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The Development of Toy Story through the Years

Indeed, technology has greatly evolved over time, which was greatly seen in the animation differences between Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 4 (2019). In fact, the animation film process has become more complex and detailed today, as producers used 11 stages of different processes to come up with Toy Story 4, as compared to Toy Story which only utilized 5 stages. This just shows how Toy Story changed how animated films were created, as it helped making producers think more creatively and uniquely (Messer, 2015).  

For instance, shading is a stage that was only used in Toy Story 4, which helped in emphasizing minor details likes scratches, hair, fur, skin, etc. (Cheng et al., 2020). The two pictures below show the character animation of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story and Toy Story 4 respectively.

The side-by-side comparison of the two pictures just show that animators today also focused on improving the minor graphics and details of the different features of the characters, so that viewers would feel that a touch of reality in a fictional movie. 

Another example is the simulations in Toy Story 4, wherein animators constantly reviewed the scenes for them to evaluate whether they can add some more elements and features, which can further enhance the scene, to make it more the environment more realistic. This is supported by an interview of Animated Views to Toy Story 4 Graphics Art Director, Craig Foster, wherein he said that they did lot of research to make sure the graphics are real, which would also support the story, the character and the environment (Noyer, 2020).

Despite these new features, Toy Story and Toy Story still share some common stages in animation development, like the storyboard, which would be the skeleton of the whole movie as it serves as the guide of all parts of the story. Likewise, the pictures below show that they are almost the same for both movies, it’s just that the drawings of Toy Story 4 are much more detailed and substantial.

Another common process is the usage of animation applications to determine the movement and facial expressions of the characters which was just enhanced to improve the smoothness of the said actions. In fact, Toy Story 4 just used more realistic movements as they used real gymnasts and experts, namely ballroom dancer Sharna Burgess and gymnast Aly Raisman, for Bo Peep’s movements. (Cheng et al., 2020)

According to Desiderio and Phillips, animators in Toy Story had 117 computers running just to render a frame that would take 45 minutes to 30 hours. On the other hand, Toy Story 4 producers said that they could now render the original Toy Story movie faster than watching it entirely. In fact, producers developed RenderMan, to help make computer graphics practical for use in motion pictures (Babcock, 2015). This just shows how much more efficient their production has been.

These are just some of the many improvements that one could see from Toy Story to Toy Story 4.

Sources Used:

Babcock, G. How ‘Toy Story’ Turned Computer Animation Into Human Emotion. Complex. https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/11/toy-story-20th-anniversary

Cheng, S., Geaghan-Breiner, M. & Desiderio K. (2020). Pixar's 'Toy Story 4' won the Oscar for best animated feature. Take a closer look at how the movie was animated from start to finish. Insider Entertainment. https://www.insider.com/pixar-disney-toy-story-4-how-animated-start-finish-2019-7

Desiderio, K.& Phillips, I. (2020). How Pixar's animation has evolved over 24 years, from 'Toy Story' to 'Toy Story 4'. Insider Entertainment. https://www.insider.com/pixars-animation-evolved-toy-story-2019-6

Messer, L. (2015). 'Toy Story' Turns 20: How It Changed Animated Films Forever. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/toy-story-turns-20-changed-animated-films-forever/story?id=35281890

Noyer, J. (2020). Pixar Graphics Art Director Craig Foster on Toy Story 4. Animated Views. https://animatedviews.com/2019/pixar-graphics-art-director-craig-foster-on-toy-story-4/

Pixar (n.d.). Pixar Wiki. https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Bo_Peep

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