Pixar films have amazed several generations. All children know the adventures of Boody and Buzz Lightyear in toy story or Lightning McQueen’s path to success in cars, but not how these big screen characters are created. The exhibition The science of Pixarwhich can be seen until September at Caixa Fórum Madrid, details all the steps of the animation process of his most memorable films with original materials and interactive activities.
To understand the level of detail of these audiovisual works, the tour is divided into the seven fundamental stages in the creative process: Modeling, rigging (joint creation), animation, simulation, lighting and rendering. The different stands explain these very technical processes in an entertaining way and reveal unpublished data. In Brave, Indomitable, The protagonist has more than 11,5000 key curly hairs, sculpted hand by hand, which generate around 111,700 hairs in total.
Like character creation, developing other elements such as lighting is also very expensive. For example, There are a total of 21,556 lights in four different shots in the scene of Lightning McQueen’s first trip to California in cars. These details are what allow “us to empathize with a mouse, a car or a fish,” said Javier Hidalgo, director of Science Exhibitions at the “la Caixa” Foundation.
Create your own characters and direct the cameras
Visitors, in addition to learning, will be able to experience each of the steps as if they were animators from the American studio. The modeling space will offer the opportunity to create a digital sculpture based on an artist’s sketch. In the area of stages and cameras, visitors will be able to replicate how the directors of Bugs camera placement and angles to create an insect view in a natural setting. In addition to playing with the cameras, the rigging It allows you to move all the joints of a character so that it adopts the gesture you want. In the case of the exhibition, the face of the cowgirl Jessie from Toy Story.
“We have to break the prejudice that only Pixar or Dreamworks can do it”see more
The exhibition tour, in addition to the activities, offers original materials such as the artists’ sketches or prototypes used in the animation of the films. Characters like Buzz Lightyear (from toy story), Dory (from Finding Nemo) and Mike and Sulley (of SA monsters) are present in space through their recreations on a human scale.
Film screenings and conferences
Besides the Pixar Science, The “la Caixa” Foundation proposes other complementary activities the months in which the exhibition will remain, from May 7 to September 3. On the one hand, the projection cycle has been programmed Little movie buffs where you can watch movies like Bugs, a miniature adventure, toy story and The Incredibles.
The conference also highlights 3D animation: between art and sciencein which Edu Martín, creative director and 3D supervisor from movies like The LEGO movie eitherTop Gun Maverickwill delve into the process of creating this type of productions and how this technology is used in other productions such as advertising.
