Mickey was actually animated for this project by Duck Studios, which Mathew Cullen and Chris Leone directed. click on any images for larger versionsįxg: What was involved in accessing or modeling the Disney character assets?įragomeni: All the 2D characters were modeled and match moved from either animation from Duck, or 2D animated or 3D animations. That’s where we started to break up what was going to be RealFlow and what we would do as Houdini fluids. It blew our minds and really set the bar. The concept also changed a little after we had gone to a sneak peek of the World of Color show.

As we worked through it in early R&D we fleshed out a lot of things in how the water would behave, such as using the characters as hold-outs and forcing water over the geometry. Scale was something we also had to address. The concepts were a little more glassy than what the end product ended up being, because really water behaves in such a random way. We also established that we would rely on a mix between RealFlow and Houdini fluids to achieve our desired look.įxg: How far could you take any storyboards and previs?įragomeni: The boards were more like look frames – taking some of the Disney characters and realising them as water figures. We were tasked with mixing animated Disney icons like Mickey Mouse – who was re-designed for the first time in 25 years – with a photo-real water show. As soon as I saw the concept work, I realised that it couldn’t be done as live action production with 3D enhancement. Very early in pre-production, the directors, Mathew Cullen and Christopher Leone, along with our design team, lead by Rham Bhat, the agency and Disney conceptualized the spot to create the overall look for the commercial. We talk to MT’s vfx supe John Fragomeni and RealFlow lead Andy Cochrane about the techniques used for the commercial.įxg: What were some of your early considerations in realising the spot?įragomeni: When the initial idea of a commercial for the Disney World of Color show was presented to Motion Theory, we knew up front that the strength in our pitch was that we operate as a design, visual effects and production company, so we were strong in creative as well as the technical delivery. For a spot promoting Disney’s ‘World of Color’ show, Motion Theory orchestrated fountains of colored water and light and mixed them with renditions of well-known Disney characters.

Realflow renderkit