hey I'm Marlon West from Walt Disney
Animation Studios today we want to talk
about the lasting impact of the heat
Cinderella dress transformation this is
notes on a scene but derring-do oh just
leave it to me what a gown this will be
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this was one of Walt's favorite moments
and has effects artists it's one of the
touchstones of what we call character
effects it is actually a moment where
effects and character animation are
interlinked this unique collaboration
between character animation and effects
that feels to the viewer like one
beautiful thing it's something we go
back to over and over so the character
animation was done by the great Mark
Davis and the effects animation was done
by George Rowley this whole effect here
did we dig so much this pixie dust it
goes next level so one of the reasons we
call it Pixy dust in the business is
because George Rowley also did it in
Peter Pan is well for Tinkerbell and it
really kind of became associated with
her magic and other fairies and Pixies
even to this day actually that effect
goes over the castle logo on our current
films so getting into this scene this is
actually a really great frame where
Cinderella is between transformation
this dust and all of the design all the
sense of motion you get here and you can
kind of see in these little areas and I
can draw it over here the thing about
this effect it is so cool and why it's
emulated all the time is how it starts
to fall not as fast as rain or anything
or water you'll also see in here and
this is a good frame for it you've got
some of these little stars that are at
their apex and then some of them that
are actually starting to pop if we were
animating this they'll all probably
start like this become matte and do do
that and that is just something that
gets done like all the time these are
the original pintle test footage from
Marc Davis and George Riley did together
is very evident here in these pencil
tests just how unified the character
performance and the effects are you see
this line here so obviously the
character animator went first and the
effects are actually laid over top of it
but you can see how these lines really
support the action to him
of the gown move along with her and so
even after the transformation is done
there's all this magic kind of
interspersed within the dress kind of
keeping that that sense of magic that
sense of transformation even after it's
already done the brand newness there's a
real intersection between effects
animation and the design and I love also
how it's not just a dissolve there's a
color shift here the dress actually
transforms and so much of this movie is
about clothing making clothes getting
gowns to go to this ball and this
beautiful transformation is like the
apex of it and watch what's this strap
go from hanging to this actually
billowing thing right here that is
really kind of cool I'm just noticing
that for the first time Mark Davis is
actually animating although overlap of
this little piece of her dress that
moves and all the transformation from
one dress to another her hairstyle all
of that is the character animation even
though it's feeling like an effect
happening to her and the effects artists
is making all of this beautiful magic
pixie dust they work really together in
tandem to actually make this one
beautiful effect on a character with
this transformation which is why it's so
iconic it's had a lasting impact on the
whole industry but certainly here in
this building on the films we do today
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this is a scene from princess in the
frog a film that I was a head of effects
on
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it was a kind of return the 2d animation
came out ten years ago this year in
stature Lee turning into a princess like
Cinderella does we've got Tiana who's
dressed as a princess who gets turned
into a frog let's break down that
transformation and the effects we
actually do to turn her into a frog
they're kind of inspired by but trying
to do a little twist on what was done in
that dress transformation she goes in
BAM so this is actually a good frame you
know you have all these tasty light
beams going out to hide what happens to
her so one of the things that kind of
helped support that this is actually
Princess and the Frog that this is
actually takes place in New Orleans
instead of the traditional pixie dust
that we've done we've got these kind of
water droplets so everything instead of
actually these points of light that I
had described earlier or these little
water splashes the character animation
was done by the great mark han who's
done a bunch of Disney Princesses dan
lund at the effects here and you can see
it worked down here in the corner
there's like a soap bubble but you can't
do these magical Disney effects without
some little sparkles here's some
sparkles over here but you can see more
of these big water droplets as this
transformation goes on and one of the
things they weren't doing and Cinderella
is these I was going to say under lid
effects but these were digital effects
but you know back in the day they were
actually on an animation camera with a
light shooting through them but all
those pixie dust drawings were actually
just paint but these were actually a
radiating light all these water droplets
but as well as these sparkles they kind
of behaved the way the other pixie dust
does kind of float down not quite like
water would and we carry it over through
this shot and we get rid of it here it's
not wearing Tiana's point of view ain't
no magic anymore cuz sisters gonna be
disappointed
see
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going a little bit further in time is
record
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sir this is a clip where vanellope is
revealed that she in fact is a princess
even though she's been looking around
away girl this whole time so this shot
in particular I want to just stop on
because it's a wonderful mashup of the
pixie dust we've been talking about and
this is actually an overt call back to
Cinderella because it actually is a
parody so you know we were trying to do
something else and princess in the frog
but this is really trying to take you
back to that moment and get to get a
little laugh going at the same time but
another thing it's got happening is all
this kind of electrical effects here
right like this electronic stuff raining
down as well
letting you know that you're still in a
video game again here we are what our
friends the little pixie dust got to
have that popping off BAM the whole
world transforms now this is a
combination of both the effects and look
so you've got two different environments
eventually being revealed here by in
effects pass you know there's all this
kind of digital imagery here and that's
all this lighting it's also real
collaboration between the look
department environments effects and
lighting you know we don't have this
kind of like one department hands off to
another we're working like right
alongside which brings me to my next
clip which is from the original frozen
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the transformation of Elsa from Queen
Elsa - Elsa Elsa is beautiful in this
like let it go sequence and I want to
kind of break down how they make that
sequence happen
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the wonderful thing about Elsa is she's
her own fairy godmother
so one thing I like about this is that
before the trick magic transformation
happens
she just defiantly takes a crown off
tosses it no magic and this is just
great to just let's our own hair down
another cool thing about this character
animation was done by Becky Parisi who
was a character supervisor for Elsa
jae-hyun did the effects animation in
here and we go full full pixie we
actually take some of the similarities
of Elsa's royal gown and reveal her
classic Elsa costume underneath so you
can kind of see how we kind of like
light up the crest on her chest
the effects are helping reveal her dress
and because she's doing it on her own
she throws her arm out BAM dress comes
on cuz she's in control it's just a
doing it for herself so that's one thing
that we were really trying to do here
and this transformation is because this
is not something that's actually
happening for Elsa she's actually doing
it herself and she walks off makes this
cape almost afterthought like
damn take this cape so one of the things
that makes Elsa's magic very important
now here we have these kind of pixie
dust in here we've been talking about
but we also have snow and ice as well
kind of mixed in to this traditional
magic so this was actually weeks of
back-and-forth between Dan who I
mentioned earlier from Princess and the
Frog J and Becky working together to
kind of plot what she was going to do
when this effect was going to happen
based on this pose and NAT pose so let's
step through this again watch how the
effects kind of light up here along the
patterns of Elsa's dress they're already
there that are actually part of the
design of her costume that she's already
wearing that lights up and creates all
of this magic and of course this is a
musical so has to be done to the song
that she's singing the effects again
going all the way back to Cinderella and
Princess him to fry wreck-it Ralph and
anything we've actually done is a we
have to be in support of her performance
of who she is as a person at this
particular moment in time and the
particular action that's going on so
here she is almost fully formed here and
then we just have these kind of accents
of both the classic kind of pick
he does magic and the snow and ice that
you kind of associate with Elsa
throughout the film and even before the
gala naturally forms we start bringing
these signature Elsa kind of snowflakes
on almost anticipating it you get this
almost pre preview of what's going to
happen and then here start with a
reflection BAM all fully formed and this
is all lighting its way this actually I
don't believe we actually did effects on
the shot they can actually just pull
these sweet little highlights so that's
the lasting legacy of the Tres
transformation from Cinderella going all
the way up to some of the films we're
doing today
Tiana Penelope of Elsa whether it's the
character animator actually drawing the
dress changing from one dress to another
whether the effects artist is revealing
the dress underneath the collaboration
that it takes to actually make a
transformation like this between
character animation and effects to
naturally make something that feels to
the viewer like one thing one particular
bit of magic I think that's kind of cool
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you