How Pixar created the world of 'The Good Dinosaur'
Tech Industry
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Imagine if dinosaurs never became extinct.
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Ouch.
Ouch.
Why you little.
The Good Dinosaur tells that very story.
Set against the most detailed landscapes ever seen in a PIXAR film.
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For this film we had to be able to see 50 miles into the distance and the camera had to be moving all the time, following the characters.
Director Pete Scarin wanted the set to be like another character in the film.
So to make the landscapes as authentic as possible, some were based on real world locations.
Like Wyoming's Grand Teton national park.
Using height data from the United States Geological Survey, Pixar created a virtual model of the environment using special software.
Add in all this extra detail of rocks and debris.
And brush and graph and lots and lots of trees.
And so we can see miles and miles into the distance.
A real world camera crew scouts locations to find the perfect shot.
Pixar was able to do the same, but virtually.
The virtual camera that we used in the computer, we've actually
Try to develop to be a socially and exact duplicate of a real world camera because its in the computer they can also break reality and move the camera wherever they need to for whatever kind of shot they need.
But landscapes need characters to walk through them like Oiler like dinosaur.
He looks cute and cuddly.
A deliberate design choice so he stands out against the environment.
We really tried to put just enough realism into the set so that it felt visceral and dangerous so that when Arlo is walking through the world that when you see him in danger that you feel that danger because you are looking at a landscape that looks natural.
And that's how Pixar makes A Good Dinosaur great.
In Emeryville, California, Lexy Savvides, CNet.com for CBS News.
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