“Those Flowing Locks – Creating Large Scale Water Hair for Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken” by Newport, Chow, Michael, Tampubolon and Lee
Conference:
Type(s):
Interest Area:
- Production & Animation
Title:
- Those Flowing Locks - Creating Large Scale Water Hair for Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken
Session/Category Title: Practical Proceduralism in Production
Presenter(s)/Author(s):
Abstract:
One of the most unique features of the villain Nerissa in DreamWorks Animation’s Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken is her hair. In the climatic battle, Nerissa transformed into a 150-foot-tall Titan Mermaid, whose hair is made of flowing water drawn from the surrounding ocean. While other films have created characters based on water, the sheer scale and the required action of the character interaction with the ocean, and the number of shots involved added significant challenges to the work. Working closely with multiple departments across the pipeline, a robust rig for the water hair was developed based on a combination of procedural and simulated elements. Furthermore, a Fluid Implicit Particle (FLIP) simulation is used to simulate the character’s interaction with the surrounding ocean. Finally, an additional level set fillet generation technique was used to seamlessly blend the ocean mesh with the water hair geometry.
