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LIGHTYEAR www.postmagazine.com 20 POST JULY/AUG 2022 nect the objects together by adding dust. It's not entertaining for me to highlight effects to show off the prowess of the technical aspect. It's the same with character animation. I'm not interested in char- acter animation that draws attention to the acting. Everything is about the overall film with the intent of making the audience feel that it was awesome." It was important for everything to feel tactile, rather than digital. "Angus liked the warmth that you see in the practicals of a Star Wars film, so we hired someone who had built the practicals for Star Wars pre- quels — John Duncan," reveals Susman. "He built us a model spaceship and then we constructed the same spaceship from the same design digitally. Then we did a side-by-side comparison and asked, 'Why does this one have more warmth than the traditional CG one?' There are no straight lines. There are curves. The attention to thickness of edges. Basically, our language for the visuals of the film was to try to land more of the warmth that you get from practicals. Generally, CG feels colder than that." There were no distinctions made between the character design and production design. "We didn't want the feeling of a cartoon charac- ter with a photorealistic background. That is part of the 'chunkification' of the background, and the animation style is much more reserved. We're try- ing to bring those two worlds together so that the characters feel like they belong." Color, shape and lighting were all essential story- telling elements. "When Buzz feels happy that he is part of the Space Ranger club, he is able to belong, but then there is a portion of the film where it is taken away from him," states production designer Tim Evatt. "How do you progress that story, where he is trying to belong again? We could do that with shape, color and light." The action unfolds on the planet of T'Kani Prime. "The planet is lunar locked," says Evatt. "One side is all in dark and the other side has an area of life, but then there is an area that is like a Goldilocks Zone and other areas are more hostile to live in." Evatt wanted to avoid relying upon the Pixar library, nicknamed the "backlot." "I knew that in order for Lightyear to have its own language, we had to make our own backlot. That was the strength of having a modeling art department; we were able to replenish our pieces and make a new movie." Extensive graphics were required. "If you go onto a battleship or warship or military tank and look around, all of the decals tell infor- mation," says Evatt. "There are caution signs. It's all meant to give a believability that these buttons do everything. [Art director] Paul Conrad and his team were able to go in and give that life. If the decals are not there, it feels like something is missing." Ian Megibben and Jeremy Lasky shared cinema- tography duties for the film. "I would work closely with the layout depart- ment and Jeremy Lasky, and would set up lighting kits for them while they were blocking both with characters and their camera moves," remarks Megibben. "The first thing for us was to figure out Rather than tap the Pixar backlot, the modeling art department created new elements. Megibben Evatt MacLane Watral Susman DeVan