In the anthropomorphic world of Zootopia , we see animals of every kind walk on two feet, use technology, and wear clothes to go to work. The fun caper’s tagline promises us that “the world is unlike anything we’ve seen be-fur”.
Indeed, the animals of the film are so tactile, for lack of a better word, that you just wish you could stroke every itty-bitty character that passes by onscreen. It’s the same sensation elicited when Brave ’s Merida first showed up: that fiery mane made you want to run your hands through her ringlets, if not yank on it. And what about Elsa from Frozen , when her perfect hairdo loosens to fall over dainty shoulders to the tune of “Let it Go”? When animated characters emote, and not just their eyes but their skin, hair, fur amplify the message, they truly come to life. It requires mastery of animation techniques to do that. The Hindu spoke with one such professional, Avneet Kaur, who has worked on several Walt Disney Animation Studios including Frozen , and now, Zootopia .
The Delhi-born Kaur lives in Los Angeles, where she is pursuing her dream of combining technical sciences and creative arts working as a character simulation technical director. “I always loved to draw as a kid, and my parents always encouraged my passion for the arts,” she says. “I pursued higher studies in architecture. I enjoyed creating structures and worlds with people. In order to advance my desire and learn more about that, I jumped into the world of 3D visualisation.” After a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Birla Institute of Technology in India, she got her masters in visualisation sciences from the Texas A&M University. There, she landed up working with Sony Pictures Animation Inc for 18 months, before finding her professional home in Walt Disney Animation Studios, where she’s been for the last decade. “I used to watch a lot of films. Animation became an area of grand focus for my graduate studies. A career in that field felt like a natural extension of what I would like to do. Architecture and 3D filmmaking are similar in many ways and I found myself applying the fundamentals of what I learned in 3D filmmaking.”
Kaur’s job entails working closely with the filmmaking team, where they build the characters from scratch. “I work with the directors, the character designer, the animators, the look development people,” she says. “I am responsible for the creation of each character that I set up for the simulation performance, which is basically an extension of the animation.” In layperson’s terms, this means that she researches and implements new ideas for the developed character. Working with the technology crew allows her to drive software enhancement that’s required for the film. So when Zootopia ’s protagonist Judy Hopps’ fur amplifies her expressions and emotions without her having to speak, Kaur helped create some of the Xgen technology that made it possible. “I did the set-up for simulating cloth and fur on the lead characters, Judy Hopps and Finnick. We are responsible for the performance of the character’s effects.”
In the past 10 years, while Kaur has worked on several Disney films, “to date, my favourite film remains Frozen . A lot of what happens in the film is close to my personal life.” Her two daughters, aged five and ten, were huge inspirations for the animated characters. “Working on the film was reflected in my home, with the two little girls. I loved working on Anna and it was my favourite film to have worked on.”
So next time, you see an animated movie, pay close attention to every character’s body language. And doff your hat to Kaur and her ilk, who have made those characters come so vividly alive.
