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Pixar Brave Wireframes

Posted on June 26, 2012
Filed Under Education, Modeling | 4 Comments

Ever wondered how dense those Pixar meshes are? I have!

You are in luck, Pixar just released some video footage where we can see the wireframe mesh of both Queen Elinor and King Fergus!

Except the helmet, hair and moustache the mesh is pretty dense. I wonder whether they add one more pass of smoothing at render time though.

Those are probably not the low poly meshes anyway but we can already notice an E pole on the cheeks. This could possibly means Pixar doesn’t use Nurbs surfaces anymore.

Click to zoom in.

And here is the Behind the Scenes video with, 2 minutes into it, Animation Collaborative‘s Michal Makarewicz. (a great school to attend if you are in the San Francisco area or crazy enough to relocate for three month ;-) )

via Keith Ribbons

Brave new trailer in French

Posted on May 11, 2012
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment

I am guessing an English one will follow shortly, in the meantime, here is something for those who can’t wait. Too bad we lost a lot of the whimsical feel the Japanese trailer had. It still looks fun though.

via Focus on Animation

Related posts:
Pixar “Brave” Japanese trailer

Pixar “Brave” Japanese trailer

Posted on March 5, 2012
Filed Under Animation | 4 Comments

[updated with higher quality trailer]

I’d better warn you, there are plenty of spoilers here but a Japanese “Brave” trailer just came out and it is very interesting how they edited it. Like most French kids, I always had a fascination for Japanese movies and culture in general I must admit, so this makes the movie even more exciting.

In that trailer, the movie looks way different with much less emphasis on the gags and the comedy. Instead, they brought forward all the elements we would normally find in a Miyazaki movie: a magical forrest, evanescent glowing figures…. That probably says a lot about the division between Eastern and Western taste. Anyway, check it out it is really sexy especially with those really deep Japanese voices and fancy Japanese titles.

Only watch if you don’t mind spoilers!

Related posts:
Princess Mononoke backstage
Blog search: “Brave”

Pixar Brave, sneak peek clip

Posted on February 23, 2012
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment

Something new from Emeryville just came out and it is looking really nice. If you still needed to be convinced to go and watch Pixar’s next feature, Brave, you are in for a treat.

I like the sound they put at the end of the clip, reminds me of a “Lost” episode.

I am not too sure about the rendering/compositing though. I feel some reflected light and maybe some colours in the shadows are missing. The dark areas seem too bright in places and the green of the “straw like grass” seems a bit strange for such a rainy kingdom but this could be due to the Youtube compression and my taste for saturated colours ;-)

Character design wise, I was worried Merida and Queen Elinor’s design would be too bland but they have some nice subtle wrinkles and sharp features that work very well in animation.

I can’t wait!

Pixar “Brave” Disney world display

Posted on February 4, 2012
Filed Under Animation | 2 Comments

Ahah! something new to see!

Pixar “Brave” November trailer

Posted on November 16, 2011
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment

As announced few days ago, a new trailer just came out. That one is not a teaser but a proper trailer for Pixar forthcoming feature “Brave”. The movie, directed by “The Incredibles” Story supervisor and “One Man’s band” director, Mark Andrews, is set to be released June 22th 2012 in the US and around August in the UK.

It is good to finally see those character designs in motion. The three Lords have so much character, it is great! We still haven’t seen the Wise woman though, I can’t wait!

The accent is a bit strange I am finding, some of the characters seem more Irish I feel. Oh well.

If you want to see some high resolution pictures, check out my latest “Brave” post below.

Pixar “Brave” new pictures before trailer release

Posted on November 14, 2011
Filed Under Animation, Character design | 1 Comment

A new “Brave” trailer should be hitting the theatres and our computer screens tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a series of shots from the movie.

Hit the following links for higher resolution pictures:

via Empire online
Via Bleeding cool

On a side note, I wasn’t too far off with my modeling and the hair on Lord Macintosh is looking really fun.

Pixar Brave D23, concept art part II

Posted on September 5, 2011
Filed Under Animation | 2 Comments

Youtube user SpecialSailorMiss just uploaded a second and final video showcasing some concept art and visual development from summer 2012’s Pixar movie “Brave”.

The previous revealed artworks are available at the links below that post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHKKvBcVOOg

Pixar Brave, more concept art

Posted on August 30, 2011
Filed Under Animation, Character design | 3 Comments

Some more concept and visual development work for next year’s Pixar Brave has been shown to the public at Disney D23 last week.

I would have liked to see some Lord Macintosh designs just to finish the model I started a while back :-( The Wise woman is looking really cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky52jv5b-mY

Related post:
Brave concept art and teaser

Brave concept art and teaser

Posted on June 29, 2011
Filed Under Animation, Character design, Modeling | 9 Comments

Pixar just released a teaser for next years feature Brave (previously titled The Bear and the Bow) along with some character designs.

Those designs have definitely a Pixar feel to them as they immediately remind us of The Incredibles or Up. Some commentators compared Lord Macintosh to Muntz and the Wise Woman to a Carl Fredericksen in drag :-)

My favourite are actually Lord Macintosh and the Wise Woman as they are much more graphic than the other character. As a matter of fact I have decided to model those two in order to better understand the Pixar style and improve my modeling skills.

Updated version after the release of the movie

I modelled Lord Macintosh in Maya starting from a plane and using the edge extrusion technique in order to quickly create some edge loops then refined the base shape by cutting faces, merging and moving vertices around. Nothing too fancy. I have some experience with that type of modelling but I think I will try the Zbrush approach for the Wise Woman. My friend Richie just showed me the work of Tom Parker, an incredible Zbrush modeler that can knock out a piece in less than two hours.

Here is the timelapse, I only recorded the first few hours as the final “vertex cleaning/edge rerouting” pass is too tedious to watch. I hope you will find this interesting, the video is a sequence of automated screenshots hence the choppiness.