Cartoons are loved not only by children, but also by adults. When watching, have you ever wondered how animators model a character's hair? Or how long does it take to teach him to move and portray human emotions? We watched the bright cartoons of recent years "Encanto" and "Soul" and noted the revolutionary changes in the schedule.
Encanto
The story of a magical family
The most difficult part of the work of the Encanto animators was the creation of the curls of the main characters – the Latin American Madrigal family. Today, the Disney team has made great progress in developing technologies that mimic hair. The Tonic and Quicksilver programs allow you to group strands, direct them in the right direction, change them when interacting with the elements – snow, wind, water. But in Encanto, the developers went further and created an individual hairstyle for each character.
Encanto is the first Disney project that involves all 12 hair structures: straight, loose, curly, and so on. Even the direction of the curl was taken into account, because in real life the curls are not symmetrical. And if they are constructed the same way, it will look artificial.
Soul
A story about the life, death and new life of a music teacher
Pixar animators volunteered to teach the characters to play musical instruments. And the result amazed the audience: the hands of the main character, jazz pianist Joe, flutter over the keys. The first step that helped Pixar achieve credibility was working with reference frames. Every detail in the animation repeats the movements of a real musician.
To simulate the game, the team developed a digital piano into which music files were "uploaded". The piano "played" to the beat of the music, and blue and red keys corresponding to the character's left and right hands lit up on the screen. The flexibility of the fingers has been enhanced thanks to the 292 controllers in each of Joe's hands, which is why his play looks so easy.
