“Right off the bat, we knew this film was going to be an unprecedented undertaking because THE INCREDIBLES has nearly three times as many sets as we’ve dealt with on any previous film,” continues Hardwidge. “Adding to the complication, a lot of the film takes place outdoors on a huge tropical island that is a couple of square miles in size. One of the first big challenges for me was the scene on the island where Dash races through the dense jungle to escape from the Velocipods. Dash ended up running at about 200 mph, which meant we needed literally to create twice as much ground as originally planned. This required investing enough time and energy to get the desired results to satisfy Brad—but also spending our money wisely to find an efficient way to deal with it. It was just one sequence, but we quickly realized how massive this project was going to become.”
With the dozens upon dozens of sets completed, the next task was for the layout team to establish the staging, blocking and timing of each scene—and start transforming ordinary 2-D drawings into the fantasia of a 3-D world. To allow for maximum creative flexibility with the camera and the character action, Pixar changed their typical layout process for THE INCREDIBLES.
Patrick Lin, one of the film’s three directors of photography and a layout expert, explains: “In the past, Pixar would first build detailed models of the sets, and then we would go in and figure out our camera positions just like on a live-action film. With this film, we did things in reverse. On some of the big scenes, we actually filmed using a very simple, low geometry model. After the director approved the shot, more complete models were then built out to the camera. This allowed a great deal more flexibility. A good example of this is the final battle scene in the city. The battle is so big and complex that it wouldn’t have made sense to build a city and then figure out how to try and film it. So we pre-visualized the scene and then filmed the action. Only then did we build a final model based on all that work to add deeper detail.”
One of the seemingly simplest scenes in the film—the Parr family gathered around the family dinner table—proved to be one of the most complex from a layout and set dressing point of view.
“The dinner table scene was one of the trickiest to stage,” comments Lin. “It starts out as a typical family meal but gradually escalates into complete chaos. Staging things around a table is always hard because you need to keep the camera moving and you don’t want to confuse the audience as to where the characters are sitting. As chaos erupts, with Dash and Violet fighting and Jack-Jack shrieking, Helen stretches to grab the clashing siblings and keep them apart. Bob gets everyone’s attention by lifting the whole table just as his pal Frozone arrives. None of the set could be dressed in advance because everything was driven by the animation. Food on the table gets thrown around, so you have to keep track of every item on each plate, including the gravy. The entire sequence was a continuity and dressing nightmare.”
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