Exquisite Danger

PIXAR ARTISTS SEND A ‘BOY’ AND A ‘DOG’ ON A COMING-OF-AGE QUEST IN THE AMERICAN WEST

BY BARBARA ROBERTSON

8 CGW NOVEMBER. DECEMBER 2015 he film begins with rain falling on Aspen leaves, dripping from pine needles, and splashing on rocks. We see a farmhouse planted in a meadow. Clawtooth Moun- tains hover in the distance. It’s a beautiful, pastoral setting. But, there is an unsettling undercurrent of danger and a struggle for survival. The pioneers are vulnerable. The land surrounding their homestead is so vast it could even dwarf a family of dinosaurs. And, it does. In the capable hands of artists at Pixar Animation Studios, it becomes easy to believe that dinosaurs didn’t become extinct. Instead, herbivores, like this family of homesteading Apatosaurus, became farmers. Carnivores, like a family of T. rexes we’ll meet later in the film, became cattle ranchers. And raptors? They became rustlers. Peter Sohn directed the Disney/Pixar film The Good Dinosaur, the second animated fea- ture created at Pixar and released by Disney this year. Pixar doesn’t shy away from emotional stories, as the two 2015 films –Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur – attest. But the two films couldn’t be more different.Inside Out (see “A Frame of Mind,” May/June 2015) took viewers inside a child’s mind, a brilliantly colored and brightly lit emotional world filled with reflections. The Good Dinosaur sends a child outside, on a real and metaphorical passage through an expansive, painterly landscape. His journey of emotional growth plays out in nature. The child is Arlo, an 11-year-old Apatosaurus dinosaur voiced by Raymond Ochoa. Arlo is a goofy, fearful, 18-foot-tall child, the baby of the family, who stays close to his father. Until, one day, Arlo loses his dad in a tragic accident and he falls into a rushing river. The river propels the fatherless child into a wilderness: a huge, terrifying world he’d never seen before. In this film, nature is the antagonist. “This movie is about facing your fears and finding your way through,” Sohn says. Less fearful in these wild open spaces is a second character, Spot, a feral, six-year-old human boy who Arlo meets along his way. Spot is an orphan who has lived on his own in the wilderness. He barks and howls. He moves on all fours. He doesn’t speak. “This is ‘a boy and his dog’ story,” Sohn says. Arlo, the dinosaur, who acts like a human, is the boy. Spot is the dog – a human boy who acts like a wild animal. Pixar • “Spot is everything Arlo is not,” Sohn says. SPOT, ARLO, AND THE BEAUTIFUL CLAWTOOTH MOUNTAINS. “And Arlo becomes fond of the little kid. It’s a ©2015 Disney NOVEMBER. DECEMBER 2015 CGW 9 whole. We wanted Pete [Sohn] to have the ability to tell the story with the best assemblage of shots. We would integrate the modules and then light and dress them differently so the au- dience never saw the same river.” Pixar’s ability to draw on a 30,000-core renderfarm made it possible to handle the 17TB of data churned up by the rivers. “The water was the thing that scared all of us the most,” says Susan Fong, global technology and rendering supervisor. “We had to re-think our approach. My team wrote tools to help the effects team understand the scalability so we could handle the water and the simulation of vegetation. These were high- data scenarios. It took between 50,000 and 100,000 CPU hours to run the sims.” AT TOP, SET DRESSERS WORKED FROM USGS TERRAIN MAPS TO CREATE THE VAST LANDSCAPE. AT To render the white water, BOTTOM, THE CG RIVER FLOWS THROUGH 200 SHOTS. the effects team decided to use volumes. “Before, we did white water fun, sincere, emotional story of A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT early studies at different times with points,” Reisch says. “The friendship and discovery.” of day to show the lighting and white water in this film is almost DP Sharon Calahan, Produc- Arlo’s first terrifying moment how much we can see under- all volumes. We’d break down tion Designer Harley Jessup, with the antagonist happens water. Once we knew we were the detail in those volumes so and Sets Supervisor David when he falls into the raging river. all pushing toward the same we could store them on disk. Munier and their teams of artists “The river propels us into the goal, we worked with technical With multiple levels of resolu- worked together to create the journey and provides Arlo with directors to make sure we had tion in one file, we could pick environment through which a means to get back home,” the tools. There was quite a bit higher or lower resolution based Arlo and Spot travel. They Reisch says. “It’s his yellow brick of development.” on the camera.” coordinated with teams led by road. But beyond that, Pete Pixar has built its effects Placing the river into the set Effects Supervisor Jon Reisch [Sohn] insisted that the river pipeline around Side Effects was an art in itself. To give Sohn and Simulation and Crowds itself reflect Arlo and Spot’s Software’s Houdini, and the plenty of elbowroom for location Supervisor Gordon Cameron, emotions. When they first meet, team used that software pro- scouting, the sets team adapted who heightened the emotional the river is churning. When gram’s Flip solver for the river. To approximately 65,000 square setting with motion. The river, they connect, the river is glassy conquer the problem of simulat- miles of US Geological Survey trees, clouds, grass – everything smooth. This was the biggest ef- ing a river that ran for hundreds (USGS) terrain data. Ultimately, in the environment moves in fects show we’ve done, and the of miles, the team divided the although USGS data provided sync with story points. river was the biggest challenge.” work into manageable chunks. the topology and the height “This film was an extraordi- Thirty-one technical directors “We did close to seven data, the artists would change nary collaboration between art, created the effects – twice that or eight simulations, each a the terrain in Autodesk’s Maya lighting, and all the technical of any previous film at Pixar. And quarter- to a half-mile in length,” as necessary for story points. teams,” Jessup says. “We worked of the 900 effects shots in the Reisch says. “It took half a dozen “In the past, we’d build fore- closer together than on any feature, 200 were of the river. To layers to get the surface, and grounds and use matte paintings film I’ve worked on at Pixar. I understand how the river should more than that for the churning and matte-painted clouds to don’t think the film would have look and behave, Reisch worked rivers. So, we’d parallelize at ev- extend the world,” Calahan says. worked unless the settings were with Jessup and Calahan. ery stage. We’d surface in small “For this film, we used the USGS exquisite and nature was a big “Sharon [Calahan] painted chunks and then reassemble survey data and procedurally antagonist.” color strips and did pastels – clustered sims into a coherent created detail using the “wonder

10 CGW NOVEMBER. DECEMBER 2015 moss” technology from Brave world of Europe, and that was color and beauty for inspiration. detail to give the impression of a (see “The Royal Treatment,” fun, but this was fantastic.” Some for time of day. Some forest, for example. She wanted June/July 2012). And, we re-did Jessup says. “It was exciting for a setting, for mood, for the set dressers to mass our approach to volumetric to wrap our heads around the moments when the characters together values and colors to clouds. We wanted procedural project of building sets that interact – rain, sunset. Some for create a flow without the chaos clouds in every shot.” were 50 or 60 or 100 miles in scope, for the big-sky feeling, of true reality. Arlo’s journey takes him from diameter, and then detailing the see-forever clear area. I “I tried to find ways to use the Snake River Canyon on the them in a way that made it wasn’t trying to create finished colors and determine what to border of Wyoming and Idaho possible to stylize, control, and paintings, just observations of emphasize,” Calahan says. “We north to Montana – a big-sky exaggerate the environment to light and color, memories of had five different species of trees. area centered in the Rocky capture the awesomeness of sound, cold, heat. Sometimes If we mixed them together, all the Mountains that includes Jackson nature, the power of it. We were I would paint single ideas – scenes would look the same.” Hole (Wyoming), Grand Teton always stylizing, simplifying in flowers floating on a river. We There are no matte paintings National Park, Yellowstone Na- a way that a landscape painter call them haiku shots – brief in the film, but many of Cala- tional Park, and multiple national might simplify.” moments of visual poetry.” han’s paintings are translated forests and wilderness areas. They call the style “painterly As production neared and literally into scenes. “Pete [Sohn] wanted Arlo al- realism.” It owes much to Cala- final decisions about the look In fact, the sets team used one ways moving into new territory we han’s artistic vision. of the film needed to be nailed of Calahan’s paintings for an early hadn’t seen before,” Jessup says. “This is my third film with down, Calahan created a style test that helped sell the idea of With an elevation of 13,770 Sharon [Calahan],” Jessup says. guide to give the artists in the using the USGS terrain data. feet, Grand Teton Mountain, “The collaboration with Sharon sets department rules for how “Sharon had done a painting the highest point in the Teton and the lighting department to create environments that of Red Canyon,” says David Range, became the model for was extraordinary, but because were believable, dangerous, Munier, sets supervisor. “I found the film’s Clawtooth Mountains. of her experience in the area, visceral, but not photoreal. where it was located in the Arlo’s family homestead is set she was also a great guide.” “I wanted to reduce the USGS terrain, extracted that at the base of the Teton Range, Calahan, who had spent chaos of realism into something data into Maya, put the camera with the stylized Clawtooth holidays painting landscapes that captures light and color the in place to match her painting, Mountains in the distance. in the area Arlo would journey, way the eye sees,” Calahan says. and from there, a set artist put provided those paintings as well “We spent a lot of time creating in textures on the ground and FIFTY MILES OF ELBOWROOM as new ones for the film. a set-dressing structure. If the procedural vegetation.” “I’m happiest when I’m out- set looks painterly, I’m thrilled.” To add the vegetation, the set “Before this film, I explored doors painting,” Calahan says. Rather than individual trees, dressers would paint areas that kitchens in Paris and the racing “I’d do paintings showing the Calahan wanted only enough told Pixar’s Renderman where

THE SURPRISING, PET-COLLECTING STEGOSAURUS CAMOUFLAGES ITSELF WITH AN ASPEN TREE PATTERN.

NOVEMBER. DECEMBER 2015 CGW 11 EFFECTS ARTISTS USED A PROPRIETARY CROWD SYSTEM TO ANIMATE THE FIREFLIES.

to place previously designed antagonist that is rich and alive. 15. We can say ‘light summer of birds, the cattle, and the and modeled trees, rocks, At first we thought we’d do this breeze’ or ‘gusting wind,’ and fireflies. For small-scale crowds, bushes, and so forth. When a only for assets close to camera. we’ve set the wind level even if the animation team used a set met the river, effects artists Then we realized we could use we change trees.” clip-mixing tool. would place the river, and then it for almost everything without The leaves, however, move “We can scale up to a few the set dressers would place increasing the cost.” procedurally. hundred agents,” Cameron says. vegetation, rocks, and beach Proprietary simulation tools “If we were to simulate down “We have tools for managing as appropriate around the made this possible. to the granular level, it would be and sequencing the pre-assem- riverbank. “It’s a hierarchical curve very expensive,” Cameron says. bled clips. It’s non-procedural “In some cases, we could simulation tuned for dealing “So, we can activate procedures animation.” get away with no interaction with lots of geometry,” Cameron that have the same wind levels. between the water and the set,” says. “We built rigging into the The leaves on the trees, the hair SPOT-ON ANIMATION Reisch says. “In other cases, we trees and used that rigging for on the characters all respect needed to control where the simulation. We could also sim- whatever the weather – the Turning CG models into be- water interacted. The set that ulate on top of the rigging and wind level – is at the moment. lievable, emotional characters interacted with the water was then rebind the geometry to the We blend everything together at for the film took the skills of 84 the same from shot to shot. The simulated rigging to have high render time. So, on a quiet day, animators. set dressers added rocks and so complexity.” you can see the grasses and the “The characters are very forth to change the look. I don’t The system is semi-implicit trees moving in a subtle way, and stylized, and that’s on purpose,” know how we could have done and spring-based. That is, it Spot’s hair is moving, as well.” Jessup says. “We wanted Arlo to the 200 river shots without this simulates on particles that Also adding richness and feel vulnerable in an authentic, modular approach.” move guide geometry around. motion to the environment awesome environment, so we The connection between the were flocks of birds, a herd of have an idealized realism for the MOVING IMAGES simulation data and how a “cattle,” and in one touching settings and a caricatured take tree moves is determined by sequence, fireflies. on the characters.” As it would in the real world, the weather level. “The fireflies emerge from a Arlo’s challenge for the vegetation added by the set “We have 20-odd terabytes field of grasses,” Cameron says. animators was the young dressers moves. Grass sways of simulation for different wind “In that shot, we had grass, flesh dinosaur’s weight. To meet in the wind. Breezes whisper levels for every asset,” Cameron and skin simulation on Arlo, the challenge, they referenced through the cottonwood trees. says. “For each of type of vege- vegetation moving, and fireflies, elephants: At the height of his “We wanted all these tation, we run simulations with too. It was tremendously fun to back, Arlo is 10 to 12 feet tall, elements in this enormously 15 different wind levels to create work on.” a height similar to that of an complex world – hero elements 30-second-long clips. When The studio uses two types adult elephant. Using Presto, and procedural background we set-dress a sequence, we of crowd simulation. A custom, Pixar’s proprietary animation elements – to be always pull on these clips as a starting brain-based procedural system software, and a Wacom Cintiq moving,” Cameron says. “This is point. We can say the weather created in Houdini handled tablet, lead animators would true to the idea of nature as an is four on a scale from one to large crowds such as the flocks draw atop footage of elephants

12 CGW NOVEMBER. DECEMBER 2015 filmed in a zoo, to understand transition from human boy to how those heavy animals trans- dog through acting. Because ferred weight as they moved. Spot doesn’t talk – he hasn’t Once the rules for transfer- seen another animal that talks ring weight were set, animators – the animators relied on facial could adjust the gait for age expressions and body move- and species. Arlo moved more ment to perform the character. quickly than his parents; the The imaginative idea in the film carnivores had a more aggres- is that the child had learned to sive gait. survive without human parents; Special rigs gave animators he had learned from other ani- controls for Arlo’s long neck mals – dogs, wolves, raccoons, and his tail. And, a new ability in squirrels, even frogs. Presto to see textures helped “As the animation came them place Spot’s hand when together, Pete landed on dogs the “dog” touched the “boy.” because they express compan- After the animators completed ionship and emotion while still a performance, the simulation being animalistic,” Harris says. team dialed in a volume simu- Even though Spot doesn’t lation to move Arlo’s skin and speak words, the animators muscles. sometimes had to work with As for Spot, quadrupeds a dialog track. In one pivotal always provide animators with scene, for example, Spot’s “di- complex problems, but turning alog” is a sniff. The scene takes a biped into a quadruped raised place on a sandy beach near the difficulty a notch. the river. Arlo has drawn in the

“When we first built Spot, he sand and created figures with (TOP TO BOTTOM) THE STORYBOARD, A PAINTING BY DP SHARON was standing upright like a boy,” sticks to represent his family. CALAHAN, THE PAINTERLY FINAL CG IMAGE. says Animator Mark Harris. “We Spot does the same. have a particular setup for rig- “He pushes some sand, looks ging humans. But when he was at his [stick figures], and buries the scene with Spot sniffing in the way they use their hands.” bipedal, he felt human. So, most the effigies,” Harris says. “Right only with his face. Then Sohn Often, animators want to cre- of the time he is on all fours. We after that he does this little sniff. suggest using a hand. ate the feeling that a character tried to not make him look like a That sniff was a half-animal, “I tried using his fingers, is thinking. The Spot animators little caveman boy.” half-human, self-conscious, and then settled on a mix of tried to do the opposite. Slightly changing the sad sniff. It was a tricky balance his fingers and the back of his “We simplified emotions, orientation of Spot’s legs between having him being too hand,” Harris explains. “We had especially in his face, to stay helped the animators, but they much a boy or too animalistic.” a lot of reference from different away from expressions that accomplished most of the At first, Harris tried to play animals, and the raccoon fit well made him look like he was thinking internally,” Harris says. “There are no complex brow shapes. We kept his pupils in the center of his eyes and let his head direct his attention. He’s the kind of character who doesn’t think about himself. All his attention is on the outside. If something grabs his eye, his whole attention goes to it. We took things people understand from dogs. A little tilt of the head. Open mouth with tongue hanging down.” To contrast Arlo and Spot, the team diagrammed the ANIMATORS REFERENCED DOGS AND WILD ANIMALS FOR SPOT’S PERFORMANCE. differences between the two.

NOVEMBER. DECEMBER 2015 CGW 13 RAPTOR BISONAUR RUSTLERS THREATEN ARLO AND SPOT.

When they meet, Arlo doesn’t As with simulating wind in the film in some ways, too. character above the ground.” know what Spot is, and he is through the trees and other And getting Arlo and Spot both As always, camera move- initially antagonistic. Spot, like vegetation, the effects crew in a shot and having them read ment supports the story’s a dog, understands Arlo is not surpassed their expectations. was a challenge. There were no emotion. harmful and sees that Arlo “We were nervous about easy shots in this film.” “When Arlo is home and safe, needs help. Spot shows Arlo the hero interaction with the Rihan and his team used we used a stable camera and how to catch food, how to take environment, especially when one lens kit based on physical moves inspired by machinery care of himself. the characters leave the trails cameras that they adjusted per and farming,” Rihan says. “In “Arlo sits and processes,” Har- and touch things,” Cameron sequence. the wild, we used handheld and ris says. “Spot goes after some- says. “But, we got better at “We had lots of wide angles Steadicam moves to reflect thing. Arlo is in the past or in the doing that and did more than and extremely long telephoto Arlo’s unease, and to allow us to future. Spot goes with the flow. we thought we could and that lenses,” Rihan says. “We could experience the environment.” At the beginning, Arlo is internal we had planned.” make the dinosaur look small in Sometimes for camera moves and very human. Spot is external. Sometimes, however, anima- these large environments with when Arlo is in the wild, the crew They learn from each other.” tors moved elements in nature lens choices, but it wasn’t as used motion capture to work As the characters moved without involving the simula- simple as lens choices. It’s also with real-world equipment. through the environment, the tion artists – particularly, rocks the framing. We’d set the cam- “Motion capture helped animators faced three interest- kicked aside as the characters era far away from him. Framing us relate to where Arlo was,” ing problems: the mountainous trek through the mountains, big a dinosaur was something we Rihan says, “especially in quiet terrain, interaction between the Arlo with little Spot at his side. had to put a lot of thought moments, you really feel the environment and the charac- into. When we framed Arlo in a sense that we’re out in the wild ters, and the size differences BIG AND LITTLE particular way, he looked like a with him.” between Arlo and Spot. sock puppet because of “The land is based on real geol- The animators started with his long neck. Over-the-shoul- HOME ON THE RANGE ogy, so there was a lot of uneven scenes developed in the layout der shots were not easy. And ground,” Harris says. “But, it was department, where the artists when Spot is in the frame, it’s a During one sequence, Arlo and fun to play with the environment, established the character huge challenge.” Spot travel with a family of T. to make things tactile.” blocking and camera angle for When we first meet Spot, we rex ranchers. The ranchers stop Harris describes a scene in each shot. For reference, layout don’t understand who he is, and at an overlook to check their which Spot runs through bush- artists looked at Western mov- the camera is distant. As we herd of what the Pixar crew es. “We have two ways around ies, in particular, Black Stallion. relate more to him, the camera call Bisonaurs when sudden- that problem,” Harris says. “We “This movie was interesting moves closer. But that creates ly a group of raptor rustlers can move the bush or we can from a camera standpoint be- problems with scale. stampede the “cattle.” Rihan have a simulation artist move it. cause we wanted to make Arlo “There are cheats, but we picks this sequence as the most We tend to do a 50/50 split. We feel big and allow the audience try to make them seamless,” difficult for the layout artists. animate Spot to get his perfor- to relate to this big animal as a Rihan says. “We might put “Everything is moving, so mance and timing correct, and character,” says Layout Lead Ar- the camera underground, for it was a challenge to set up,” then a simulation artist creates jun Rihan. “Arlo is in the wild, so example, but very carefully. And Rihan says. “We wanted to bring the motion for the bushes.” the environment is a character sometimes, we have to float a intensity and frenetic energy to

14 CGW NOVEMBER. DECEMBER 2015 the scene, while at the same time retain clarity. And the role of the raptors kept expanding as the scene came to life.” The animators performed the T. rexes as if they were cowboys on horseback. They’re still bipedal, but the modelers created the look by raising the front of the T. rex bodies into a position mimicking a rider on horseback, and the animators completed the illusion with acting choices. “It was a big challenge to do ARLO AND SPOT WITH THE T. REX FAMILY OF CATTLE RANCHERS. something different,” says Ani- mator Kevin O’Hara. “Bipeds are not built to run like a horse.” snow and ice and high elevations. ing across a full moon behind noised up the normals to reflect But, the clever gag worked. There’s a scene in the movie tall pine trees blowing in the and refract and give the lighters “There were times,” Sohn says, where Butch [the T. rex] gives wind,” Sohn says. “We tried to more control over the rain.” “when the scenes looked like a Arlo lessons and it sounds like make nature breathe and be Light rain helped set the Monty Python sketch – just give gibberish. That’s how Pete felt mysterious.” scene when Spot and Arlo meet them a pair of coconuts. But we when the trail boss told him what To help blend the elements on the river. Blustery, heavy, found a way to have fun without to do. But, whenever the guide into final shots, the effects driving rain, by contrast, created going into parody.” wanted to turn back, Pete want- team worked with lighting and a dangerous mood toward the For reference, Sohn took a ed to go just a little bit farther. shading artists. end of the film, fulfilling Sohn’s team of animators and riggers He was like a little kid who never “A lot of what we do is build vision of an exquisite antagonist on a research trip to a cattle wanted to stop. He saw a moose. visual complexity through mul- in action. ranch in eastern Oregon near He saw the Milky Way for the first tiple passes,” Reisch says. “We “I knew this film would be the Idaho border. They went time. He was awed by the vast can drive material properties special because of the emo- to see cattle but returned with landscapes and how quickly the on characters or the terrain so tions and passion Pete [Sohn] stories about the family of weather could change.” when rain splats as it hits the would put into it,” Calahan ranchers. ground, we can add darkening says. “It became clear early on “The family had dedicated CHANGE IN THE WEATHER and specular reflections. The that to tell the story properly, their lives to working on this way light interacts with effects we had to think differently. I ranch,” Sohn says. “We were Wind wasn’t the only weather elements makes them feel part jumped at the chance to work inspired by their love and re- element or effect the crew used of a scene.” on it. I feel ruined for anything sponsibility to one another. Joe to amplify the emotional story. Rain, which falls in 400 shots after this.” [the rancher] inspired Butch “We had fire, snow, dust, (nearly half the effects shots), The story is improbable – a [the T. rex father voiced by Sam mist, fog, and rain,” Reisch says. was particularly important. dinosaur as a human, a wild Elliott]. We wanted to respect “When Arlo slides downhill, Sometimes it’s soft rain, some- boy-child as a dog. Two children their toughness and humanity.” there is dust debris. When Spot times threatening. finding their way in a wilderness, All the research trips were draws in the sand, we move it “We did depth-of-field work a vast, mountainous, forested eye-openers for Sohn, who with a new grain solver. These in compositing like we did for environment that only a studio as was raised in New York City and are subtle effects – people ‘Blue Umbrella’ (see “Moody brave and talented as Pixar would attended college in Los Angeles. might not even know they’re Blue,” January/February 2014),” dare to model, dress, move, and The creative team spent days effects, but from a storytelling Reisch says. “I wanted to make render in painterly realism. rafting, visiting the cattle ranch, point of view, they heighten the sure that it didn’t look like “The artists and technical exploring Yellowstone Park, and mood and drama of a scene.” a rain machine. So we took people here can do anything,” going on trail rides. The effects artists used fog time to make rain boxes for says Producer Denise Ream. “Pete had thousands and to create a sense of foreboding, the background, mid-ground, “We had to give them a story thousands of questions,” Cala- and volumetric clouds and rain and extreme foreground. We worthy of their talent. They real- han says. “And, he remembered to punch up the visual tension instanced along the curves and ly made the movie beautiful.”  everything. We took him on a in a shot. trail ride on the Idaho side of the “When Arlo feels desperate Barbara Robertson ([email protected]) is an award-winning writer Tetons to give him an idea about or lonely, we have clouds mov- and a contributing editor for CGW.

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