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Beauty and the beast is a disney animated movie that aired in 1991. It highlights the story of a girl named Belle meeting a beast. At the end of the movie the beast’s curse is broken thanks to Belle’s kindness.

The entirety of beauty and the beast had been created being fully hand-drawn animation. Hand-drawn animation has been the standard for decades, nearly centuries now. However, thanks to the rise of technology like the computer and computer-scanning devices, Disney was able to test out new techniques that boost not only the quality of the film but the productivity of the development team. A notable development

In the creation of Beauty and the Beast, they had used a type of computer generated animation called CAPS. CAPS, in the short term, means Computer Animation Production System. This was one of the first few systems that focused on using computers to animate. However, I should mention that Beauty and the Beast was not the first instance of Disney using CAPS to animate a scene in an animated film. The first Disney animated film that used the CAPS program is actually; The Little Mermaid.

CAPS scanned hand drawn images that were inked and converted it into computer images for animators to fill in and layer. As shown in the previous images, this technique was later used in the final 2 scenes during the ending of The Little Mermaid. In the success of this first test, they proceeded to hire a small team. According to Jim Hillin’s interview, they had 5 people doing computer graphics at the time. (Ian Falies, 2021)

This was the rendered set created by the team back then using Alias out of Canada, now named Maya in its most recent incarnation owned by Autodesk in the modern age while using the head of the background department’s sketch of the ballroom.

Now you may be thinking: “The Ballroom scene was a 3D render, and these images show the process of 2D illustrations, how could CAPS possibly be responsible for contributing to the ballroom scene!?” In the words of Jim Hillin: “CAPS certainly was largely a digital ink and paint system, but a big part of it was also keeping track of everything. A huge piece of the system was the database.” (Ian Falies, 2021)

Thanks to CAPS they were able to scan the details needed for the textures of the walls, pillars, etc. Basically nearly all of the things that were required for the colouring, shading, and detailing. Of course, the dancers were too hand drawn and scanned into CAPS, using its abilities even more to layer and overlay the 3D set and 2D set on top of one another.

While certainly old school and no longer the standard in animation, it certainly was the starter and the biggest contributor to computer-generated animation as we know it today. It even made use of a very prominent and long standing animation program: once named Alias, now called Maya.

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Toy Story is famously known for being the innovator of the first fully computer-animated feature film. A collaboration between Walt Disney and Pixar, this movie was one of the biggest contributors to Disney buying Pixar outright. While not explicitly said, it’s very obvious that the impact Toy Story has had has not only affected Disney’s work ethics, but the entire animation industry’s overall success and productivity moving forward into the future.

Toy Story focused on the production of making their films fully computer-animated. Which means that they used rigging, layering, shading, lighting, the movement of the characters, all with the unlimited abilities of the computer. However, the process wasn’t all smooth sailing.

The first draft of Toy Story didn’t even follow Woody, it followed a tiny toy named Tinny. He was a lost toy, exploring the house during Christmas eve to find his missing band mates. Along the way, he meets several other toys on his adventure.

This story is less known among the masses, Disney had disagreements with this interpretation of the story, so they gave the creator (John Lasseter) another chance to remake the story. However, it did not go well at all.

Now this storyboard is the most popular part of the production of Toy Story, despite its famed computer-animated animation, the release of the Black Friday Reel was the most insightful part of production as these storyboards were the sole reason why Toy Story was nearly cancelled. They gave John Lasseter one more attempt to rewrite the story, and the movie was greenlit. That story eventually became the toy story we all know and love.

These images highlight the process of animating during the 1990s with computers. They worked slowly due to the limitations of their technology at the time. They had to commit to experimenting with the majority of the animation considering computers were only used to refine visual effects at the time.

This movie did have the biggest impact on the animation industry and its influence continues on into the Disney animations of today. Most if not all of the animation of the modern age are all 3D  computer animated films, this has even leaked into the animated series industry.

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Disney is actually quite well known for adapting and writing newer interpretations of previous legends. For example; Snow White. The original concept of the story was written in 1812 by the Brothers’ Grimm. A famous author duo known for their fairytale works. And this tradition is no different for Disney’s Mulan.

Disney’s Mulan was their first time properly delving into Asian folklore, specifically, Chinese folklore. Mulan was based on a historic figure named; Hua Mulan.

Hua Mulan is a historical figure in China’s history, or should I say a potential fable. No one truly knows if she once existed or not. But while the true date of her history is unclear, it is estimated that her ballads take place during the 390s to 500s. She was said to be a girl who went to war disguised as a man to save her father from war. However, Disney’s interpretation of Mulan differs from that of the original stories, both 1998 and 2020.

In the original ballads of Hua Mulan, it highlights the journey and achievements of Hua Mulan during her 12 year service and how she achieved high praise, even by the emperor, who offered her one of the highest positions in the army. She declined however, returning to her family after her service. The only difference between the interpretations is:

1. Li Shang’s existence & Mulan’s romance with him.

2. Her true identity of being a woman being discovered.

She was never discovered to be a woman during her time in the war, she was only discovered after her service but was never persecuted for this despite the laws working against her. In fact, her service gains favor from the emperor.

These are some concept art and highlight notes detailing Chinese facial features for the animators to take note of when animating the film. This illustrates not only their dedication to creating and interpreting an older Chinese legend, but to also represent them as much as possible.