How Animators Created Toy Story 5 — From Marionette to Presto

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Hey this is ClassCreatives, and in this video we'll look into Pixar's creative process for the Toy Story series, and how it has evolved over the past several decades, and the impact it has had on the animation industry, along with what we can expect from its most recent installment. The franchise has won several Oscars, and ranked in billions of dollars globally, so we thought it might be fun to break down how it all started and how the animators made each toy uniquely entertaining based on their research, studying actual toys, and how they brought each one to life. We'll talk about how these 3D toys were modeled and animated, some of the technical limits they had to face with each movie, how they used real-life dolls and stuffed animals to create the final 3D characters, how even with the first Toy Story movie, live-action reference footage pushed stronger and original acting choices, and of course as always, we'll talk about the keyframe animation process. As you may already know, Toy Story was the world's first feature-length CG film, and we are going to start by diving directly into how they accomplished this. Through the initial animation test, they wanted to see not only how the models would move and how usable they would be for an entire feature-length runtime, but most importantly, how does the character and the storyboards transfer to the screen through movement? The test also sought out to prove whether an audience would sit through 70 minutes of computer animation. Once the actual rendered shots were presented to Disney, the doubts went away and the transition from 2D to 3D began. We can see in a dialogue test here with Woody using a line from Tom Hanks and Turner & Hooch as they sought out to find Woody's voice actor. Simple boxy shapes were modeled by hand, however more organic surfaces were built with NURBS modeling. They even used clay models of objects such as character heads that were scanned into the computer with the digitizer wand. By scanning the surface of the clay model, the computer would draw surfaces between the points. Due to the limitations at the time for portraying humans, they were often in the dark and many shots only included their hands, legs, or feet. It wouldn't be until the Incredibles at Pixar would venture more into the 3D human model. And even the dog was limited to just flat textures instead of fur. Lots of assets were reused. Props were reused in other sets to populate shots. Sid's room had a lot of messy set dressing with cups and random objects placed to clutter it up. It's fascinating to see Pete Docter explain how 3D animation works and breaking down the graph editor and pulling tangents to create weight with a rough 3D rig setup on what was at the time a state of the art SGI workstation. Pete breaks down the concept of rough blocking where starting with thumbnails gave him the storytelling poses, where he would then move to blocking in the 3D character by moving the character's body parts with what would be equivalent of just using a channel box in Maya today with no visible controllers. Getting the pantomime acting in first was critical before adding the face, which plus the body movements, just as how genuine 3D animation is done today. [00:03:01] Speaker 2: Uh, nothing. Uh, nothing. I'm sure Andy was just a little excited. That's all. Too much cake and ice cream I suppose. It's just a mistake. [00:03:09] Speaker 1: Their system was designed so that anyone who had never animated before could easily transition to the new medium. This was critical since most of the animators are coming from a completely 2D hand drawn background. It's crazy to see what they were able to accomplish with quadruped animals like Scud and the creepy mutant baby face toy from Sid's room. Even way back then they cheated the camera pushing Woody into the ground to get just the right camera heights in the final cinematic camera, ensuring that what the audience saw was exactly what they wanted, ignoring a 3D space perspective view. Swapping character rigs were also used with the parachuting army men to get the shots they needed, again playing to the final cinematic camera that the audience sees. Animating camera plates and compositing tricks were used, as well as staging camera moves so shots could be cut correctly. In Andy's room, shots of all the toys became a lot more complex when it came to staging. Video reference was also used heavily and seeing Pete Docter act as an army man is what gave them the ability to bring the green army men to life so convincingly. Let's take a minute to enjoy these throwback shots to their storyboard to pre-production layout and final to see how ahead of its time Pixar was and how the workflow still remains intact to this day. Is it your dream to someday work for Disney or Pixar Animation Studios? If not, feel free to skip ahead to the next section or stick around if you're just curious about what they look for and artists they want to hire. We create videos like this one to not only show you how 3D animated features are made but to also give you a chance to learn the exact workflows necessary for your career or even your own personal projects. Most feature animation studios will want my experience or something equivalent if you're an animator or a ZBrush or equivalent for character sculpting. Several of our instructors actually work for Disney, Pixar, and Sony and you can learn from them in our courses covering everything from animation and rigging to environment and game design and character creation. We'll have some links in the description if you're interested in taking your art in a [00:05:14] Speaker 2: new direction. [00:05:27] Speaker 1: Another impressive feat these animators achieved was the fact that for the most part secondary animations were not possible so things like clothing had to be animated by hand as cloth sim back then simply was not possible. When it comes to designing the 3D sets, 3D naturally likes straight lines but the designers wanted to break it up and soften it by rounding corners and softening things with lighting. The artist also aimed to only add the detail that was necessary as CG was not capable of creating photorealism at the time. They did what they could to get cheesy cement rock textures on a trash can at the Dinoco gas station. They had lived in environment spaces adding scuff marks, splats, dirt scuff marks and more. So environment models were not sterile but had divots and scratches to have more character and be more believable. They even went as far as burning a real toy with a magnifying glass to get real life reference for textures which was later used for the scene where Sid burns Andy's head. It's fun to see how Pizza Planet was originally Pizza Putt, a miniature golf place, but when Buzz became a spaceman, it became a spaceport instead. As we'll see, the visual leap from Toy Story 1 to Toy Story 2 isn't as drastic as the leap between the other two movies. As we stated, the biggest leap was the ability that Pixar developed to render humans. The animation test seen here for Toy Story 2 showed improved models, acting and animation complexity. The marionette test was so convincing, some couldn't believe it was keyframed by hand. These tests were critical for the Woody's Roundup scenes, where the characters were rendered in color and the backgrounds in black and white. Then scenes were put through a process to make the footage look old, which is called the kinescope effect. Bullseye shows vast amounts of improvement over the movement from Scud and Toy Story 1, not only capturing more natural movements, but the ability to convey a ton more emotion. The animators imagined Bullseye to move like a big floppy dog, and a lot of the tests proved that this approach worked extremely well. They weren't sure at the time if Bullseye would need to speak, so they even did a few dialogue tests with him to ensure he would be capable just in case. One of the tests where Bullseye's saddle falls down was so successful that John Lasseter wrote it in the film so it could be used. One test we can see here was to see if the animators wanted to animate her hair, which in the end they chose not to do. Walk tests prove a lot when it comes to personality and practicality, and Jesse's body is actually the same as Woody's lower body with a few small scaling tweaks made. They used Danny DeVito as a reference for Al's personality and movements. [00:07:52] Speaker 3: Like in all Pixar movies, video reference was a big part in getting the movements of characters genuine and just right. Like in all Pixar movies, video reference was a big part in getting the movements of characters genuine and just right. [00:08:15] Speaker 1: The models from Toy Story 1 were refined for the sequel. Human models were much improved with the ability to add pores, wrinkles, and blemishes on the skin surfaces, which were developed and first used on their animated short Jerry's game. A lot of the assets in the movies were reused as well, to save production time, such as Zerg's Planet being a reused dry riverbed set in Ant Island from A Bug's Life, which was reshaded and relit. For Andy's neighborhood, they reused plants and bushes from A Bug's Life as well, and the garage sale even contained old props from the original Toy Story. Andy's room was very similar except for the wallpaper being changed to having stars and a bit more space on the ground for action shots. Al's display room for all of his collectible display cases, his office filled with box toys, his toy store the Toy Barn, and the city that leads up to Al's building, were all created by hand and populated in 3D. There were many more elaborate sets created for part 2, as Pixar's ability to build in 3D scaled. [00:09:22] Speaker 3: In just a few hours, you'll be sitting around a campfire with Andy making delicious hot schmoes. They're called s'mores, Buzz. Right, right, of course. [00:09:31] Speaker 1: Perhaps one of the biggest waves we remember in the 3D animation community when Toy Story 3 was released was the infamous Carlos Bena Buzz Lightyear Spanish dance test. With improvements in modeling detail and rigging controls, animators were able to get a ton more expression and polish. The Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 characters, for example, only had 3 controls each in the brow, versus the Toy Story 3 characters could have up to 20 to 25 controls. For Buzz, they limited the brow controls so he would maintain the toy look from the first two movies. The 11 year gap between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 allowed improvements in lighting, rendering, particles, simulations, modeling, and more, resulting in a much larger visual improvement than what was seen from Toy Story 1 to Toy Story 2. Even in the animation test alone, the additional fidelity can easily be seen here. The models for the toys were built from the ground up, with programs like Maya and even ZBrush. And they made conscious decisions on what elements of the characters should be kept and which should be scrapped. Human characters started to look a lot more realistic compared to what was possible in the first two movies. Especially when it came to their clothes and hair getting realistic physics and their skin had photorealistic shading. The skin also introduced subsurface scattering that they developed in Ratatouille. All of these advancements led to all the characters in the movie to be far more convincing visually. They created a massive amount of new characters and toys for the third movie, all with unique designs and movements to enhance their personalities to feel like toys that were alive. It's awesome to see the attention and detail that the artist took for each supporting toy character through various animation tests, just as if they were hero characters. In particular, the Ken and Barbie tests are really fun, as they have just enough movement to feel alive but still doll-like. When designing the new character Lotso, the designer used plush toys for reference, and they went as far as cutting pieces of fabric to determine where the stitch lines would fall as they designed the character. The early plush prototypes would help the team with his final design, but they also helped the animators with additional reference to study how a plush toy would move. Technological advancements from movies before Toy Story 3 such as The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Monsters Inc. all had a big part in the visual realism. [00:11:49] Speaker 2: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Buzz, look, an alien! Where? Ah! [00:11:57] Speaker 1: With Toy Story 4, artists were now free to be creative with how limited and doll-like movements would be, and how human they were to get the perfect blend of both worlds. They focused more on the concept of physical limitations of specific toys, and then adapting the animation to the toy's anatomy and materials. They applied the idea of high-status people not needing to move, blink, or expend as much energy for the personality of Gabby Gabby. With the improvements in technology, visual storytelling was enhanced. They were able to use this for Bo Peep's skirt to add to her character. She had the ability to adapt her skirt to be a dress or a cape, and they were able to accomplish a much more realistic version of her. To bring Bo Peep's active personality to life, animators studied gymnasts, dancers, and figure skaters as reference for her movements to convey genuine acting and body weight mechanics. For Forky, they intentionally animated him with very limited movements, so that he would feel as if a child animated him with very few gestures. With Duke Kaboom, they animated him with his stance in mind. So he's posed to always fit on a bike, and due to this his walk is slightly off. He only has two hand poses, and it was Keanu Reeves' idea to have him use a lot of poses as he talks. The ventriloquist's doll body drove everything with the head dragging behind. There was a crazy leap in animation controls, with over 7,000 controllers in Woody for Toy Story 4, compared to the 596 controllers in Toy Story 1. Once again, additional detail was given to the models of the toys. With Bo Peep in particular, the artist studied porcelain toys and their firing process. They looked at how the firing process smoothed out hard edges and resulted in small shapes like fingers melting into each other. They also made sure to make the dolls feel worn down, with wear and tear, and even small cracks. They used broken porcelain video reference to study how it breaks to apply it directly to Bo Peep. Dozens of versions of Forky were made physically by the animators, and his final design was actually based on one of the physical models. They even went as far as using photoreal poured rubber shader material for the ground and the playground scene. They photographed the toys in real world locations, to get the lighting on them just right. Similar to internships with Disney animation, animators at Pixar will train and create acting tests during their internship using several characters from production to hone in their craft. [00:14:30] Speaker 2: Oh ho ho ho ho, scuse me! Sorry! We were only making the movie here! [00:14:36] Speaker 1: Throughout the years, we've gathered a few of these from animators who would go on to be big long time contributors at the studio. And it's fun to see their beginnings as interns at the starts of their careers. [00:14:47] Speaker 2: I'm boring you. [00:14:53] Speaker 1: They'll create unique storytelling situations for the characters, and gain valuable experience and feedback from leads and veteran animators. Shots can range from physicality-based motions that convey weight, to pantomime shots telling unique storylines, with gear changes to show genuine personality acting changes. [00:15:10] Speaker 3: You could go bigger, you could go bigger, you could go bigger and Jesse, you're perfect. [00:15:16] Speaker 1: As simple as a walk might seem, capturing personality and weight with a genuine set of emotions layered on top of the cycle, can be an extremely important addition to an animator's demonstration of abilities. These shots are not only useful for animators' personal demo reels for future career roles, but also are critical to helping them stand out during their internship showcasing their range of acting abilities with 3D characters to land full-time positions at the studio. So capturing the unique set of acting abilities with various types of characters and situations is really important to open doors for further opportunities. Well that about wraps up this video on the history of Pixar's Toy Story. The leap in technology and attention to detail from Toy Story to what we see today in 3D animation has taken massive leaps over the decades. Some argue that the storyline would have ended perfectly with Toy Story 3, and yet here we are on the fifth installment. What are your thoughts on the franchise? Should they continue to keep telling new stories about toys? We hope you enjoyed our insights and the research that we did for this video diving into tons of Instagram posts, interviews, and documentaries to highlight Pixar's animations processed together. We did it the old fashioned way with research and lots of notes and typing out our script. Pixar most likely has yet another massive release on their hands with Toy Story 5. Are you going to see it in theaters on release day? Or are you sitting this one out and keeping Toy Story 3 as the perfect ending to the trilogy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe, and we'll see you in the next one. Perfect! [00:17:12] Speaker ?: Thank you.