“Finding Nemo” provides a spectacular showcase for all the members of Pixar’s technical and creative teams. In order to tell the story convincingly, the technical team had to discover new and improved ways for animating underwater imagery in the computer. Extensive research and development was done to study water properties and new tools were created to provide the full range of possibilities required by the script. Supervising technical director Oren Jacob led an incredible effort to capture the look and feel of an organic coral reef and a vast ocean that would respond in a realistic way to the action of the characters. Early on, Jacob and Pixar’s global technical wizards (supervised by Michael Fong) identified five key components that suggest an underwater environment – lighting (patterns of caustic lighting that dance on the ocean floor and fog beams that shine from the surface), particulate matter (the ever-present debris that appears in water), surge and swell (the constant movement that drives plant and aquatic life), murk (how the color of light filters out over distance and the distance appears dark), and reflections and refractions. Add in bubbles, ripples, drips and rings, and you have the makings of a very complex environment.
Jacob explains, “This film is far more complicated than ‘Monsters, Inc.’ in that almost every shot involves some kind of simulation program or simulated movement. On average, there are more things going on per frame in this movie than we’ve done before by a pretty significant amount. There was more interdependency between the various departments than ever before and we often went back and forth to make sure the lighting and other components looked just right.”
Producer Graham Walters adds, “‘Finding Nemo’ was an amazing film to work on and it exceeded our expectations at every step of the process. Throughout the production, people on the crew would walk into the dailies and be blown away by what they were seeing. The coral reef is particularly beautiful and it ended up looking as if someone had opened Ralph Eggleston’s mind and poured it on the screen. Andrew was a great leader and inspired us all. He has a tremendous amount of respect for the audience and never underestimates them. He is always pushing the Pixar films to get more from the language of film and expand the boundaries of the medium. Lee Unkrich was a great partner in helping him make the movie that he envisioned up on screen.”
Production on “Finding Nemo” began in January 2000 with the crew ultimately reaching a maximum of 180. All of the animation was done at Pixar Animation Studios’ beautiful new state-of-the-art facility in Emeryville, California.
David Stainton, president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, concludes, “The talented team at Pixar continues to amaze and entertain audiences with their incredible technical accomplishments and their ability to tell stories that touch us all. ‘Finding Nemo’ is another triumph for the Studio and a great debut for Andrew Stanton as a director in his own right. We’re proud of our continuing relationship with John Lasseter and all of the great filmmakers at Pixar and feel that this latest effort represents another milestone for the art of computer animation.”
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