SIGGRAPH San Diego 2007 - Day 1
By Jason Montoya
Atlanta Video Production

Pixar Part 1 Lecture by Jun Han Cho of Pixar

Starting off with a bang, SIGGRAPH had Pixar prepare an in depth presentation on the creation, the design and the technical issues during the production of their most recent film Ratatouille. Throughout their show I took some notes and gathered some information to pass along to the 3D community.

Pixar now undertook a new dimension to making a film and this dynamic was the food element. We have now introduced all the traditional elements such as modeling, shading, and lighting, but have also run into issues with liquids (soups), cutting of food, and the presentation of food as well.

As Pixar began production they decided to take a crack at creating a proprietary simulation for deforming items while preserving volume. This allowed for quicker and more accurate models. Unfortunately the tech did not prove successful to the point of use but will be used for future projects.

One problem they ran into was filling crates with food. They couldn't just fill it with veggies because they didn't integrate enough into each other to look realistic so simulations were required. This spawned the use of soft bodies to stack the veggies into the crate but it lacked interest and led to an idea to spruce it up. They decided to make the static results into a more dynamic solution by using the simulation with a destination shape. With this simulation only final adjustments were required for the final product to mimic the final desired results which was a crate of food in a specific shape.