The process of making an animated film is arguably more complex than shooting a live action one. All of the sets, costumes, characters, etc, have to be created from scratch. If you see a vase holding a plant in the background of a scene, someone had to create that. They had to use an animation program and build that vase AND that plant. Not to mention all of the other little details such as making bricks look like bricks. As we see in Incredibles 2, animators had to create an entire city for the super battles to take place. From background things, to a high speed chase – we learned about the incredible (no pun intended) process!

Creating The World Of The Incredibles

The decor and aesthetic of the first Incredibles film was in the 1950s, but was pushed a little bit forward to early 1960s for Incredibles 2. Ralph Eggleston took some of his time to discuss his role in the creation of Incredibles 2 with us while we were are Pixar in April. His job is basically to create the world of the film, and you would be surprised at how much goes in to that! If you think about it, the world is a character in the film as much as any other character – it has to support the story being told. This is done with things like textures and lighting.

Bob and his team used mid-century design in order to bring the world of the Incredibles to the big screen.  The animation team has to design everything – EVERYTHING! From the food, to the take out containers, to the floors – every single thing you see is built from scratch. In order to do this, they gather lots of reference from many different sources. This time period has a very specific color packet. What textures and colors describe that time period.

New Parr Home

Since the end of the first Incredibles, the Parr family has been living in Safari Court. Safari Court is a mid-century motel that next to an interstate. And they are going stir crazy. Their home from the first film was a 1300-1500 sq. ft. home. The idea for Incredibles 2, was that they would move to 2300 sq.ft. suburban home. An idea that was used in the 1950s a lot is bringing the outside in, so that meant designing a lot of indoor plants. The team also utilized Terrazzo flooring quite a bit. This house was completely done and shaded, which took 6 months, and was in production when a story change happened, causing it to be scrapped.

The new new Parr home, as the team lovingly called it, is a 20,000 sq. ft. house! This home even has water running through every room. We got to see some of the footage with this house and WOW! Again, I cannot believe it was all made from the ground up. The team only had 2.5 to 3 weeks to create it, so they were under a real time crunch! Eggleston told everyone to go crazy because of this. The final Parr home was greatly inspired by James’ house in North by Northwest. One feature that I thought was pretty amazing is the bottom of the swimming pool is the ceiling in the den! What!

Bringing the Sets to Life

Next we got to talk with Philip Metschan, the Visual Designer, about bringing the Incredibles sets to life. He reiterated what Ralph had told us – that sets are like a character, so it is important to understand them. Pre-Visualization (PreVis for short) is the idea of a  rough sketch, of protyping something. By doing this, everyone on the animation team can get on the same page about the world they are creating. The PreVis team builds quick models so there is something everyone can physically look at and react to. This gives them a better understanding of how the art and the story are developing.

The PreVis team takes the storyboards that have been drawn by several different artists, several different ways, and brings them together with the reference material. They even draw maps of where action needs to take place, and what camera angles they might need to make the story flow. Essentially, they bring everything off the drawing page and into the world. Seeing the characters in the space allows the team to judge if it is big enough for them, if it feels comfortable, and if any changes need to be made.

Adding Props

On Incredibles 2, Nathan Farriss, the set supervisor, led a team of 55 people in the sets department. This team took the concept art, reference, and PreVis work and turned it in to what we will see on the screen. They make all of the props, architecture, vehicles, vegetation, skies, and set extensions. So yeah, basically everything. Their team is split in to five groups: modeling, set dressing, shading, set extension and skies, and sets tech.

Nathan explained to us that computers are really good at making straight lines, but in the real world, how many straight lines do we actually see? Most things have bumps and are uneven – how many roads have you seen that are actually straight with no flaws? I am willing to bet not many, if any. So the set team spends a lot of time making straight lines not straight anymore. They add textures and color – all while building everything from scratch.

This team has to pay a lot of attention to detail – especially for the hero props. I think the most interesting part I learned about was the set dressing group. They take empty spaces and fill them full of props – as well as story items. If a scene calls for a sink full of dirty dishes and piles of dirty laundry on the floor, they create that. Their job is to make things look lived in. Then the shading team adds color and texture, making everything feel real.

The Runaway Train

In the footage we saw, there was a runaway train action scene. I was really excited to be able to chat with the team that created this scene, from beginning to end. It started out as a story reel, which is basically a drawn version of the scene, and ends up with what everyone will see on the big screen. The story reel is the blueprint, the foundation, for all of the departments that will get their hands on it before the final version is completed.

We got to see the story reel version and it was pretty awesome. Ted Mathot, the Story Supervisor agreed. However, he said being that this is a Pixar film directed by Brad Bird, the team asked themselves how they could make it better. After putting their heads together they came up with three things.

Balancing the Super with the Mundane

Something that we heard in presentation after presentation is that the Incredibles is about the super and the mundane. No scene should be super for too long without the introduction of something mundane and vice versa. To comply with this, the team added a phone call from Dash to Helen (who is chasing down a train on her Elasticycle at the moment). This adds humor and makes the story relate-able to moms who just cannot get away completely – ever (I know I can’t!).

They also introduced the police to this scene, which helped to showcase Elastigirl’s ability to be doing something super. The police were stopped by traffic, and she could get around it. I don’t want to explain how, because I want you to be surprised when you see it, but trust me, it’s super! The team also changed the way that Helen eventually stops the runaway train, which again, I will not spoil, but it works.

The Elasticycle

Helen has a new toy in Incredibles 2 – the Elasticycle! This thing is amazing, and I was excited to be able to learn how it all came together and was designed. Getting to see it in action was pretty cool and I cannot wait to (hopefully) see more of it when I see Incredibles 2 in theaters. Kureha Yokoo talked to use about how the Elasticycle came about. She explained that during the design process they really considered the fact that the Elasticycle was an extension of Elastigirl. Brad Bird said that fit is everything. Meaning it needed to be cool, yes, but it needed to fit Elastigirl, and be functional as well.

They referenced many different motorcycles for inspiration when designing the Elasticycle, but they also looked at different watersports as well. Kureha wanted to force Helen to use the bike in unique ways, and I think they really accomplished that. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that the bike splits when she wants it to – and that is really fun to see!

Adding Visual Effects

Amit Baadkar, the Effect Director on Incredibles 2, took some time out of his day to show up how visual effects were introduced in to the high speed chase scene. He touched on things I never would have even thought about like how the sparks of the slowing train had to be perfect, and how the size of the glass shards were very important. For example, if they are not large enough, you will not see them, and then the effect of the broken glass is lost on the audience.

In this scene, Amit’s team of six was responsible for sparks, glass destruction, smoke, and explosions. He let us know they had several challenges, but that action scenes are always really fun to work on. Tiresmoke is a supporting effect, meaning it cannot draw too much attention to itself. The audience needs to feel the effect, but not focus on it too much that they miss the action. Sparks are a supporting effect as well. The team wanted to portray chaos, danger, and loss of control – but not take over the scene with the sparks. The explosion in this scene is the complete opposite – it is called a hero effect. This effect should take center stage and draw in the eyes of the audience. The explosion was supposed to be big, but not too big. I have seen the final cut and I can confirm, they did their job!

About Incredibles 2

In Incredibles 2, Helen is called on to lead a campaign to bring Supers back, while Bob navigates the day-to-day heroics of “normal” life at home with Violet, Dash, and baby Jack-Jack—whose super powers are about to be discovered. Their mission is derailed, however, when a new villain emerges with a brilliant and dangerous plot that threatens everything. But the Parrs don’t shy away from a challenge, especially with Frozone by their side. That’s what makes this family so Incredible.

Incredibles 2 hits theaters June 15th!

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Did you know that when making an animated feature film, the crew has to create looks for every single background character? I guess I knew that, but I never thought much about how much work goes in to it. They have to design not only their clothes, but their hairstyles and body types. Of course, the main characters have to be styled as well. It could totally be argued that more work goes in to the costumes for animated films than live action films. While at Pixar, I was lucky enough to talk to the costume designers for Incredibles 2 and I learned so much about the whole process.

Costuming the Background Characters

As you likely know, the Incredibles world is heavily inspired by mid-century aesthetics. Deanna Marsigliese, a character artist for Pixar, has a wardrobe full of mid-century pieces, which is one of the reasons she believes she was brought on to the Incredibles 2 team. When she designs characters, she says she needs two equally creative, but completely different, states of mind. The first being creatively theoretical and the second being creatively practical.

I think we can all agree that costume choices should support the story line of the film and, if done well, they can even help to tell the story better. Deanna describes the process of designing background characters as not boring and actually challenging. To accomplish this she needs to be efficient and clever. I mean, she needs to design literally hundreds of characters – men, women, and children. It is important to realize background characters populate our world – and even compliment it.

In order to costume these many background characters, the Pixar team developed a new process to refit clothes on animated characters. They would use the same shirt and same pants, pin it down to one body, and then make that body blend from one shape to another – taking clothes along for the ride. That process gets them 80% there on clothing fit, and then they go in and hand fit the details.

For the background men, they created 12 unique garments and 6 different body types. Adding variations in patterns and colors totaled  72 uniquely costumed male characters. When it comes to the women, they made 20 unique garments and 7 body types. Changing color and hair variations, they came up with 64 uniquely costumed characters.

Incredibles 2 Research

For Incredibles 2, she researched every day folk of the mid-century and came to a conclusion. They were all perfectly tailored. The tailored fit was the most defining quality of that time. She also noticed bold shapes and clean silhouettes. It is important that background characters’ outfits are be iconic and stylish, but simple. They should compliment but never distract.

When creating a wardrobe, character artists are usually inspired by actual sewing patterns. For example, with some patterns separates combine to make a dress – thus two pieces with multiple uses. There are also patterns that use the same basic pattern but add partial design changes (i.e adding a collar or changing sleeve length). Character artists are sure to have a person model actual pieces when possible. This way they can see how actions effect garments and how garments effects actions. Of course, costumes are not just clothing – it also includes glasses, accessories, hair, and groom.

The Incredibles Super Suits & Every Day Dress

While at Pixar Studios, we also spoke with Shading Art Director Bryn Imagire. She was also the shader and art director on the original Incredibles film. She let us know the team respected the design ideas and philosophy that was established in the first film. Of course, this was really important for the movies to mesh well together. They were lucky in that the world is not set in specific time period, so they had the freedom to reference current clothing if they felt it was a better fir for the character.

Being that Incredibles 2 was created more than ten years after The Incredibles, technology is so much more advanced now. This made the costumes a lot easier to design and create. In the first film, the super suits were shaded on to the body of the models, causing the Incredibles logo to stretches and do weird things because it was actually their skin. With the second movie, the super suits are garments that are on top of the bodies – much like actual clothing – making the logo act like it would on actual clothing. The team even made a tangible logo for their reference.

Inspirations for the every day dress of the Parr family:

• Bob Parr – Bob Newman
• Helen Parr – Mary Tyler Moore, Audrey Heburn, and Marilyn Monroe. All fabulous women!
• Violet – She seems rebellious so 1950s design did not feel right when clothing her. The team looked at 1960’s instead. Keds, cuffed jeans, and sweaters.
• Dash – Brad Bird loves that Dash is a normal kid and only wears T-Shirts and jeans. The team saved money and time by making one t-shirt and shading it a bunch of different colors and patterns. Fun Fact: They always kept the Incredibles colors – yellow, orange, and red.
• Jack-Jack – Fun Fact: Whenever Bob is home alone with him, he is just in a diaper. You will only see Jack-Jack dressed when Helen is home.
• Elastigirl Costume – Helen’s new super suit had to be more inconspicuous since she is working in the shadows. You will notice she got darker colors to blend in.

Edna Mode & Evelyn Deavor Costumes

Bryn also walked us through designing the costumes for Edna “E” Mode and newcomer, Evelyn Deaver. With Edna, her head is a oval and her body is a triangle. The team was sure to keep that silhouette in mind when designing for her. E is German and Japanese so the team started looking at Japanese designers. These designers seems to always look comfortable compared to what they are designing for their models – which looks very uncomfortable. The focused on “For something to be beautiful it doesn’t have to be pretty.” To help Bryn think abstractly, she started looking at nature (animals, mushrooms, flowers), paper, snakeskin, and even metal. She felt like E would reuse discarded materials in a new way.

Evelyn Deaver is a new character that you are sure to love. From what I saw of her, I was a big fan. Her look was inspired by Diane Keaton, who I adore so I thought that was really cool. Brad Bird wanted her to feel bohemian and smart. Evelyn is a designer who works a lot and has made a lot of money. It was important that she felt relaxed with her own style. Inspiration for her clothing also came from Patty Smith. Bryn noticed that when Patty wore a masculine shirt it made out of gauzy material or had a dainty print. This seems to be her way of blurring gender lines and stepping in to a man’s world (seems like a story line to me!). Evelyn’s clothing has a very neutral palate.

Making the Costumes Move

Costuming in the digital world has many parallels to the physical world, but also unique challenges. The designers have to start from scratch – meaning, you can’t take costumes from Up and put them in Incredibles, it just wouldn’t work. Bryn and Deanna provided the shading artist with photographs and even a physical sample of what they were looking for when possible. Then that team would start by building a 3D sculpture of the costume in their software. They would then use that to generate two versions. One version would show the model how to move and not be visible – the other to be visible and show colors.

The model that is created resembles a sewing pattern, which is really cool to see. The team then tessellates it, which means they turn into triangles where the points are connected by springs. The model is then programmed to move likes certain fabrics – for example, to be light or heavy. They take that model and cut it along the seams and apply a pattern or print. They can tell it to be shiny or don’t be shiny in certain areas – which they call color instructions. It is truly amazing that designers can do all this with some code!

Hair in Incredibles 2

In Incredibles 2, the family’s hair underwent an upgrade. In fact, Pixar actually developed and adopted a new hair tool just for use Incredibles 2! Helen’s hair is one of the hardest to work with. It is hard to make it maintain it’s pointed iconic shape, and still move naturally in shots. Want to know something crazy? It actually takes a whole team of people to make sure it would behave like you would expect it to!

All of the background characters have hair too – so the team designs hair for each of them as well. These are the things I honestly have never thought about while watching an animated film. The characters in these need hair and makeup and costuming too – just like live action films! These people work their butts off to make sure we don’t think about things like that.

About Incredibles 2

In Incredibles 2, Helen is called on to lead a campaign to bring Supers back, while Bob navigates the day-to-day heroics of “normal” life at home with Violet, Dash, and baby Jack-Jack—whose super powers are about to be discovered. Their mission is derailed, however, when a new villain emerges with a brilliant and dangerous plot that threatens everything. But the Parrs don’t shy away from a challenge, especially with Frozone by their side. That’s what makes this family so Incredible.

Incredibles 2 hits theaters June 15th!

Get your advance tickets here!

Like INCREDIBLES 2 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PixarTheIncredibles/
Follow INCREDIBLES 2 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheIncredibles
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Visit the official INCREDIBLES 2 website here: http://disney.com/incredibles2