When it comes to CG animation there’s one big rule: Never touch the hair. You can create all kinds of characters and settings, but as long as you avoid those locks, you’re golden. Computer imagery of hair is just a beast of its own nature; each strand has to retain realistic body and strength. So most animators keep the coif short or styled in one ‘do the entire movie and dare not touch it, lest the limitations of computer animation shine through.
Co-directors Nathan Greno and Howard had none of those luxuries. Not only were they working with powerhouses of animation Pixar and Disney, in the story they were attempting to adapt hair was a pivotal part.
“When you talk about blowing up helicopters, it’s challenging in it’s own right,” Howard said. “Hair is really a bizarre thing. It has to be completely natural, any time it becomes too much, it looks bizarre and fake. There are 100,000 individual strands against static electricity involved, and it has to go into this beautiful lush looking polished look.”
Following in the Disney tradition of animating classic fairy tales, Tangled takes the classic Rapunzel tale and gives it a modern look while keeping the old feel of the story. Ten years after playing around with the technology and learning new tricks, Tangled takes hair to a new level, showcasing the scope of computer animation and highlighting possibilities for the future. “At the beginning of this year, we weren’t sure we could do this movie,” Howard admitted.
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The idea of taking the classic story of Rapunzel and making into a Disney animated feature was on the company’s list since the 1940s, Howard explained. Walt Disney had wanted to make the animated feature, but due to the limitations of 2D animation back then and still today, the traditional method that would be used to animate Rapunzel’s long flowing locks just wouldn’t do the story justice. When Howard and Greno stepped into the directing role two years ago, the technical aspect of how to animate the tresses had already been in progress for eight years. They announced to the team that not only did they want to make sure that the hair looked good, they wanted it to act as its own character. “We told the animators, ‘In trying to tell a compelling story, it would be great if she could use it like a bull whip. If she could tie it in the rafters if she could climb it like a monkey.’ They went pale,” Greno recalled.
“The only thing that suffered in this movie was our poor crew,” Howard added.
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The two decided that to expand the story, they wanted to take Rapunzel out of her tower which meant more action sequences which would push the boundaries of computer animation. Typically a character might have their own animator and team dedicated to them. In this case, the tresses had their own team dedicated to them. Early tests had Rapunzel wearing braids at the top of her head to limit the motion of the locks, but everyone felt that was a way of cheating the system – and it showed to audiences who saw it on the screen. “Computers have a hard time recognizing when one object is touching another,” Howard explained. “The hair would be
something we had to tackle, it just became this massive issue.”
“We made some quick adjustments that made the results much, much more predictable,” Howard added, “In the end, the great thing is what you watch what’s on screen you have no idea that that’s some of the most complex technology ever.”
In order to make the movie feel like a Disney movie, Greno and Howard took inspiration from the older movies and projects. To keep with the traditional style, the two made a trip to Aneheim to see Disney’s vision of converting a 2D world into a 3D one, Disneyland. The castles and buildings from the movie are inspired in part by Central Europe and by the iconic structures in the theme park. Greno himself drew special inspiration from his favorite film, Dumbo. As a child, he would draw his own comic books and strips, but Dumbo was the one movie that really inspired him to want to work for Disney one day. The combination of a wildly imaginative landscape plus heavy emotional content was something he strove to bring to Tangled. He believed that it was a combination of the two that made for a film that could appeal to children and adults alike. Bright colors became a key mark, but so did character development “We try to layer these movies with strong emotional moments,” Howard explained.
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“At some point, the movie came together,” Greno said, adding that besides the technical aspects one of the key elements to a successful film was just doing what Disney does best: They always tell a epic story. “Byran and I don’t have kids, but we have nieces and nephews. We want this movie to play for everyone… [Early screenings have shown] there’s enough there for everyone, and well that’s a great feeling for us.”