“Moana: Foundation of a Lava Monster” by Bryant, Coony and Garcia
Conference:
Type:
Entry Number: 10
Title:
- Moana: Foundation of a Lava Monster
Presenter(s)/Author(s):
Abstract:
For Disney’s Moana, the challenges presented by our story’s fiery foe, Te Kā, required cross-departmental collaboration and the creation of new pipeline technology. From raging fires and erupting molten lava to churning pyroclastic plumes of steam and smoke, Te Kā was comprised of a large number of layered environmental elements. Effects artists composed heavily art-directed simulations alongside reusable effects assets. This hybrid approach allowed artists to quickly block in and visualize large portions of their shot prior to simulation or rendering. This Foundation Effects (or FFX) workflow became a core strategy for delivering Te Kā’s complex effects across multiple sequences.
References:
J. Garcia, S. Drakeley, S. Palmer, E. Ramos, D. Hutchins, R. Habel, and A. Stomakhin. 2016. Rigging the Oceans of Disney’s “Moana”. In SIGGRAPH ASIA 2016 Technical Briefs (SA ’16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 30.
A. Lin, G. S. Lee, J. Longson, J. Steele, E. Goldberg, and R. Stefanovic. 2015. Achieving Real-time Playback with Production Rigs. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2015 Talks (SIGGRAPH ’15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 11.
G. Smith, M. McLaughlin, A. Lin, E. Goldberg, and F. Hanner. 2012. dRig: An Artist-friendly, Object-oriented Approach to Rig Building. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2012 Talks (SIGGRAPH ’12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 18.
Keyword(s):
Acknowledgements:
We’d like to thank Jesse Erickson, Nathaniel Sims, and Andrea Sci- bea for their work on the Te Ka FX rig. Dave Rand delved deep ̄ into all things lava, and Alexey Stomakhin provided simulation soware. Most pyro plumes were courtesy of Bob Benne. Larry Wu and Benjamin Huang from Look, Brent Homman and Jennifer Hager from Anim, Chris Springeld from Lighting, and our TDs Neelima Karanam, Raaj Gupte, Nadim Sinno, and Yafes Sahin were all instrumental in summoning this lava monster. Finally, no thank you would be complete without acknowledging the incredible guid- ance and support of our FX Supervisors, Marlon West and Dale Mayeda.
