How Pixar Animates Human Characters | Movies Insider

The animation quality and the way humans look in 3D has improved drastically to the point where young andy became almost unrecognisable

The decision in Toy Story to only show parts of the humans, usually the lower parts, also improves the story too. Because it brings the audience down to the level and perspective of the toys, making them feel more human and intimate.

Lets be honest when we were children we didn’t even care how good the skin texture and animation was.

Whenever they hid the humans in toy story, I thought they were just irrelevant to the story and not bc they were trying to hide any imperfections lol

11:40 That shot of Violet blow-drying her hair is literally just Pixar showing off how much their animation has evolved.

When an octopus is harder to animate than Violet's hair

No joke. Childhood me had a hard time figuring out whether The Polar Express was a real nightmare or just weirdly animated.

So basically Violets hair is just Pixar flexing their skills? I love it

I never realized that Andy in toy story looked this bad. Being a kid was beautiful. Not realizing all the flaws...

When I saw Andy in toy story 4, I was like “who the heck is that?!” That OG big eyed alien head boy will always be Andy to me.

Coco took my breath away when they showed Mama Coco. No animation will EVER top the detail of her character!

I used to think the Polar Express was real and not animated

You can tell that this video was made for a general audience, because the narrator refers to modellers, texture artists and simulation artists all as "animators"

The narrator: Human skin needs to be smoooth My acne filled face: :(

1997 old animated humans: are clearly old but aren't all that wrinkly 2020 old animated humans: hwinkles

"Boo, the film's only human character" Black kid at the end visible confusion

Random fact: Mickey Mouse was the first ever cartoon character to talk. In the 1929 episode, The Karnival Kid, Mickey’s first words were “Hot dogs!”

Isn't it ironic how the hardest thing to animate for Pixar was our own species?

“How did you animate Mr. Incredible?” Animators: Goo

One thing that is notable is that Pixar went the more stylized route with their humans after Toy Story, while other companies, such as Dreamworks, gave us some of those uncanny valley characters that are a bit disturbing (although they later adopted more cartooney artstyles in later features). I think the lesson is that trying to animate and design 3D realistic humans always look a bit off; you gotta sprinkle that with a bit of creativity and stylization to help convey feelings in a slightly more exaggerated manner.