Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535742
SPRING 2025 25 Images courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios its own to elevate a sense of realism. Disney's Tangled (2010) contributed to the evolution of more lifelike characters by the way it blended traditional animation principles with evolving CG technologies— resulting in characters that conveyed nuanced emotional depth. Amy Smeed, one of the film's Animators, says that Glen Keane, Animation Supervisor for Rapunzel, sat in on dailies and physically drew over the CG renderings to help the team think about the principles of animation that 2D animators had long been familiar with. "In CG, you can take a rig, move it around, and it doesn't mean anything," Smeed says. "So they were really getting us to think about: 'What are you saying in this one scene?' And really having us strip out the excess movements so you could get to the acting and performances of the character." Two of Disney's next films, Frozen (2013) and Big Hero 6 (2014) carried those character advancements forward. Smeed notes that the latter deals in a significant way with grief. "When you have subtle acting performances, it is so important to get that acting correct so audiences are really feeling for [main character] Hiro," she says. "If we over-animate that, the feeling isn't going to be right for the story." RANGE OF MOTION In the first decade of CG-animated filmmaking, advancements in character animation enhanced the way audiences connected with the characters. Studios began developing more sophisticated tools that brought greater realism to facial expressions and body movement. The path to this kind of realism originated for Disney in Dinosaur (2000), which was a blend of CG with live-action backgrounds. During the pre-production phase, "a muscle and skin simulation system was written in-house," says Visual Effects Supervisor Steve Goldberg. The software used physics models to simulate the behavior of muscles and skin in a 3D environment. "The muscles would be laid out on top of the character's rig 'skeleton' and would move in accordance with how the rig was animated by the character animators," he says. "A skin simulation would then be run based on the movement of the underlying muscles. This could be tuned to allow for taught or loose skin or simulated fat layers—all to add a degree of realism and believability." By the time films like DreamWorks' Shrek (2001) and Shrek 2 (2004) came along, technology had advanced significantly, and they showcased detailed muscle simulations and skin shaders that allowed for more nuanced performances. But it took more than advanced technology on top: For realistic character movement, CG software is used to create rigged models like this one for Baymax in Big Hero 6; below: 2D animation principles helped 3D artists add emotional depth to characters like the grieving Hiro. SUMMER 2025 37