MAKING WALL•E

Brain Springs: Fast Physics for Large Crowds in WALL•E

by Paul Kanyuk | Pixar Animation Studios

Subscribe to IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications The following videos are short clips from the making of the feature animated film WALL•E and demonstrate aspects of technology used to create its crowd animation. Many images are rough previews of work in progress, although the later videos include some finished work.

» Read the full article from IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications

Videos 1-6 | Videos 7-12 | Videos 13-18

Video 7. This video shows a rigid-body simulation using ODE (Open Dynamic Engine) in Autodesk's Maya, demonstrating how the physics of the spaceship Axiom's tilt sequence was accomplished. Each agent is represented as a cube and a sphere, and the set is represented as a height field (this is only a small subset of the actual agents simulated).

Video 9. This video shows an agent being pushed backward in a simple simulation without blending animation clips.

Video 11. To show how our physics-based acting workflow looks in action, we present a rough shot progression for the scene in WALL•E where the Axiom tilts back and the passengers slide across the deck. This video shows part of the rigid-body simulation used to generate the final animation.

Video 8. This video shows an animation of "panicked flailing" under the influence of forces from various directions. Each clip will be used for motion blending.

Video 10. This is the same simulation as Video 9, but with translational velocity driving a motion blend with the clips shown in Figure 8 in the main article, which is noticeably more realistic.

Video 12. To see how our physics-based acting workflow looks in action, we present a rough shot progression for the scene in WALL•E where the Axiom tilts back and the passengers slide across the deck. This video shows the acting of individual agent types independent of the rigid body sim.

MAKING WALL•E

Brain Springs: Fast Physics for Large Crowds in WALL•E

Videos 13-18 »