Almost everyone has seen at least one Pixar movie, whether it was "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" or "Inside Out." As audiences, we get swept up in the stories and emotions of the movies -- so we don't usually think about the process that went into making the movies, besides maybe knowing a few celebrity voice actors. But at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts, my sister and I got to see everything that happens behind-the-scenes at the world premiere of "The Science Behind Pixar" exhibit.
About the Exhibit
The exhibit was hugely popular, and was open from June 28, 2015, until Jan. 10, 2016. On the last day of 2015, we arrived at the Museum of Science around 1:30 p.m. and already all of the remaining tickets for the Pixar exhibit were sold out (through 8:40 p.m., with tickets for entry every 10 minutes). Determined to see the exhibit before it closed, I ended up buying a museum membership, and my sister and I reserved tickets for two days later. It was definitely worth it.
Created by the Museum of Science and Pixar, locally sponsored by Microsoft and funded by Google, the National Science Foundation and others. The exhibit was impressive. After a quick 10-minute video introduction played briefing the audience on the "Pixar Pipeline," you moved into an interactive exhibit where all the steps in the pipeline had video interviews, simulations, demonstrations, and many photo opportunities. All of the exhibit's elements highlighted how Pixar's creativity is only possible through the intersection of art, science, computer engineering, and math.
What is the Pixar Pipeline?
In short, the Pixar Pipeline is the process they developed to bring films to life.
1. Story and Art: The story is what starts everything. From here, concept drawings are made and then main characters are turned into sculptures.
2. Modeling: The sculptures are scanned into computers, which create rough 3D models. Digital artists and computer scientists then fine tune the models to be programmable.
3. Rigging: This is where movement begins. Rigging is where engineers decide what points need to move and by how much, in order to make characters run, walk, fly and swim.
4. Surfaces: Because shapes are already set, surfaces is where color, texture, and patterns are added to it all.
5. Sets and Cameras: Like a live-action movie, directors have to decide how to best tell the story with adjustments to the camera view and angle. Virtual cameras show different parts of the virtual 3D worlds.
6. Animation: This is where acting comes in, as animators give each character their unique actions, reactions, expressions, and movements. They don't worry about all of the specific elements doing all the right movements (for example, making sure Merida's hair reacts how it should when she walks), but that comes next.
7. Simulation: This adds computer-automated motion to make the film start coming together. Of course, computer-automated doesn't mean "no work." This means that calculus and physics especially come in handy, like knowing how the motion of springs work (which is how they programmed Merida's hair to bounce).
8. Lighting: This step is critical because the lighting of a scene can completely change the mood and believability. Remember the dark Memory Dump of "Inside Out," and likewise, the bright Headquarters where Joy and the other emotions lived? The lighting step is really just coloring all of the pixels the right color to make shadows and highlights appear, Pixar has developed their own Lighting Equation (a playground for calculus fans).
9. Rendering: This is the last, but most tedious part of the whole process. Computers are on 24/7 turning the virtual 3D scenes into 2D images, and because in an animated film there are 24 images (frames) per second, there are millions of frames to "render" for an entire film. This is where sometimes quality is adjusted for considerations of time, such as in "Cars" where there are high-definition details of Lightning McQueen, but in the background, the cars watching in the stands have almost no detail aside from shape and basic color.
Truly an Inspiration
Pixar is a great company known for their iconic movies, and all of the work they put into their movies is amazing. The Pixar Pipeline they established was groundbreaking, having they developed it as they went, starting with "Toy Story" in 1995. The creators behind Pixar remind us that as seemingly unrelated as math, science and art, and theater are, sometimes the best way to innovate is by crossing disciplines and bringing together diverse people who are very multi-talented.
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