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Hi! My name is Ryan, and I was a Lighting Lead in charge of Soul World Assets on #PixarSoul 
. My main responsibilty was to be part of the look development team and the Lighting department liason for the Soul world characters. So, SoulJoe, Soul22, Soul mystics, Terry, the Jerries..
. My main responsibilty was to be part of the look development team and the Lighting department liason for the Soul world characters. So, SoulJoe, Soul22, Soul mystics, Terry, the Jerries..
as well as all of the crowd souls, the cat soul, etc. All of these characters were particularly difficult to figure out, as they were unlike any characters Pixar had done before. There were some precedents at Pixar (Joy in Inside Out, the clouds in Partly Cloudy), but tech has...
changed a lot at the studios since those days. There was no approved single "design" for the soul characters when I started, so we weren't figuring out how the look of the souls would be achieved, we were figuring out what they were supposed to look like on screen. #PixarSoul
And now we're in the Great Beyond, first look at the soul chraracters! #PixarSoul This movie's preproduction played out as if we were working on two completely different movies at the same time: the NYC human world movie and the soul world movie.
This movie's preproduction played out as if we were working on two completely different movies at the same time: the NYC human world movie and the soul world movie.
The soul characters are made almost entirely of volume primitives (at Pixar, saved in the f3d format), with the sole (ahem) exception of the eyes. We did experiments with volumetric eyes, but we were concerned we would never be able to get the eyes looking "right" #PixarSoul
I want to call out my brilliant co-workers in the lighting department who worked on soul world lighting. I will probably forget people, but...Don Bui and Jesse Hollander did the Great Beyond scene; You Seminar/Great Before was Sungyeon Joh, Jose Ramos, Amber Lunderville, Andy Lin
#PixarSoul Emmanuel Maniez for the Great Beyond scene with Terry and a Jerry; Jonathan Kiker and Katie Bickley for the You Seminar scene with Terry talking to the Jerrys; Brian Boyd and Josee Lajoie for the You Seminar theater scene. Magnificent, brilliant work by all of them.
Emmanuel Maniez for the Great Beyond scene with Terry and a Jerry; Jonathan Kiker and Katie Bickley for the You Seminar scene with Terry talking to the Jerrys; Brian Boyd and Josee Lajoie for the You Seminar theater scene. Magnificent, brilliant work by all of them.
#PixarSoul Josee Lajoie worked hard to make the You Seminar instructional video look like an old, worn out VHS tape. Notice the 4:3 aspect ratio of the You Seminar video, snow, tracking errors...
Josee Lajoie worked hard to make the You Seminar instructional video look like an old, worn out VHS tape. Notice the 4:3 aspect ratio of the You Seminar video, snow, tracking errors...
#PixarSoul The Hall of You was lit by @MaxBickley, Vandana Sahrawat, Emmanuel Maniez, with the mentor interludes in the You Seminar lit by Edward Chen.
The Hall of You was lit by @MaxBickley, Vandana Sahrawat, Emmanuel Maniez, with the mentor interludes in the You Seminar lit by Edward Chen.
One of the most difficult things about the soul characters is that they were volumes, so partially transparent. But wait, shouldn't we see teeth and tongue inside the characters' closed mouths? Yes, but we don't because we cut away what would be hidden by cheeks/skin. #PixarSoul
#PixarSoul Luke Martorelli and David Shavers lit the Hall of Everything shots. They were so packed with volumetric stuff that we could barely get them through the render farm due to memory issues.
Luke Martorelli and David Shavers lit the Hall of Everything shots. They were so packed with volumetric stuff that we could barely get them through the render farm due to memory issues.
