CAPS. Almost everyone in computer graphics knows about it. Almost no one outside Disney or co-developer Pixar has seen it. Disney has kept its Academy-Award-winning computer animation production system well-hidden. Until now. We're the first members of the press invited in, so join us as we take a close look at the remarkable system that helped artists change the look of feature animations forever
Housed in an unpretentious, one-story office-building in an industrial park in Glendale, California, about 10 minutes away from the Burbank airport, is one of the most creative and successful groups in "Hollywood "— Walt Disney Feature Animation. Here, in this very low-profile location, Disney artists have created two of the highest-profile and most-profitable animated features ever: Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, pr lobby, a tidy wall display steps a viewer through the process of making an animated film at Disney. In the display, you see a page from the movie script for Beauty and the Beast. A handwritten exposure sheet details the mechanics of a scene, frame by frame, including camera moves. Pencil sketches of the Beast, a color model that shows a sample painted Beast with all his colors carefully labeled, and beautiful hand-painted cels that show the pencil sketches inked and colored complete the process. It"s educational. But it's not accurate. Not any more, and not, as a matter of fact, for Beauty and the Beast, the second feature film ever made to have every frame passed through a computer. Disney's Rescuers Down Under was the first.
Make no mistake, Disney feature animations are still created by hand—the characters are sketched, frame by frame, in pencil, by animators; and backgrounds are painted. But since 1989, nearly everything else happens on a computer.
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