for Sohn, who was raised in New York City and attended college in Los Angeles. The creative team spent days raing, visiting the cattle ranch, exploring Yellowstone Park, and going on trail rides. "Pete had thousands and thousands of questions," Cala- han says. "And, he remembered everything. We took him on a trail ride on the Idaho side of the Tetons to give him an idea about snow and ice and high elevations. There's a scene in the movie where Butch [the T. rex] gives Arlo lessons and it sounds like gibberish. That's how Pete felt when the trail boss told him what to do. But, whenever the guide wanted to turn back, Pete want- ed to go just a little bit farther. He was like a little kid who never wanted to stop. He saw a moose. He saw the Milky Way for the first time. He was awed by the vast landscapes and how quickly the weather could change." C H A N G E I N T H E W E A T H E R Wind wasn't the only weather element or effect the crew used to amplify the emotional story. "We had fire, snow, dust, mist, fog, and rain," Reisch says. "When Arlo slides downhill, there is dust debris. When Spot draws in the sand, we move it with a new grain solver. These are subtle effects – people might not even know they're effects, but from a storytelling point of view, they heighten the mood and drama of a scene." The effects artists used fog to create a sense of foreboding, and volumetric clouds and rain to punch up the visual tension in a shot. "When Arlo feels desperate or lonely, we have clouds mov- ing across a full moon behind tall pine trees blowing in the wind," Sohn says. "We tried to make nature breathe and be mysterious." To help blend the elements into final shots, the effects team worked with lighting and shading artists. "A lot of what we do is build visual complexity through mul- tiple passes," Reisch says. "We can drive material properties on characters or the terrain so when rain splats as it hits the ground, we can add darkening and specular reflections. The way light interacts with effects elements makes them feel part of a scene." Rain, which falls in 400 shots (nearly half the effects shots), was particularly important. Sometimes it's so rain, some- times threatening. "We did depth-of-field work in compositing like we did for 'Blue Umbrella' (see "Moody Blue," January/February 2014)," Reisch says. "I wanted to make sure that it didn't look like a rain machine. So we took time to make rain boxes for the background, mid-ground, and extreme foreground. We instanced along the curves and noised up the normals to reflect and refract and give the lighters more control over the rain." Light rain helped set the scene when Spot and Arlo meet on the river. Blustery, heavy, driving rain, by contrast, created a dangerous mood toward the end of the film, fulfilling Sohn's vision of an exquisite antagonist in action. "I knew this film would be special because of the emo- tions and passion Pete [Sohn] would put into it," Calahan says. "It became clear early on that to tell the story properly, we had to think differently. I jumped at the chance to work on it. I feel ruined for anything aer this." The story is improbable – a dinosaur as a human, a wild boy-child as a dog. Two children finding their way in a wilderness, a vast, mountainous, forested environment that only a studio as brave and talented as Pixar would dare to model, dress, move, and render in painterly realism. "The artists and technical people here can do anything," says Producer Denise Ream. "We had to give them a story worthy of their talent. They real- ly made the movie beautiful." ■ Barbara Robertson (BarbaraRR@comcast.net) is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for CGW. ARLO AND SPOT WITH THE T. REX FAMILY OF CATTLE RANCHERS.