Pixels to Parks: New Animation Techniques for Fantasyland

We present the innovative techniques that brought to life an audio-animatronic Lumiere for Disney World’s newest attraction- -Enchanted Tales With Belle. Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Animation Studios collaborated to create a pipeline that was flexible and intuitive for feature film animators. First, motion was digitally choreographed on the computer with a virtual rig. Next, the software detected constraints and motion limitations that would exist on the physical audio-animatronic. This allowed the artist to resolve them and animate physically plausible motions. Finally, the performance was transferred to the audio-animatronic, faithfully recreating the artist-produced motion using motors and machinery.