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Art-Directed Costumes at Pixar: Design, Tailoring, and Simulation in Production
Fernando de Goes, William Sheffler, Michael Comet, Alonso Martinez, Aimei Kutt
Course covering Pixar's full costume pipeline from design through tailoring and simulation, illustrated with examples from Coco and Incredibles 2.
Abstract
Costumes are an important part of character design, acting, storytelling, and visual appeal in animation. However, it is challenging to achieve art-directed natural-looking motion and detail in CG animated clothing, due to technology, workflow, and budget constraints. This course will cover Pixar's latest approach to CG costumes, from design to tailoring to simulation, and how we try to address these challenges. Our goal is to continue working towards a balance between the detail and physicality of real costumes, and the stylized artistry and movement of 2D animated clothing. Using examples from "Incredibles 2", "Coco", and other Pixar films, we will show how our artists approach the initial costume design direction, strategically plan designs to fit within time and technology constraints, and translate drawings into 3D clothing on stylized characters. Next, we will show how we create garment models using 3D and flat-panel tailoring methods, applications for common simulation parameters and settings, and robust out-of-box simulation techniques using cloth rigging and dynamic alterations. Finally, we will cover the tools used to simulate garments in shots, create appealing shapes and movement, and help Animation let the characters act with their clothing. Although Pixar uses proprietary tools, the principles can be applied to other pipelines.
How to read this
- Category
- Production course: Pixar costume pipeline (design, tailoring, simulation)
- Contributions
- Walks through Pixar's end-to-end CG costume workflow from initial design direction through tailoring to in-shot simulation
- Covers 3D and flat-panel garment tailoring, common simulation parameters, cloth rigging, and dynamic alterations for robust out-of-box sims
- Illustrates balancing physical realism with stylized 2D-animation appeal using examples from Incredibles 2 and Coco
- Context
- Relates to Pixar's deformation and surface tooling (de Goes et al., Patch-based Surface Relaxation) and the wider tradition of art-directed garment simulation in feature animation.Builds on: Patch-based Surface Relaxation
- Correctness
- Studio practice rather than peer-reviewed research; techniques are production-proven on specific films and reflect workflow and budget constraints, so generalization to other pipelines is not guaranteed.
- Clarity
- Accessible course material aimed at practitioners; a single read conveys the pipeline, with specific sections worth revisiting per task.
- How to read it
- Read selectively by the stage you care about (design vs tailoring vs sim); treat the parameter and rigging tips as a reference, no formal second pass needed.
Builds on
Built upon by
Related work
- Directing Cloth Draping through Blended UVs 2025 / SIGGRAPH
- Mixing Yarns and Triangles in Cloth Simulation 2020 / CGF
- Simulating Wind Effects on Cloth and Hair in Disney's Frozen 2014 / SIGGRAPH
- Untangling Cloth 2003 / SIGGRAPH
Keywords
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