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http://www.joblo.com/blu-rays-dvds/news/ink-pixel-the-incredibles-02
THE INCREDIBLES bounded onto the big screen in 2004, courtesy of Pixar Studios, and was the company’s first film to star a cast made up entirely of human characters. Drawing inspiration from many of the heroes and fantastic tales of harrowing radio shows, as well as, the compelling print of newspaper comics, Brad Bird and his seasoned team of specialists over at Pixar set forth on creating a most epic display of animated heroism and heart.
Directed and written by Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille), THE INCREDIBLES is the story of an extraordinary family, who after a “failed rescue attempt”, must conform to the normalcy of society. Forfeiting the displaying of their powers, the Incredible family is called upon, once more, when a new and sinister villain, Syndrome, rises to power and looks to hold the world inside of his gloved, greedy palm.
In an act of brilliant story-telling and character development, Brad Bird and his team of artists and animators had cleverly worked their characters’ powers to mirror that of their real life claims within society. For example, Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) is a hard working mother of three and wife to an overworked ex-hero of the world. As Elastigirl, she must stretch her patience as well as her very self to meet the demands of being a super hero as well as a super mom. Dash (Spencer Fox), an overactive 10 year-old child has the ability to move at break-neck speeds. And, of course, there is Violet (Sarah Vowell), the coming of age, awkward girl who is able to create force fields, as well as, turn herself invisible. And, of course, Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson), who moonlights as Mr. Incredible and must remain the indomitable rock of the family unit.
Without relatable and endearing human characters, it would have been very difficult for Pixar to pull off a film as successful as THE INCREDIBLES. It would have also lacked said success if it hadn’t had the aid of adorable woodland creatures or scenes laden with slapstick, goofball antics to keep young viewers attention.
When creating Pixar’s most experimental and ambitious project, thus far, well over 130 sets were digitally crafted and used to bring the world of THE INCREDIBLES to life. Borrowing much influence from the 1960’s art movement of hard-edge painting, the artists and animators looked to tackle one of the most difficult feats of animation to date: How to create a digital world of human characters that while remaining human, emotionally, as well as in appearance, would also retain the look of that of cartoon characters.
The trick when creating animated human characters is to design them so that they are very much a tribute to what makes a human being look human, without coming too close to the actual thing. Unlike the human character, Al the Toy Collector (from Toy Story 2), who was as close to life as they come with his pock marked skin, yellowing teeth, and a five o’clock shadow, the designers of the THE INCREDIBLES decided to go with a much more Roman approach.
In fact, if you were to have Mr. Incredible give you a rather emotionless expression you’d notice that the shape of his head resembles that of a Roman War Helmet, the lids of his eyes acting almost like shelves, casting deep shadows upon his face.
To achieve the organic yet cartoon-like look of the human population found in THE INCREDIBLES, Pixar’s crack team of specialists had to develop a special lighting program that treated skin as a translucent material. They used a technique referred to as, Subsurface Scattering, a mechanism for adding translucency to objects. Able to reflect light from the inside out, the skin of each character was given a subtle glow in order to blend their dull unlit surfaces with an organic and eye pleasing glow. This method would then go on to be used in the remainder of Pixar’s films and was a major breakthrough in the art of animating human characters.
Perhaps one of the largest feats that the team working on THE INCREDIBLES needed to overcome was the distribution of weight and the interactivity of objects when being used by the film’s super powered characters. It’s all in the math. Like it or not, life can be boiled down to a series of calculations, and when done correctly can result in some pretty fantastic displays of physics.
Countless hours were spent when crunching the numbers of just how much force to use when animating the character of Mr. Incredible. Whether he’d be throwing a seemingly harmless rock, no bigger than the size of your fist, or lifting a fully loaded family sedan, the stress on his muscles and strain within the expressions on his face all needed to be perfect.
Many people don’t know this, but Pixar has their own team of experts referred to as the Tools department. This carefully chosen group of experts are responsible for the creation of all the art making programs the studio uses when creating their films. Their expertise is challenged on a daily basis as new problems arise each day that need to be solved quickly, especially if the film is to remain on schedule.
While we’re on the topic of problems to be overcome, yes, even Pixar is served a mighty challenge every now and then. In fact, animators worked night and day to develop a system that would allow them to have control over characters with long hair. The able-to-turn-invisible adolescent, Violet, proved to be one of Pixar’s most difficult challenges, to date, as the team worked fast to rewrite code that would allow her long black hair to perform to the artists desires.
Whole sections of hair would suddenly act as if it were electrocuted. Thousands of individual hairs would be standing on end, unwilling to cooperate with the artists. Many times a single strand of hair would “clump” with a neighboring strand creating an absolute nightmare of a problem. Imagine having to separate one single hair from a series of thousands, digitally. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Designing and animating an entire digital world populated by human characters is no easy feat. To save time and money (as well as sanity), the artists used a character model dubbed the “Universal Man” when crafting almost all of the background characters. Burglars, cops, bystanders, and random superheroes shown throughout the film were all created using this creation tool. The “Universal Man” served as a “blank slate” or “core character mold” that was able to bend, flex, protrude, and shape to any desired form allowing the animators to create the populous of the city without having to start from scratch for each citizen.
A total of 95 costume changes were used in the making of THE INCREDIBLES. To make sure that everything was at the highest quality, Brad Bird had brought in a professional tailor to teach the team at Pixar about proper measurement and the art of Flat Pattern Making, the process in which clothes are made that seamlessly wrap around animated figures. Each and every body part of every character on screen needed to be measured. Arms, waists, fingers, toes, and everything in between must be accounted for with precision, leaving no room for error.
In the case of THE INCREDIBLES, a program was built by the Tools department used specifically for the clothing in order to help the designs “relax” around each characters body specifics. Complex equations were embedded into the program to interact with digital gravity, the imaginary weight of the animated world. If a character shrugs, lifts an arm, takes a step in any direction, does anything at all, it all needs to be factored in or else the entire scene will fall apart right before your eyes.
It was thought that the absence of zany characters for small children to latch onto would hinder the film from performing as successful as previous Pixar releases. But, in the end, the film grossed a worldwide total of $631,442,092, the fourth-highest gross for a Pixar film. THE INCREDIBLES went on to win two 2004 Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing, as well as an award for Best Animated Feature at the 2004 Annie Awards.
Many would argue that THE INCREDIBLES is still Pixar’s #1 film, as it appears on countless Top 10 Animated Film lists of both movie critics and film connoisseurs alike. Whispers of there being a sequel in the works have been circulating for years. As it stands, there is no concrete evidence to support the high hopes of fans, eagerly awaiting the day they’ll be able to witness one of the greatest super powered families donning their iconic red super suits.
http://www.joblo.com/blu-rays-dvds/news/ink-pixel-the-incredibles-02
THE INCREDIBLES bounded onto the big screen in 2004, courtesy of Pixar Studios, and was the company’s first film to star a cast made up entirely of human characters. Drawing inspiration from many of the heroes and fantastic tales of harrowing radio shows, as well as, the compelling print of newspaper comics, Brad Bird and his seasoned team of specialists over at Pixar set forth on creating a most epic display of animated heroism and heart.
Directed and written by Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille), THE INCREDIBLES is the story of an extraordinary family, who after a “failed rescue attempt”, must conform to the normalcy of society. Forfeiting the displaying of their powers, the Incredible family is called upon, once more, when a new and sinister villain, Syndrome, rises to power and looks to hold the world inside of his gloved, greedy palm.
In an act of brilliant story-telling and character development, Brad Bird and his team of artists and animators had cleverly worked their characters’ powers to mirror that of their real life claims within society. For example, Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) is a hard working mother of three and wife to an overworked ex-hero of the world. As Elastigirl, she must stretch her patience as well as her very self to meet the demands of being a super hero as well as a super mom. Dash (Spencer Fox), an overactive 10 year-old child has the ability to move at break-neck speeds. And, of course, there is Violet (Sarah Vowell), the coming of age, awkward girl who is able to create force fields, as well as, turn herself invisible. And, of course, Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson), who moonlights as Mr. Incredible and must remain the indomitable rock of the family unit.
Without relatable and endearing human characters, it would have been very difficult for Pixar to pull off a film as successful as THE INCREDIBLES. It would have also lacked said success if it hadn’t had the aid of adorable woodland creatures or scenes laden with slapstick, goofball antics to keep young viewers attention.
When creating Pixar’s most experimental and ambitious project, thus far, well over 130 sets were digitally crafted and used to bring the world of THE INCREDIBLES to life. Borrowing much influence from the 1960’s art movement of hard-edge painting, the artists and animators looked to tackle one of the most difficult feats of animation to date: How to create a digital world of human characters that while remaining human, emotionally, as well as in appearance, would also retain the look of that of cartoon characters.
The trick when creating animated human characters is to design them so that they are very much a tribute to what makes a human being look human, without coming too close to the actual thing. Unlike the human character, Al the Toy Collector (from Toy Story 2), who was as close to life as they come with his pock marked skin, yellowing teeth, and a five o’clock shadow, the designers of the THE INCREDIBLES decided to go with a much more Roman approach.
In fact, if you were to have Mr. Incredible give you a rather emotionless expression you’d notice that the shape of his head resembles that of a Roman War Helmet, the lids of his eyes acting almost like shelves, casting deep shadows upon his face.
To achieve the organic yet cartoon-like look of the human population found in THE INCREDIBLES, Pixar’s crack team of specialists had to develop a special lighting program that treated skin as a translucent material. They used a technique referred to as, Subsurface Scattering, a mechanism for adding translucency to objects. Able to reflect light from the inside out, the skin of each character was given a subtle glow in order to blend their dull unlit surfaces with an organic and eye pleasing glow. This method would then go on to be used in the remainder of Pixar’s films and was a major breakthrough in the art of animating human characters.
Perhaps one of the largest feats that the team working on THE INCREDIBLES needed to overcome was the distribution of weight and the interactivity of objects when being used by the film’s super powered characters. It’s all in the math. Like it or not, life can be boiled down to a series of calculations, and when done correctly can result in some pretty fantastic displays of physics.
Countless hours were spent when crunching the numbers of just how much force to use when animating the character of Mr. Incredible. Whether he’d be throwing a seemingly harmless rock, no bigger than the size of your fist, or lifting a fully loaded family sedan, the stress on his muscles and strain within the expressions on his face all needed to be perfect.
Many people don’t know this, but Pixar has their own team of experts referred to as the Tools department. This carefully chosen group of experts are responsible for the creation of all the art making programs the studio uses when creating their films. Their expertise is challenged on a daily basis as new problems arise each day that need to be solved quickly, especially if the film is to remain on schedule.
While we’re on the topic of problems to be overcome, yes, even Pixar is served a mighty challenge every now and then. In fact, animators worked night and day to develop a system that would allow them to have control over characters with long hair. The able-to-turn-invisible adolescent, Violet, proved to be one of Pixar’s most difficult challenges, to date, as the team worked fast to rewrite code that would allow her long black hair to perform to the artists desires.
Whole sections of hair would suddenly act as if it were electrocuted. Thousands of individual hairs would be standing on end, unwilling to cooperate with the artists. Many times a single strand of hair would “clump” with a neighboring strand creating an absolute nightmare of a problem. Imagine having to separate one single hair from a series of thousands, digitally. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Designing and animating an entire digital world populated by human characters is no easy feat. To save time and money (as well as sanity), the artists used a character model dubbed the “Universal Man” when crafting almost all of the background characters. Burglars, cops, bystanders, and random superheroes shown throughout the film were all created using this creation tool. The “Universal Man” served as a “blank slate” or “core character mold” that was able to bend, flex, protrude, and shape to any desired form allowing the animators to create the populous of the city without having to start from scratch for each citizen.
A total of 95 costume changes were used in the making of THE INCREDIBLES. To make sure that everything was at the highest quality, Brad Bird had brought in a professional tailor to teach the team at Pixar about proper measurement and the art of Flat Pattern Making, the process in which clothes are made that seamlessly wrap around animated figures. Each and every body part of every character on screen needed to be measured. Arms, waists, fingers, toes, and everything in between must be accounted for with precision, leaving no room for error.
In the case of THE INCREDIBLES, a program was built by the Tools department used specifically for the clothing in order to help the designs “relax” around each characters body specifics. Complex equations were embedded into the program to interact with digital gravity, the imaginary weight of the animated world. If a character shrugs, lifts an arm, takes a step in any direction, does anything at all, it all needs to be factored in or else the entire scene will fall apart right before your eyes.
It was thought that the absence of zany characters for small children to latch onto would hinder the film from performing as successful as previous Pixar releases. But, in the end, the film grossed a worldwide total of $631,442,092, the fourth-highest gross for a Pixar film. THE INCREDIBLES went on to win two 2004 Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing, as well as an award for Best Animated Feature at the 2004 Annie Awards.
Many would argue that THE INCREDIBLES is still Pixar’s #1 film, as it appears on countless Top 10 Animated Film lists of both movie critics and film connoisseurs alike. Whispers of there being a sequel in the works have been circulating for years. As it stands, there is no concrete evidence to support the high hopes of fans, eagerly awaiting the day they’ll be able to witness one of the greatest super powered families donning their iconic red super suits.