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Building a Dynamic Dad
Hybrid simulation and animation rig for Onward's Dad character using tetrahedral volumes with rest-state deformation and animator-controllable targeting.
Abstract
In Pixar’s Onward, the character Dad had an upper half which consisted of a stuffed hoodie, puffy vest, and garden gloves. The arms were floppy, stuffed sleeves able to swing freely while the head was a cinched, stuffed hood topped with a cap and wearing sunglasses. His lower body was rigged and simulated like a typical character. Knowing it was unrealistic to hand-animate the loose swinging arms and squishy upper body for a feature-length project, we developed a hybrid simulation/animation rig using tetrahedral volumes with complex rest state deformation and animatable targeting. This resulted in a robust, iterative workflow where simulation and animation were used together.
How to read this
- Category
- Production talk / character breakdown
- Contributions
- Demonstrates a hybrid simulation/animation rig for Pixar Onward's Dad, whose stuffed upper body and floppy arms could not be hand-animated
- Uses tetrahedral volumes with complex rest-state deformation plus animatable targeting to keep simulation under artist control
- Shows an iterative workflow where simulation and animation are used together rather than in sequence
- Context
- Relates to production deformable-body simulation practice, closely tied to Kim and Eberle's 'Dynamic Deformables: Implementation and Production Practicalities' and Pixar's Fizt solver.Builds on: Dynamic Deformables: Implementation and Production Practicalities
- Correctness
- Studio practice, not peer-reviewed; results are production-proven on a single shipped film, so the rest-state and targeting choices are tuned to this specific character rather than evaluated for generality.
- Clarity
- Accessible and example-driven; a single read conveys the workflow, with figures/video carrying most of the insight.
- How to read it
- Read once for the hybrid sim/animation philosophy and the rest-state deformation trick; pair with the Dynamic Deformables course for the underlying math.
Built upon by
Nothing yet.
Related work
- Scriptable Character FX Solution 2019 / DigiPro
- Simulating Rapunzel's Hair in Disney's Tangled 2010 / SIGGRAPH
- Stable Spaces for Real-time Clothing 2010 / SIGGRAPH
- Directing Cloth Draping through Blended UVs 2025 / SIGGRAPH
Keywords
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