How Disney's Animation Evolved From 'Frozen' To 'Frozen II' | Movies Insider

here's Elsa Nana in 2013's frozen and here they are in frozen - while they may look like the characters you know and love at first glance if you zoom in on their clothes you'll see how they're different in the update you can now see three-dimensional jewels the stitching and even the finest of threads all these details wouldn't have been possible in the first film technological breakthroughs allowed them to do so much more for the sequel even creating a horse completely out of water [Music] why did Disney Animation Studios make us wait six years between frozen and frozen - well first it wanted to make sure the original warranted a sequel with a story worth telling but during that time Disney Animation which works completely separately from Pixar made technological advancements that would let the team improve on the look and design a team of about 75 animators worked on the movie over the course of roughly four years since one of the major themes in the new stories change they had a lot of work to do to update the characters and their surroundings change mocks us with her beauty while also remaining true to the world they created the main character is Elsa Anna Kristoff and Olaf were created from scratch for the first film but now they needed a makeover you can see the subtle differences in their faces but even more so in their hair and clothes Disney Animation had a few movies in between frozen and frozen - to develop their animation on his hair was based on programs used to make the hair in moaña for Moana they developed a software called Quicksilver which allowed them to create realistic hair that could react to forces like wind water and intense action according to technical animation supervisor Christopher ever mallanna's hair came with a lot of tight coils while anna had a lot more individual hairs for them to maintain a new software called beast allowed them to simulate more and more hairs per frame and at a much faster rate some of the characters will be put through a rollercoaster test simulation this identified whether they needed to add more qualities to the hair such as thickness hair again was based on character they made Ana's hairstyle more mature as the character had aged the clothing designs in general are much more intricate than they were in the original just look at these two shots of Anna and Elsa in frozen and frozen - you can tell from this shot in the second movie where onon elfs are standing in the Enchanted Forest that their clothes are much more detailed Elsa's dress no longer looks like it's covered in just two-dimensional sequins instead there are incredibly detailed little jewels everywhere meanwhile you can now even see all the little stitching on on escape and in this shot we're on an Olaf are enjoying the warmer weather you can really see every little thread in Ana's dress while Elsa goes through some costume changes animators made sure whatever she was wearing was part of a cool colour palette the animation team felt if they went too warm with the color choices something would feel off as certain colors become associated with certain characters movement was also an essential trait to get right getting an animated character to move is all about mastering control points every finger has three or four control points alone in frozen - Elsa's feet had multiple control points so she would look natural while moving barefoot which was important given that her most important actions happen while barefoot and movement like clothes and hair can be used to define character traits the animators utilize movement to demonstrate how the characters change since the first film as well as the differences between them Elsa walks and reacts with refined movement especially compared to Anna who was much more animated in her actions and while the two sisters spent most of frozen a part in frozen - they're together most of the time so the differences between them are even starker you can see this especially in the charades scene elsa is mostly silent listening and moving just straight up and down while anna's moving around with her whole body yet elsa who is much more confident now than she was in the first movie walks with a much greater sense of purpose there's a detail even more subtle than movement that the animators needed to get right breathing it's especially essential for a movie involving singing the animation team even brought in a vocal coach to teach them about the kinds of breathing techniques a professional singer would use take a look at this scene when Elsa singing into the unknown we can see all the subtle movements in her body almost as if we were watching idina menzel recording the track but there are some new characters here that posed an even bigger challenge for the animators and that's because they aren't human or creature but the elements now on most computer animated movies visual effects and animation teams work separately the animators create the characters and the visual effects team adds computer simulations like weather effects or how a piece of clothing will drape over a character what do you do when the effects are your characters there is no better example of this than Gale who's a gust of wind wind would usually be a visual effects simulation added in later on in the process but here it's a character so they had to create a new program for the animators just for this called swoop usually you just see the end result of wind but this time we see it as a whole character to get this basically invisible character right a wind rig ran alongside given scenes and they were able to manipulate its size and add simulations to this that help determine Gale speed and path here's Gale blowing into a house and pushing Sven out the door creating Gale also required working closely with the environments team on elements such as the leaves that gets swept up by Gale for instance when Olaf is singing his when I am older solo piles of leaves needed to be placed on the ground for Gale to pick up at one point early in the design process they contemplated having Gale take the form of the other characters mimicking their shapes with debris and animators had to think about whether at any given moment Gale was supposed to be playful or dangerous but let's not act like this wasn't a fun challenge along with studying physics the animators went skydiving for inspiration the skydiving experience certainly shows if you look at this shot of Bruni being swept up by the wind he has his arms and legs out in skydiving form the elements came in all shapes and sizes the biggest ones were the earth giants because of their large size the earth giants had to move very slowly to design them the animators actually incorporated characteristics of the trolls from the first film as you can see from these drawings they shared a lot of the same features from the shape of their torso to the size of their nose not surprisingly making a giant made out of rocks move isn't easy the rigging process was intense as the rocky forms and asymmetrical bodies restricted their movements it was also important that each piece of rock moved correctly and didn't go through another rock and last but certainly not least there was the knock the water horse which was the product of eight months of hard work there were several challenges to creating a creature made out of water that also needed to be true to the look of an actual horse because it has no pupils or real eyes for that matter it's a lot harder to convey the characters emotions so the animators relied on the Knox ears they made the ears point to wherever the knock was looking while also conveying its mood if the ears point back the horse is angry if the ears point to the riders they respect the rider but before the animators could control its emotions they had to figure out how to control the water it's made of while the water in moaña had some personality it was nowhere near this complex in early tests there was way too much water coming off the mane and tail which animators described as looking like a fire hydrant they eventually controlled it to the point where it looked more like a gentle waterfall the nock also had to look like he was part of the ocean so they looked at elements of the actual ocean like mist and spray which forms at the end of the mane and tail as it moves staying true to the water form also required making the noch different from an actual horse in some ways like the way it moved when the nock is running on water you can see the hoof sort of break and stretch which is apparent if you slow down this clip of the nock running on a wave to get a sense of actual horses animators studied horse anatomy met with a horse trainer and actually rode horses it was important not just to capture the look of horses but the weight of them so Elsa could really get a sense of this creatures power while all the characters went through transformations a lot changed in their world as well in frozen much of the land is covered in snow so the animators went to Cheyenne Wyoming to walk through waist-deep snow and see what it would be like for the characters but in frozen - it's supposed to be autumn so the snow is melted this presented new challenges since more of the ground and surroundings were revealed there were a lot more details that needed to be included in each shot particularly in a new setting for the movie the Enchanted Forest every tree rock and plant required a lot of planning and work to get where it is for inspiration the team ventured to the wilderness of Norway Iceland and Finland to experience what the characters they were animating would be experiencing and to get inside their heads while there they studied the landscape and the culture and even stood on a glacier to see what it would be like for Elsa to stand on one they also worked with a botanist to determine what trees and plants would realistically grow in the area just like Elsa's outfit a crucial part of establishing this particular setting was nailing its color palette which they wanted to be in line with the first movie as you can see in this shot of the enchanted forest the leaves are mostly orange in magenta there's barely if any yellow which is a color usually associated with fall compare that with this opening scene in frozen and you can see how similar they really are many of the shots in this forest were purposely shot extra wide to make the characters feel more alone and isolated while much of the film takes place in new lands frozen 2 also revisit some familiar places particularly arendelle arendelle is covered in snow for most of the first movies run but remember it's autumn now so the kingdom needed a makeover of its own because buildings were no longer covered in snow animators had to add lots of new details they filled in roof details in places where there might have been snow originally but there were also some buildings designed with colors that were specifically meant to look good with snow and ice these buildings received a new paint job so they'd look good against the brand-new fall backdrop one of the big turning points in frozen to happens in the dark sea this is where the NOx scene takes place animating realistic water is not easy and animators use what they've learned on previous Disney films to make it work for the dark sea they were largely inspired by Rana sfera a black sand beach on the southern coast of Iceland nailing the scene required a lot of coordination between the animation team and the visual effects team and since she was going to be walking on the simulation it all had to match up perfectly the animators also mastered some factors about water that you never think of like house an looks when it gets wet after getting hit by a wave Disney Animation developed another simulation engine for Moana called splash which gave them a lot of practice making the open seas through this they could calculate for example what it would look like for a wave to break for Moana the challenge was trying to make the water calm but for frozen - it was important to make the waves big and overpowering while still seeming real you can see those realistic waves directly here as Elsa stares them down on the beach before running in head-on while these look incredibly realistic the animators actually pulled back so they didn't look too real sure they now had the tools to make it look like actual water but sometimes it's more important that your animation looks realistic for the animated fantasy world your curry not necessarily for our world otherwise you take away from the magic that started all back in 2013 [Music]

Channel: Insider

Views: 8,508,768

Rating: 4.8959737 out of 5

Keywords: Insider, Frozen, Frozen 2, Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, Sven, Disney, Disney Animation, Arendelle, How it's made, Animation, Movies, Film

Id: ziIS6NJk_GI

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/TerrisKagi]

Seems like being an animator is a great way to get trips to amazing places.

Also, thanks for posting this. I love learning how things like this are done. Knowing the Nokk took 8 months to animate and was on screen for what, 4 minutes, really gives you a sense of scope of the work done

[u/jepifany]

lmao why does he say pixar like that? Maybe I'm imagining it but he sounded, like, super bitter or something.