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Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

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21–28 of 28 posts

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#21
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither Turning Red nor Encanto are Pixar movies? They're from Walt Disney Animation Studios, rendered with Hyperion (just like Frozen, Tangled, Moana or Zootopia).

Walt Disney Animation Studios is Pixar. Or rather, Pixar is Disney. https://www.history.com/.amp/this-day-in-history/walt-disney...

Aren’t they still separate studios, but same owner?

Wasn’t that part of the take over conditions? I seem to recall this from the Steve Jobs bio.

Regardless, the brand “Pixar” gives you different expectations to the story than “Disney “

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#22

Pixar is academics who use stories to showcase their technology. Disney Animation is artists who use technology to tell stories. I worked at Walt Disney Animation Studio (WDAS) for a while and this was the best best explanation of the differences between Pixar and WDAS

For a long time it felt like Pixar was doing better stories than Disney and honestly I feel like Disney animation slowly started catching up with Pixar stories when John Lasseter was put in charge.

From your description you’d expect Disney studio to produce better stories.

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#23
post #7

The simulation of collisions becomes trickier when tangential compliance cannot be ignored. For example, a ping-pong ball (very high tangential stiffness) rotating around an axis perpendicular to the motion falls straight on a table and bounces back up; the rotational velocity decreases, but it does not change sign. Whereas a superball (low tangential stiffness) will change the direction of the rotational velocity. I…

Damn this is cool, may I ask which field you got your PhD on? Computer Science with specialization on physical simulations?

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#24

Pixar is academics who use stories to showcase their technology. Disney Animation is artists who use technology to tell stories. I worked at Walt Disney Animation Studio (WDAS) for a while and this was the best best explanation of the differences between Pixar and WDAS

Thanks for the insider insight. Were you there before or after Disney acquired Pixar? Ratatouille and Wall-E, for example, weren't seen as story-telling?

I joined well after Pixar was acquired. I was there 2014-2019. Started when WDAS was making Big Hero 6 and Pixar was making Inside Out.

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#25

Pixar is academics who use stories to showcase their technology. Disney Animation is artists who use technology to tell stories. I worked at Walt Disney Animation Studio (WDAS) for a while and this was the best best explanation of the differences between Pixar and WDAS

For a long time it felt like Pixar was doing better stories than Disney and honestly I feel like Disney animation slowly started catching up with Pixar stories when John Lasseter was put in charge. From your description you’d expect Disney studio to produce better stories.

There’s no monopoly on stories and Disney was run by committees for a very long time. The internal culture and some of the non-movie activities reflect the values of each studio. For example, Pixar open sourced USD which is quickly becoming an industry standard for animation and VR. I could never imagine WDAS open sourcing something that could give them a competitive technological advantage.

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#26
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither Turning Red nor Encanto are Pixar movies? They're from Walt Disney Animation Studios, rendered with Hyperion (just like Frozen, Tangled, Moana or Zootopia).

Walt Disney Animation Studios is Pixar. Or rather, Pixar is Disney. https://www.history.com/.amp/this-day-in-history/walt-disney...

WDAS and Pixar are two separate studios owned by Disney the company. There are other studios under the Disney umbrella such as ILM, Live Action, Blue Sky (closed), Disneytoon (closed), DTA (TV Animation)

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#27
post #7

The simulation of collisions becomes trickier when tangential compliance cannot be ignored. For example, a ping-pong ball (very high tangential stiffness) rotating around an axis perpendicular to the motion falls straight on a table and bounces back up; the rotational velocity decreases, but it does not change sign. Whereas a superball (low tangential stiffness) will change the direction of the rotational velocity. I…

Damn this is cool, may I ask which field you got your PhD on? Computer Science with specialization on physical simulations?

Glad you find it cool! My PhD was in Mechanical Engineering.

Re: Pixar's notes on Rigid Body Simulation (2001) [pdf]

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a long time it felt like Pixar was doing better stories than Disney and honestly I feel like Disney animation slowly started catching up with Pixar stories when John Lasseter was put in charge. From your description you’d expect Disney studio to produce better stories.

There’s no monopoly on stories and Disney was run by committees for a very long time. The internal culture and some of the non-movie activities reflect the values of each studio. For example, Pixar open sourced USD which is quickly becoming an industry standard for animation and VR. I could never imagine WDAS open sourcing something that could give them a competitive technological advantage.

USD = Universal Scene Description, in case anybody else was wondering.
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