Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/759864
n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6 c g w 1 3 Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson, is large, arrogant, confidant, and a charming trickster. He walks with a swagger. "We pushed his proportions to convey power and charm," says Mack Kablan, animation supervisor for Maui. He has two characteristics that make him especially unique: Using a magical fishhook and animation that pushes the character from one form into the other, he transforms into other characters – an iguana, a shark, a lizard, and a hawk. Secondly, he is tattooed with miniature versions of himself. These mini Mauis sometimes spring into action, becoming Maui's alter ego and conscience. "The tattoos presented an interesting opportunity for CG animation to work with traditional animation," says Hyrum Osmond, co-head of animation for the film. "To be working in the trenches with Eric Goldberg, that was unique." Goldberg animated the 2D tattoos on Maui's body. Head of Characters and Technical Animation Carlos Cabral's team devised a method to blend the layers of 2D animation into the 3D character's skin without stretching as the character flexed his muscles. "We'd define regions where Eric could animate and go back and forth between 2D and 3D," Cabral says. Skin sliding and volume preservation maintained the integrity of Maui's anatomy. Maui and scale in this movie…. We have a song that takes place in a village that has thatched huts with XGen growth, women with long hair in grass skirts, vegetation all around. The geometric complexity is prob- ably ten times that of the city of [Big Hero 6's] San Fransokyo. We had a crazy amount of geometry on screen." FOUNDATION EFFECTS Knowing that the effects artists would have their hands full on the show, the team began working on ways to create and package some simulations to make them available to and manageable by more departments. They called these pre-produced simulations "foundation effects." Once created, layout artists and animators could select simulations from a library of foundation effects and add them to shots, and the simulations would move through the pipeline all the way to rendering without the effects depart- ment's involvement. "Foundation effects were a natural evo- lution," Driskill says. "Early on, layout artists would cobble together shots using simple shapes to give the director an idea of ex- plosions, splashes, and other simple effects that were not story beats. But, directors wanted to understand the timing and place- ment earlier in the pipeline. So, for Big Hero 6, we gave layout artists placeholder effects assembled from component pieces. Later, effects artists replaced those effects with final effects. With this film, the layout artists had a whole library of fully realized, fully renderable 3D effects that could be placed and rendered in final shots." Driskill gives an example of how an animator might use water splash foundation effects. "When the coconut-shelled Kakamora fell into the water, an animator could ani- mate the splashes at the same time," Driskill says. "The splashes would end up in the final rendered frame without a visual effects artist having to touch the shot." In addition to water splashes, founda- tion effects included waterspouts, smoke, pyroclastic plume, steam, cooking smoke, torches, and more. The artists used them in simple shots and for the more dramatic lava witch Te Kā. "We had 13 artists working for eight weeks in Houdini creating effects we knew would be in this film," West says. "Some were fluid sims, some particle sims, some were volumes. Mostly they were over black, but sometimes we would put Moana or Maui next to them for scale, or put them in a boat. We worked with the production de- and scale in this movie…. We have a song that takes place in a village that has thatched huts with XGen growth, women with long hair in grass skirts, vegetation all around. The geometric complexity is prob- ably ten times that of the city of 's] San Fransokyo. We had a crazy amount of geometry FOUNDATION EFFECTS Knowing that the effects artists would have their hands full on the show, the team began working on ways to create and package some simulations to make them available to and manageable by more departments. They called these pre-produced simulations "foundation effects." Once created, layout artists and wanted to understand the timing and place- ment earlier in the pipeline. So, for Big Hero 6, we gave layout artists placeholder effects assembled from component pieces. final rendered frame without a visual effects artist having to touch the shot." In addition to water splashes, founda- tion effects included waterspouts, smoke, Tamatoa