Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Pixar’s latest film, Brave, was released in the US this past weekend. What makes this leading lady, Merida, special, is not only is she Pixar’s first female protagonist, but of the amount of details with her red fiery hair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBtz17QWV5Y
A great achievement in this film was the process of creating Merida’s thick, curly hair. Simulation supervisor, Claudia Chung, stated that because so much research went into configuring the physics of her wild hair, a brand new simulation system was created to build Merida’s curls. Chung explained how her team had to plant 1,500 individual curves to Merida’s scalp, which grew into 111,700 hairs (a six month process). The attention to detail can remind some of the animated character, Aki Ross from 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3nGwDczLs4
Aki had 60,000 hairs that were individually animated and rendered on her head. The work on her hair has received positive reviews for the details on the character model.
For more details about Merida’s hair, check out the readings below:
Animation Magazine- “Everything You Need to Know About Pixar’s ‘Brave'”
On a side note, did anyone stay towards the end of Brave when the credits were rolling? A special tribute to Steve Jobs was included. Do you think he had anything to do with one of the allied clans being named “Macintosh”?