Tangled

Although Pixar are the pioneers of 3D animation, Walt Disney Studio's really are the core beginning of animation as a medium. As a primarily 2D animation company, Tangled is a large stepping stone for Disney as a company, as it was their first 3d animated fairy tale.

Progression of an Animated Shot: Gothel & Rapunzel Disney's Tangled from Jamaal Bradley on Vimeo.
Here is a great insight into the long process it takes to create 3D films. This animation breakdown reel has to be one of my favourites of this kind, simply as it repeats the same section of footage over and again, rather than having a continual piece, which I feel gives a better understanding into how they did it. In this section too, you can clearly see each characters personalities just by their subtle movements and clever character design; with Rapunzel having soft curved features, with smooth flowing hair and pastel coloured clothing, which contrasts with her step mothers sharp features (especially her jaw line), coarse hair and deep coloured dress.


Within this video every environment in the film is discussed, talking about the feel they wanted for the different settings, and where they drew their inspiration from. For the whole film in general they stated that 'We want to capture that look again, but because it's in CG it will have a whole fresh feel', when talking about how Disney creates such epic 2D animated fairy tales. I feel that this is a really honest response, and rather than shunning away 2D as many 3D animation teams do, they are simply using those skills and applying them in a different medium to give the story a breath of fresh air. I also love that they used Fantasy Land (a section of Disney Land) as their main source of visual inspiration, and described as a '3-Dimensional land in a Disney style'.