Naturally, both Disney and Pixar are fairly exacting about how their properties look in someone else's game, but that goes pretty deep. Any recreation of a Disney asset has to be approved, and any change explained. As lead facial animator Kayoko Yajima puts it: "There was actually a lot of pressure to get even the smallest details that you wouldn't even think would be that important to look like they do in the movie."
.Cutscene animators seem to have it hardest of all. Square's animators work specifically from documentation given by the various Disney teams, but even then it might not come out precisely enough for the original creators. Yakima continues: "we get requests from Disney and Pixar like, 'we want them to be showing less teeth here,' or 'their eyelids need to move differently,' or 'their line of sight isn't quite right'. Of course, cutscenes are where the soul of the character comes out, so it was something that we put a lot of effort into and adjusted down to the minutiae
For gameplay animators, every individual action is approved down to the smallest detail: "You know, we'll program an action in and Disney or Pixar will say 'that's a bit too violent', or 'they wouldn't do that sort of thing'," says animation director Koji Inoue. "When it came to Remy from Ratatouille, they talked a lot about the precise movements of his tail."
Series creator Tetsuya Nomura says that, generally speaking, Pixar cares more about the "technical, creative side of things", while Disney focuses more on "the overall production". Speaking to various teams, it becomes clear that Pixar is a little more precious of its property, asking to approve more stages of production, even participating in weekly conference calls with animation teams to make sure everything is created in its image.
It's an approach Nomura clearly empathises with: "I would say that we, as a company and a team, are more like Pixar."
Series creator Tetsuya Nomura says that, generally speaking, Pixar cares more about the "technical, creative side of things", while Disney focuses more on "the overall production". Speaking to various teams, it becomes clear that Pixar is a little more precious of its property, asking to approve more stages of production, even participating in weekly conference calls with animation teams to make sure everything is created in its image.
It's an approach Nomura clearly empathises with: "I would say that we, as a company and a team, are more like Pixar."
Pixar's teams in particular could be fairly exacting about what they want their worlds to look and feel like – but some decisions were subject to major discussions well before they became reality.
Nomura explains that his vision for Kingdom Hearts has always been that Sora and friends canonically arrive in Disney's worlds. That didn't suit the Toy Story team. "When I first brought this to Pixar and I asked about doing that, they were like, 'Actually, no. The Toy Story story is complete. It's a complete package the way it is, and we can't really change that.' I told them if I'm going to do this in the Kingdom Hearts way, then it's going to become a case of, 'Actually, Sora and his friends did come into the world.'"
Full interview - https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/0...challenges-and-rewards-of-working-with-disney
Close if old
