Zootopia

[Shelton]

I saw Zootopia on Thursday night. I went in with mixed feelings, but really enjoyed the movie. I was amazed at the number of characters and what it would take to rig them. From a technical aspect I think Disney did a great job.

 

Steve

 

By the way I go to all the 3d animated films, well I did not go see Norm of the North

[Rodney]

Hoping to see it Monday.

As for Disney rigging... I've been trying for some time to find out more about the dRig that Disney has been using but information is scarce. There are quite a few technical papers on various aspects of Disney's rigging and simulation but they haven't released to the wild much about the dRig.

Here's the basic paper: LINK

 

When I first saw Greg Smith listed as being involved with the dRig (and various other papers) I couldn't help but wonder if that wasn't the Greg Smith that hung with us here for awhile with various theories of modeling and rigging. That's a pretty common name... so quite unlikely but... can't help but wonder. If it is the same guy, that might be ironic justice for the cold shoulder he got from a lot of folks who thought they knew better'n him 'bout rigging. I guess what I'm saying is that if these guys aren't one and the same... they should be! His main focus for tutorials was 'common body' modeling and animation which would fit right in with articulating a variety of characters on a grand scale.

 

P.S. It's hard to get good search results based on "drig" and "Greg Smith"!

He did/does go by another name as well here and elsewhere online and the age differences might suggest that one could be the other's son.

 

Added: Regardless of who he is I see that the Greg Smith associated with dRig is in fact involved in 'Zootopia'. Greg is/was Head of Characters and Technical Animation on the film.

[largento]

Went yesterday morning and really enjoyed it. Fantastic work from everyone involved. Story works well, characters have surprising depth and the environment is astonishing. Waay too much to see in a single viewing. Lots of gags, but also some unexpected serious notes. My sister took my nephews to a screening last Monday and they were frightened by one sequence. They are at an age where scary music scares them. :-)

 

Animation is great and all the technical stuff is jaw-dropping.

 

I chose to see it in 3D and had a great time watching it.

 

If you go to the Zootopia website, there's some animation on the screen of the two main characters trying to mug for a selfie. I was astonished by just how good it is. Watch as the fox, Nick Wilde, pushes down on Judy Hopps' head. Not only does the skin and fur react perfectly, but you really believe the weight of the push and the resistance. http://movies.disney.com/zootopia

[detbear]

Disney.....as well as the other top animation houses are no longer limited to the types of rigging we deal with here.

Their rigs consist of multiple systems is one. From what I understand, lengthy input comes from the animators and

the rigs are tweaked for the moods/ expressions of each sequence. The squashing/ stretching/ morphing is not nearly

as limited from what I see.

[Rodney]

Just returned from seeing the film.

Disney is at the top of their game.

 

It's pretty impressive how layered the film is character and story-wise and I didn't even attempt to consider the layering of detail on the models and sets themselves which is what we've come to expect from Disney. I just went along for the ride and enjoyed the story as it played out. The whole aspect of the mystery to be solved played out well... something we don't get to see often (especially in animated films) and rarely done well even in live action.

 

This will be a great movie to study in depth when released on DVD.

[Shelton]

http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/04/fur-technology-makes-zootopias-bunnies-believable/

 

Very interesting

[Rodney]

Something worth noting with regard to the research Disney did for hair simulation was how they appear to focus on hair at the edges of a shape (i.e. those hairs that alter the profile). My sense is that hair not affecting the profile can generally be simulated without costly calculations to include allowing a hair map/decal to appear in those locations rather than simulated strands of hair.

 

I'm currently running into an odd behavior with hair in A:M where only about 1/2 of a patch is rendering the hair.

More than likely some setting I adjusted that is effecting the final render but... a mystery I'm looking into.

 

Update: Starting from scratch again the rendering problem went away.

A:M still has one of the most versatile hair systems available and it comes with the program... no plugin required.

[Rodney]

Here's a bit more of a rabbit-like hair...

[Rodney]

Here's a 45 minute documentary on the making of Zootopia.

Well worth the watch!

 

xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3pF9owYlRI

 

 

Some take aways:

- Research is important

- ideas (stories, plots, characters, etc.) continuously change

- It's good to continuously reinvent and accept feedback before the actual production process begins.

Not stated but apparent is that production is the execution of those firmed up ideas.

Lots more than that but... watch the documentary and see for yourself.

 

I think it should be readily apparent that the major changes made to the movie resulted in a much better movie.

[Rodney]

I thought this was pretty cool.... puppetry imitating 3D animation...

 

xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oN6SN_TnFY

 

Zootopia... Wreck It Ralph... etc. etc.