Behind the Scenes of Toy Story

The goal while creating the animation of Toy Story was to create something new and unique, along with something familiar.  One of the challenges the animators faced was creating believably illuminated and shaded surfaces, such as animal fur, bedclothes and surface textures of the toys.

As you have probably noticed, Toy Story characters all have a very shiny look that reflects light.  This was no mistake!  This was a common and smart decision by the animators because at the time, plastic-looking surfaces were easily achievable on the computer.  The first time that Pixar was able to create a believable illusion of human skin was in 2004 when The Incredibles came out.

In Toy Story, the writing team consisting of Joss Whedon, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alex Sokolow and Joe Ranft, constructed the movie's storyline.  The screenplay development happened at the same time that the animators were starting to create the characters.  The way the team created the film helped them figure out how to best connect the dialog to the characters and artwork they created.  Once the team began to narrow the focus of the screenplay, they began the process of mapping out the story by using hand-drawn storyboards.  This way, drawings and painted character designs were also used as the basis for the sketch of the characters which were then scanned on the computer.

When they started to create the screenplay, some elements of the story naturally had to be cut out.  Pixar then used some of these elements for later films, as they do often.  An example of this is when Toy Story was supposed to have opened with a Buzz Lightyear cartoon.  Because this prologue was abandoned, the animators added this to the begging of Toy Story 2.

During Toy Story's production, Disney kept bugging them about adding the eight musical numbers they had suggested they added, to where the characters expressed their hopes and fears.  Pixar explained that they just preferred to use dialog to communicate the character's feelings.  John Lasseter, part of the animating team explained; "we wanted to create a sense of nostalgia for the adults in the audience."  Pixar's films are usually created using bright and radiant colors.  For Toy story, they were influenced by the American painter Maxfield Parrish, who was famous for his hyperreal paintings, which appeared to shine with an "inner glow."


Works Cited:

Clarke, James. The Films of Pixar Animation Studio. Kamera Books, 2013.