Pixar Animation Pipeline

Pixar Animation Studios, an American Computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation file studio based in Emeryville,California in the United States. Pixar soon became a subsidiary of Walt Disney Company in 2006 since the studio had been founded in 1986. It has earned 24 Academy Awards, 6 Golden Globes and 3 Grammys and its film have generated over $6.3billion dollars worldwide. Pixar animation studios is best known for its CGI-animated feature films which are created with the the use of PhotoRealistic RenderMan and it’s own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering API (Application programming interface) used to generate high-quality images.

I chanced upon Pixar’s production pipeline on the web and I would want to share it with everyone!
To better relate to my favorite animation from Pixar, I will be using Toy Story 3 as a reference. Behind-The-Scenes of Toy Story 3.

(Left: Director Lee Unkrich (center) discussing on the “ToyStory3″ poster) (Right: Character development team introducing the new character, Lots-O’-Hugging Bear)

Pixar approaches based on story driven process towards developing their animation. They uses traditional skills like storytelling,drawing,painting and sculpture. This way, it allows the work to be easily shared and they would want to keep it informal and encourages experimentation.
The story process is moved forward by designs for the world and the characters of the film. Every film has its own specialty and originality, thus building unique world is at heart of animation. It gives a whole new experience and look and feel to the audience. Of course, there is a limit to what the characters can do. As mentioned, characters have to be unique and therefore, they have things they want and need that pushes the limits of the world.

(Left: Toy Story 3′s first script reading ) (Right: My favorite character,Woody sketched by storyboard artist Bob Luckey!)

Pixar alternate cycles of planning and implementation and it is all in all a 4 year long design process:
Planning- all four years
* story,art, editorial
Implementation- the last two years
* Editorial
* Modeling, articulation, shading, digital paint
* Layout, set dressing, animation
The goal of the planning process is a solid story reel.

Modeling and Articulation deals with shape and how the shape moves which are primarily 3D Skills. Modeling and Articulation deals with the shape of the object and how it can be moved. Pixar recognizes modeling as sculpturing inside the computer that creates static shape of the object. Whereas, Articulation or rigging provides the ‘hinges’ in the model that allow it to be positioned which simply means that the rigged model can be posed in the hands of the animator.

2D skills are Shading and painting that works on surfaces. Shading and Painting deals with the surface color and texture of the object. Pixar uses a procedural shading which is a computer program that represents how light interacts with a surface. Digital painting allows textures or other paint marks to be applied directly on surfaces.

(Left: The animators having a discussion on the story)
(Right: Art story meeting)

Layout sets up the basic blocking for character and camera movement.
Set dressing makes sure each shot is well framed by the sets and props. Lighting lights the shot to focus the action and to help create the mood.
(Left: Story review)
(Right: Screening at the Pixar’s screening hall)
(Left: Best friends; Woody and Buzz Lightyear)

Animation uses the hinges in the object’s rig – avars or articulated variables- to change it’s location and position over time. Animators are actors who can breakout a performance into poses. Each pose attempts to capture the essence of the character’s thoughts and feelings.
(Left: Stereoscopic Supervisor Bob Whitehill working on Woody and Jessie) (Right: Stereoscopic Supervisor Bob Whitehill working on Buzz LightYear)

Rendering is the final step in the implementation pipeline. Rendering is like taking a digital picture of the world inside the computer. The renderer produces a 2D image of the 3D scene in the computer. A film consists of 120,000 or more rendered 2D images, each on screen for a 24th of a second.

(Left: Animation team having their review on the computer Avid) (Right: Tom Hanks voices over, Woody)
(Left: Tim Allen voices over, Buzz LightYear) (Right: Director Lee Unkrich working on a scene)

After reading and even sharing with you, I have a much better idea of how animation works and the steps to produce an animation. Hope you liked it and learn something too!