Animated Film: The Blending of Art with Science (By Gene S. Lee)

In this post I will review about a seminar I attended last this week. Yep, I still have many things to write from my previous blog post series. However, this issue is still fresh in my mind and to prevent the possibility that it may evaporate from my memories quickly, I will review this issue first instead and postpone the previous blog post series.

So, in the beginning of previous week I read a seminar notice posted in KAIST Portal. This portal is basically an internal web that provides information to KAIST student and staff. Coincidentally, I checked the notice in seminar tab which in the top of it I saw a seminar organized by KAIST Graduate School of Culture Technology. I carefully read the notice and what made me surprise was the speaker of the seminar. The seminar would be presented by Gene S. Lee, Ph.D. according to that notice.

Who is he? Why it surprised me? What made me wanted to attend this seminar at first place?

It all because I saw where he came from. He is currently a Senior Software Engineer for Walt Disney Animation Studios. That's why dude. Because he is from DISNEY.

Walt Disney Animation Studio's Logo

Who doesn't know Disney? Disney, founded by Walt Disney is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise (as stated in the company overview in its company website). Since its foundation in 1923 Disney has always been creatively finding its way in the show business and living the children dream. As an important division of the whole Disney company, the Walt Disney Animation Studios since 1937 have been producing more than 50 animation motion pictures which have been proved not only profitable, but also featured high quality story indicated by many awards won by the movies, including the most prestigious one the Academy Awards. List of animated movie produced by Disney since 1937 can be viewed here or in the short video below which was released on the celebration of Disney 50th Animated movie, Tangled (this video however hasn't include the most recent movies, Winnie The Pooh and Wreck-It Ralph). Because of these many years of experiences, the Disney's products are well known across the generations. I believe in their childhood our grandparents also watched Disney's movies. The key of success of Disney animated movie is not only limited to the rich story that can be enjoyed by all people, but also the basic principle of Disney that always improve their movie production, so every new movie will have better (graphical) quality than the previous one. This principle was later explained more in the seminar. The merger of Pixar into Disney in 2004, undoubtedly makes The Walt Disney Studio to be a giant in the field of animated movies.

50th Celebration Trailer of Walt Disney Animation Studios Movies (2010)

So, come back to the seminar. I was the first person to enter the seminar room last week. I saw the speaker's MacBook already set and the title slide of his presentation featuring various characters from Disney's animated movie appeared on the screen. I took a bold chance to capture the title's slide. Later, in the beginning of the seminar the speaker kindly asked the audience not to capture or record his talk due to the copyright matter and also one of the content of his presentation (Frozen) is still confidential because the movie hasn't been released yet. This was a lucky chance for us to learn about that new movie, so to pay some respect to his wish I decided to move away my iPhone and just listened to his talk carefully. So, the content that I used here, i.e. photos, videos, were obtained by employing the almighty Google search. Later during the presentation I learned that his presentation was actually prepared for a conference in Korea namely BIEN 2013, as he was invited to be one of the plenary speaker. You can view the official summary of his talk here.

Gene S. Lee

He opened the seminar by introducing us to Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS). Located in Burbank, the same location with the Walt Disney Company headquarters, WDAS employs around 850 people. Why so many people? Because the task of making an animated movie is not simple. It takes around 300 people for one movie for the course of 2-3 years. After that he talked about animated movie production in general. How he collaborated with a lot of people with different expertise, i.e. artists, software engineers, computer engineers, etc. He also mentioned that, the key to Disney Animated Movie's success is not only the strong background story created for the particular movie, but also the capability of the company to consistently improve the quality, mostly graphical, of the new movie by employing the latest technology, including both software and hardware breakthrough. One sad things is the hardware of previous movie production will no longer be able to use since for new production the "big boss" often demands better result and faster production time for the next product, so they need to renew the resources. On the other side, the requirement of latest software is not always come with cheap price. The community for this animation movie making is not so large, most of the time they are forced to create their own software to be able to fulfill their movie targets. After learning all this thing in introduction, I have no doubt why a MIT graduate like Gene S. Lee is interested to work for Disney. It is all because the challenges faced in making a such beautiful Disney animated movie is not that easy to be solved, and it will definitely intrigue the bright minds to come and participate. In addition, he also mentioned that the company regularly conducts a global talent search to recruit the whether employ or intern from all around the world. They are willing to bring in a promising candidate to work with the other employees in the headquarter. Some of the talents are including the expert of Finite Element Method (FEM), Machine Learning, etc. At first I confused what are these people do with making an animated movie? I always thought they mainly hire graphical designer, animator, etc. But later, after he explained about the specific requirements of his three latest production (Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph & Frozen), I began to realize the importance of these experts.

WDAS Employees

Three movies discussed during the seminar. From left to right: Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frozen.

He began to discuss about the challenges and breakthrough in Tangled. This movie's main character is Rapunzel, whose hair is 70 feet long. The first challenge was of course the long hair. They struggled to simulate Rapunzel's long hair. The simulation here means the dynamic of the hair while the character is moving. This is where the FEM takes places. Yep... They simulated the hair by using FEM. How incredible it was. I couldn't show the detail of the simulation, because I didn't record or take picture during the seminar, but I found some papers, yep they published a paper related to this movie, which discussed the hair simulation and how they control it. This hair challenges however seems to be unrealistic in the physical world, because in the real physical world imagine how much the weight of 70 feet long hair? It will make the character almost impossible to move around. But since this is movie is a story about the girl with 70 feet hair, they have to find solution for that. They improvised by creating creative physics tool, which allowed their artists (animator) to control the hair while the character is moving. I saw the original motion of the Rapunzel, and I was amazed by the role of FEM to solve the dynamic motion of the hair. He added that the blonde color of the hair was also difficult, since the blonde color behavior is strongly related with the light that struck onto it. This hair's color related problem and the light illumination of the hair (sometimes the artists want to make Rapunzel's hair to glow) were further explained in this paper. The next challenge was related to the light tracing and designing the background inside the movie to make the animated movie a little bit more realistic. Why they focused so much into the detail? As explained by the speaker, the audience will not notice any defect if they make the movie as detail and as realistic as possible. In contrast, when you make the movie without paying attention to the detail, the audiences will easily notice and complain about the quality of the movie. Yep, that's a lot of hard work to satisfy the consumer taste. The last challenge in this movie was the dynamic of multilayer cloth worn by Rapunzel. Luckily, in this movie only Rapunzel that used multilayer cloth, the other supporting characters only used single layer cloth.

Finished with the Tangled, the speaker explained about the challenges faced during the production of Wreck-It Ralph. The first one was many characters generation. This is the only Disney animated movie to have the most number of characters in one movie. The movie's story was about the adventure of a video game character into the realm of the other video game. That's why they need to generate a lot of characters. To create a character together with their (facial) expression was also a serious challenge. To overcome this problem they made their own programming language namely as dRig. This program also known as an artist-friendly object oriented programing, which allowed the artist to easily create the characters for the movie. As I also remembered, the second challenge was related to controlling the characters created. This is where the machine learning takes place. By employing machine learning, they wouldn't have difficulty even they had so many characters during production.

The last one, the speaker talked about the most recent project soon to be released during Thanksgiving holiday. This movie called Frozen used the most sophisticated technology applied in animated movie production and became the most graphically beautiful movie ever created so far by Disney. He discussed three challenges of these movies, the first one was visual effects. These movies included many visual effects since the theme of the movie is related to magic and sorcery. I'm not really understand how they solved the visual effect problem, since it was not conceptually explained as previous movie, but rather technologically approach was discussed. The second challenge was the multilayer cloth. Unlike Tangled, in this movie this problem was way much complicated since the background story told all of characters to live in freezing environment, then all characters must be equipped with multilayer cloth. The last challenge was snow behavior. He explained how they simulated the snow so the environment would seemed to be realistic. They also specifically invited the snow expert to give lectures about snow to the artist, software engineer and some other staffs participated in this movie. As one of the results they simulated the behavior of four types of snows (I didn't really recall all the types). He said, if you see the movie later, you will have the feeling that the character of the movie will experience real snow.

Souvenir from the seminar

Before closing the seminar the speaker distributed us a sticker of his company as you can see above. He claimed that we couldn't find this sticker sold elsewhere, since it was exclusively distributed by the company only on special occasions. Finally, the seminar was officially closed by watching a teaser trailer of Frozen as you can view in the following video.

 

Disney's Frozen Teaser Trailer

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The Amazing Race Summary Part 2 - Season 22

Okay, in this post I will discuss about The Amazing Race Season 22. Again, this post is based on my perspective, for the unbiased summary please click the following Wikipedia or Wikia page.

The Amazing Race 22

The Amazing Race 22 Route

In this season I started to favor some teams, and the route of this race is also one of my favorite routes in this show. My first favorite team is Pam & Winnie who are best friends from L.A., they are both pretty, smart and considered as one of strong and competitive woman teams, and also representing the Asian-American in this race (I'm truly Asian, of course this matters hehe...). My second favorite team is Max and Katie who are newlyweds from Buffalo, they are highly competitive & intelligent (esp. Katie) and newlyweds who dream to have a memorable honeymoon experience by joining this race, what an unforgettable one in a lifetime honeymoon isn't it?

First challenge in Bora-Bora

The route of this race is also somehow fascinating for me. Starting from U.S. (L.A.)-French Polynesia (Bora-Bora)-New Zealand-Indonesia-Vietnam-Botswana-Switzerland-Germany-Scotland-Northern Ireland-U.S. (Washington D.C.). This was the first time race to visit Bora-Bora, an exotic tropical paradise located in the south Pacific Ocean, made this spot listed as one of my favorite destinations for honeymoon. In this leg of the race teams were challenged to do tandem skydive from helicopter at the height of 3000 m above the ground. This was a fantastic challenge, encountering an expensive experience by overlooking the lagoon of Bora-Bora. The following task was looking for your next clue inside one of 400 sandcastles at the beach. This task relied on luck and passion. Performed at noon, looking for the clue while digging the hot sand not only tested your physical, but also your mental strength. In this leg, the smart Katie made her move by persuading the last three teams including her to give up the challenge and receive the four hours penalty in order to save their time in the following leg from painstakingly digging the sandcastles. This proved as good decision where in the following leg the race was slightly reset due to hour of operation of the water taxi in Bora-Bora. Further, Katie proved again her intelligence in Bora-Bora by choosing the easier detour challenges to perform and save their position. Her suggestion for choosing the later detours also help her team to move up in the later legs.

Contrary results. (Left) Dave & Connor were able to race even with crutches after receiving express pass from Jessica & John. (Right) Jessica & John got eliminated without cleverly used their express pass to help them during the detour/roadblock challenge

In the second leg in Bora-Bora one team (Dave & Connor), father and son who are both cancer survivors, got some accident of tearing his (Dave) achilles tendon while racing the other team (Bates & Anthony) to the pit stop in order to secure the first place in that leg. Fortunately, because the already made some alliance and pact with the other team (Jessica & John), they received an express pass which won by Jessica & John in the first leg and needed to be given to the other team. By using this express pass Dave and Connor were still able to continue the race while Dave using crutches to help him move. Moreover, they are greatly benefited from the express pass which help them to secure the first position (together with some prizes) in the next two legs in New Zealand and Indonesia, before finally withdrawing their participation from the race to get some surgery for Dave. However, the opposite thing happened to Jessica & John, while they struggled to perform a detour during the leg in Bali, Indonesia, John insisted not to use their express pass to save it for the later leg if somehow they get U-Turned by other teams. This decision proved to prevent them from winning US$ 1 million after they got eliminated in the 4th leg, and marked the history of The Amazing Race as the first team who have express pass but not able to escape from elimination.

Talking about intelligence, luck and patience in this race, I thought they all have same proportion for this race. Let me get some examples. During the leg in New Zealand, only Max and Katie team who reserved the flight from New Zealand to Bali before going to the airport, helped them to secure their seat for the first flight scheduled to arrive at Bali. In the leg in Vietnam, they were also the team who initiated to look over an internet for help them to solve the clue before going to the travel agent (actually they are second in chronological order after Pam & Winnie who departed first). This leg showed me that both team were the smartest one among others. However, both teams met their bad luck in Botswana and resulted the elimination of Pam and Winnie in Botswana. During the leg in Botswana, Pam and Winnie already chosen the appropriate detour challenge but their donkey couldn't moved at all, pushed them to switch easier detour but required high accuracy. They were doing the both detour challenges inaccurately and made them to come in last position for elimination. For Max & Katie, during the road trip in Botswana Katie already noticed the speed limit but unfortunately Max still drove to fast and made them caught in speed trap by local police. This speed ticket consumed their valuable time and almost cost their position (however they were saved by Pam & Winnie struggling with detours). Talking about luck, the other team (Chuck & Wynona) were the luckiest team in this race. As one of the weakest teams and came as the last team to check in the pit stop twice in New Zealand and Vietnam, they were still saved by their good luck, where in New Zealand they encountered a double-length leg and in Vietnam Dave & Connor withdrawal from the race made them the actual second last team and saved their position. Their luck made them able to race until third-quarter of the total journey, before getting eliminated in 8th leg.

Tidal Basin where Max & Katie got stuck

The race continued from Botswana to Germany, and here I found a new twist about The Amazing Race namely the curse of three consecutive first positions. It stated by Bates & Anthony who won the three consecutive legs, but got some bump in the following leg. Since that I observed the behavior of the winner of each pit stop. Later I found that in season 16 Louie & Michael, season 13 Ken & Tina were two teams I found encountered this curse. Due to their competitive and intelligence skill, Max & Katie succeeded to climb from the underdog team to top three teams who race for the final. It was shown clearly that in the 4 last legs, their intelligence helped them to solved the challenges faster than the other teams and made them won 3 consecutive prizes by finishing first in 4 last legs. However, the curse stated by Bates & Anthony came to reality. In the 4th leg after three consecutive wins, which was now the final leg in D.C., Max & Katie still surpassed the other teams by going to the right places referred by the clues. But, when they encountered the roadblock in the Tidal Basin Max met his bad luck without finding the right "secret service" among hundreds of secret services spread around107 acres of Tidal Basin. This was only luck matter, because Anthony quickly met his secret service only after meeting several secret services. This hampered Max & Katie which later turned out they were placed 2nd after Bates & Anthony in the finish line. This was really disappointing because it was well known that Max & Katie were superior team  until luck took place in the race. I hope they will get some second chance, something like The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business.

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The Amazing Race Summary Part 1 - Season 16

Yep, my post again is about The Amazing Race. I've been watching this show continuously for 2 weeks and completed 4 seasons so far (13,14,16,22). So, I will briefly summarize the race in those 4 seasons in chronological order as I watched them started from season 16. Of course this summary will be based on my perspective. If you want to read the unbiased summary of the race, you can click the link in title below which will direct you to Wikipedia page of related season or click this wikia link.

The Amazing Race 16

The Amazing Race 16 Route

This is the first season I watched in my past two weeks. In this season I didn't really have favorite team, but I had some teams that I didn't want them to be the winner and I admired the pretty Caite Upton despite of her past "sin" hehe...

Challenges in Germany. (Left) Eating a plate of sauerkraut. (Right) Sharing a boot of beer

In this race they start from U.S.(L.A.)-Chile-Argentina-Germany-France-Seychelles-Malaysia-Singapore-China-U.S.(San Francisco), made this season's route to be one of my favorite routes in this show. Chile and Argentina challenges weren't too fascinating for me, I already mentioned some challenges performed in Chile and Argentina in my previous post. However, starting from Germany leg the race become more fascinating. In Germany they had to bungee jump, choose between playing football or eating sauerkraut (non-spicy-German version of kimchi), which I believed is very sour and not delicious hehe... The next challenge was sharing a boot of beer (approx. 1.2 L). The next leg was held at France which had classic and wine theme. In the wine theme, the challenges included looking for a marked bottle of wine inside a wine warehouse and choosing between harvesting the marked grapes over one square kilometer farm or constructing a pyramid of champagne coupes and pour champagne from the top of pyramid without breaking the coupes.

Praslin Island in Seychelles (Photo by Paradise Sun Hotel)

The next leg was continued to Seychelles, which was the first time I heard about it when I watched this season. Apparently it is one of tropical paradise located in Indian Ocean near to Africa, and soon be listed in my ideal honeymoon destination. After that the race went to 2 countries in South East Asia (Malaysia and Singapore), which I believed if I had joined the race I would have benefited, since I came from Indonesia hehe... In this South East Asia countries they performed the challenges related to the local Chinese people's tradition. One amazing thing happened during the race in Malaysia, where the runner up of this season (Jet & Cord) started from the last place, completed a speed bump and finished first and the end of the leg, leaving Steve & Allie who started first in the beginning of the leg to finish last at the end of leg resulted in their elimination. This was marked as the first to happen during The Amazing Race's history and also referred to a passage in the NIV Bible,  Matthew 20:16, So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

In Singapore challenge, the tension between two teams (Brent & Caite with Carol & Brandy) got intense. Their problem initially sparked since the first leg by the involvement of the actual winner of the season (Dan & Jordan) who first made fun of Caite because of her "sin" in their conversation with Carol & Brandy. Carol & Brandy who were slightly arrogant, ever since always made fun of Caite and underestimated her, resulted in not so good relation between two teams. Finally, in the Singapore leg Brent and Caite got chance to U-Turn Carol & Brandy which later eliminated Carol & Brandy from the race after finishing last on the leg. This matter disappointed Carol & Brandy and they never forgave Caite and it continued until the finish line, where they confronted Caite because of her decision to U-Turned them, making this finish line one of the memorable finish lines in The Amazing Race. Actually I was happy when Carol & Brandy were eliminated, because in my opinion both of them are arrogant b*tches (sorry, this is only my opinion after observing their move during the race).

Challenges in China. (Left) Making la mian noodle. (Right) Solving giant puzzles.

Departing from Singapore the race continued to China. This is one my favorite The Amazing Race destination (the others are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and New Zealand). In China they had challenge to make 1 kg of la mian noodles under cold weather and had opportunity to meet the the "extreme" two men from China, He Pingping world shortest man and Bao Xishun world tallest man. The la mian noodles was an extremely difficult task, knowing that since then I appreciate every noodle that I eat. This episode was also dedicated to He Pingping, since he passed away several months after the race and  before the episode was aired. May he rest in peace. The other challenge including solving a giant puzzle. After solving the puzzle, they distributed they 96 pieces of puzzle into 96 people who later flipped the puzzle and revealed their next clue.

Challenge in last leg in LDAC

The final leg, the top 3 teams flew from Shanghai to San Francisco. At Shanghai airport, initially the first two teams who came were Brent & Caite followed by Jet & Cord. However, while waiting for the ticket counter to open, Dan & Jordan came and put their backpacks between Brent & Caite and Jet & Cord backpacks without known by Jet & Cord, because they were sleeping while waiting in front of the ticket counter. It made Dan & Jordan to be the second team to get the airplane ticket. It actually pissed Jet & Cord, but due to their good personality they didn't confront Dan & Jordan. Moreover, during the flight Dan & Jordan played some dirty trick by persuading the flight attendant to promote them into the first class for free so they had better access from the airplane exit. Later this gave Dan & Jordan advantage during the final leg and made them the actual winner of this season. Honestly, I hate them to be the winner, since they were the dirtiest player in this season, started by igniting the heat between Carol & Brandy and Brent & Caite, followed by the tricks they played during the final leg. Since those things weren't prohibited by The Amazing Race's rules, they were still the legitimate winner of this race. Fortunately, this made Jet & Cord to have one more chance by participating in The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business. In this final leg, team had a memorable task which was experiencing to produce an visual effect animation in Letterman Digital Art Center (LDAC), which previously produced Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Cool right, isn't it?

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