Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/691968
16 cgw m ay . j u n e 2 0 1 6 now we're right on the cusp, doing bi-directional pathtracing for the caustics. And, we're do- ing some work with volumes to make a large number of volumes very efficient." A de-noising filter developed by Disney Research and Disney Animation for use with Hyperion on Big Hero Six helped reduce computation time. "All pathtracers exhibit noise, and to eliminate it would take an enormous amount of computation," May says. "We have a real advantage in that we're part of a bigger company that includes Disney Research, Disney Animation, and Industri- al Light & Magic." Now, others can now take advantage of that technology, too, which is available as a program called Denoiser with RenderMan. D É J À V U A L L O V E R A G A I N Sometimes, though, the new technology needed to comply with an older aesthetic. When the fish swim in a reef that replicates the environment from the first film, the lighters re-created techniques they had used a decade ago. "We forced a physically- based renderer to do some- thing it didn't want to do," Megibben says. "Some of the engineers didn't want it to. But, we needed the reef to be familiar and safe. When we're in the MLI, we played with light and shadow, and the scenes have more contrast. We use backlighting and leave things in shadow. The reef is high key, almost comedic. It was a lot of fun to have two styles to play with between the two environments." With any sequel, the pro- duction crew has the problem of respecting the first film and expanding it to take advan- tage of tools and ideas they didn't have before. And so, too, the writer and director. "The best thing about this film was reuniting with the people I had worked with," Stanton says. (Stanton had slipped away from Pixar to write and direct the 2012 live-action film John Carter.) "But also, to be honest," he adds, "it was learning new stuff about the characters. It was like being with a cousin and hearing stories I'd never heard before." But, these characters weren't just cousins, as he realized in one brilliant moment. "It happened during our first scoring session," Stanton says. "I'm watching a finished section. The music is on. And there's a little separation, a rare moment. It was almost like looking at your kids the way the rest of the world sees them. It was the Nemo cue, the one moment in this film when we reference the first movie. I thought, 'Holy crap. I remember when I came up with him. With her.' I remembered the mundane office. These are characters everyone knows, but I had forgotten they came from me. It was profound." ■ Barbara Robertson (BarbaraRR@comcast.net) is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for CGW. LAND AND SEA Dory and her companions Marlin and Nemo are never fish out of water, but their journey does take them into a human world, the Marine Life Institute (MLI). Production Designer Steve Pilcher and Art, Sets, and Environment Supervisor Don Shank created Finding Dory's environments. They used thematic design ele- ments and color schemes for each of four worlds they identified: the reef, empty space, a kelp forest, and the human world. Comforting circles, oen intertwined, in rainbow colors make the reef feel like a safe place. Hues in grays and blues provide visual gradations in the water and heighten the loneliness of the empty space. Golden kelp flowing in rhythmic shapes in the greenish water mark the ocean outside the MLI as a somewhat friendly and safe place, but alien compared to the reef. By contrast, the human world inside the MLI has water only in small areas. That scary world has straight lines – horizontal and vertical – and many containers. And, the colors are those of concrete, met- al, glass, and PVC pipe. THE COLORFUL REEF PROVIDES A SAVE HAVEN FOR DORY, NEMO, AND NEMO'S FATHER, MARLIN.