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e d i t i o n i , 2 0 2 0 c g w 7 forth. So, its design was fluid from shot to shot. "It goes through a progression. It starts in one state and ends in another state. It required a lot of coordination to pull that off," says Rangaswamy. Tim Best, supervising TD – lighting, notes that the dragon was especially challenging for the lighters, in part because there were so many different kinds of elements and effects that make up the character. Then came the challenge of animating it as one coherent object. One more thing, it flies, too. And it breathes fire. "From a rigging point of view, it was really challenging to build and then animate, but so was choreographing the sequence," says Stocker. "The tricky part about the anima- tion was that we didn't want the dragon to feel like it was a real animal as it moved, one with muscle. We wanted it to feel like it was more machine-like. Finding that balance between animal and machine was not easy. At the same time, we wanted it to feel men- acing and gigantic." The dragon spanned a number of sequences, culminating in a huge action sequence at the end of the film. While bringing the creature to life, the work of many departments was directly affected by the work of other departments – animation, characters, sets, effects, lighting, simulation. The crew held what they called "dragon dailies," during which the teams examined these dragon sequences at least a few times a week, as all the departments tried to determine how they were going to approach the scenes – what animation was going to do, what simulation was going to do, what effects was going to do. "Because, if any of us was going to change something that could change the set, the others needed to know," says Stocker. The artists also considered Barley's beat- up van, Guinevere, a character, too. "We treated the van like it's Barley's steed; that's how he treat it, even though it is just hacked together and doesn't work that well," says Stocker. The van had all the physics of a ve- hicle, but animation bestowed on it a quirky personality, too – for instance, making it rear up a bit when it would take off. Making Magic In Onward, effects are also treated as a character. "We wanted the magic to be cool and interesting because it plays such an important role," says Stocker. A film language was created to keep the magic consistent. "That illustrated the idea that [the magic] was a little chaotic, and for people who couldn't master the magic, it would be a little more wild, but the more advanced they became at using it, the more refined the magic would look," Rangaswamy explains. Designing the look of the magic, though, was quite an undertaking. Dave Hale, effects lead, calls it "a long, fun, but painful journey." The team spent time looking at the magic effects in a wide range of films for inspiration. The style couldn't be too young-looking, nor could it be too mature-looking; rather, it fell somewhere in the middle of those extremes, says Hale. Most important, the magic had to fit within the world of Onward – which is more painterly in style than, say, Toy Story 4, which is more photography-based. According to Hale, the filmmakers deter- mined there would be a spell matrix based on the intensity of the spell and the ability of the wizard. "In that sense, the story magic was almost thought of as a character, a supporting character, for Ian, as it comple- mented the performances," he says. As the story progresses and Ian becomes better at wielding the magic and is trying harder spells, the language changes, becoming more orderly than chaotic. First, though, the magic had to be de- signed (would it pulse or shoot out a beam from the staff, for instance). And, they had to determine how Ian would react. The group looked at accomplishing this in 3D, but old-school 2D illustrations were the best alternative for providing a sense of timing, size, and scale that the effects department used for their inspiration. "There's this dance that went on back and forth between [animation and effects] before we got [the final look] right," says Stocker. Using just 2D elements didn't quite fit into the Onward world, and 3D proved a bit too realistic for the painterly style. Rather, a mix between the two proved to be the best choice. While effects designed the physics of the spells – the shape of the magic beams and so forth – lighting worked with effects on the color and how they would illuminate the scene. The effects were done within SideFX's Houdini and then rendered through Foundry's Katana. Dad's staff was just one aspect of the magic. The artists also had to deal with the results of that magic. For instance, there are characters who disappear, and the team had to develop techniques to show how The effects play an important role and were treated like a character.