CG tools help 'Rio' soar

Published: Thu., 12 ,. 8, 2011, 4:00am PTBy 'Rio'With tropical wild birds -- as well as their colorful plumage -- in the forefront, "Rio" depended on obtaining the CG down perfect, states director Carlos Saldanha. "Despite the fact that we'd done fur before, we needed to perform a large amount of innovation and develop lots of proprietary technology, like a special tool known as Voxel. Rather than just getting one hair follicle, we'd one which sprouts to many, creating the sense of the feather, therefore we increased it for the entire body (using) lots of controls to simulate the wind and elements."Further complicating things further was the truth that all individuals down were not only for the wild birds, but in addition for costumes in crowd moments. "The Circus parade has over 40,000 figures, so there is lots of technical try to make certain everything made and looked right," Saldanha reviews. "We put that in the center of production therefore we did not get hit with last-minute problems."As though that were not challenging enough, Saldanha continues, "we needed to build this version of Rio, with the people and cars and structures, and so the surrounding forests and jungle. Rio has very distinctive variety pathways, and that we built an application tool especially for your. It is a constant evolution of tools, most of which we designed for the 'Ice Age' films. Blue Sky's most likely the only real studio that really uses radio-city and ray tracing to provide our films that unique look. Our next films, 'Ice Age 4' and 'Leafman,' have previously achieved positive results in the R&D we did about this.Inch EYE Around The Academy awards: ANIMATION Animated photos boost property valuesWhether focusing on a shoestring hands-attracted project or pushing the limits laptop or computer-produced technology, the 2011 choices transformed major challenges in getting their animated visions to screen. Here's how:'Arthur Christmas' 'Chico and Rita' 'Gnomeo and Juliet' 'Rango' 'Wrinkles' 'Rio' Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com