How Disney'S Animated Hair Became So Realistic, From 'Tangled' To 'Encanto'

Posted on 28 April, 2022
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By Anonymous

The complex helical curl shape seen on Mirabel in "Encanto" is something you haven't seen in an animated Disney movie until now. The blockbuster musical was Disney's first animated movie to feature every category of hair texture, from 1A to 4C. Getting there took a decade of building the animation, simulation, shading, and grooming tools to represent the full range of hair types, colors, and styles.

We spoke with four members of the "Encanto" team to find out how they did it: Character Look Development Supervisor Michelle Lee Robinson, Consultant for Afro Colombian Representation Edna Liliana Valencia Murillo, Associate Technical Supervisor Nadim Sinno, and Character Look Artist Jose "Weecho" Velasquez.

They help trace the evolution of Disney's 3D-animated hair over the past ten years, from Rapunzel's 70-foot long mane in "Tangled" and Elsa and Anna's braids in "Frozen" to the curly-wavy hair in "Moana" and diversity of textures in "Encanto."

For more, visit:

https://movies.disney.com/encanto

https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/enca...

Captions

Narrator, If you peel back the layers of Rapunzel's hair in ``, Tangled ,'' you'll, see just how complicated animating 3D hair can be., But back then Disney had mainly focused on straight hair building on its previous 2D looks. With `` Encanto ,'', the studio figured out how To create coiled hair like Mirabel's with natural movement., But the animators didn't stop. There.'' Encanto'' made history as the first Disney animated movie to represent the full range of hair textures from 1A to 4C.. Getting from here to here required over a decade of innovation.. The story begins with a familiar storybook princess who in 2010, was seen for the first time in 3D. Disney's. First, major foray into 3D hair animation came with `` Tangled.'' Rapunzel's 70 feet of hair was basically its own character in the movie, pretty much breaking every real-life law of motion and not just because it was magical.. That'S a lot of hair. She's growing it out. Nadim. Every shot of every movie has a lot of bending the laws of physics., Otherwise things would look very flat. Narrator. This emphasizes a key tenet of Disney's animated hair.. The goal isn't always to make it as realistic as possible, but rather believable within the fictional world. Of the story. To make Rapunzel's CG-animated locks, look as appealing as Disney's hand-drawn ones. The filmmakers started with a `` hair bible'', created by artist Glen Keane, who was behind some of the biggest hair hits of Disney's 2D past.. The bible set rules like how Rapunzel's hair could never fall in anything resembling a straight line.. It had to have volume, rhythmic, curves, twists and turns, and a signature swoop in the front., But that shampoo-commercial hair wouldn't be so easy to replicate in 3D. Nadim. It'S not hand-drawn, where you're focusing more on the shaping and you could cheat.. You have to kind of take everything into account when you're doing CG, hair even stuff. That'S not on screen. Narrator, Like wind or different sources of light or shadow. And Rapunzel's strands interacted with the environment in ways never seen before.. You had hair interacting with cloth with skin with other hair.. The other characters were constantly touching, pulling climbing and rolling in it. Accounting, for all these interactions would require simulation a way of automating the movement of elements like hair fur and cloth., The only movie before `` Tangled'', where I think we had really even attempted simulated hair Was `` Bolt'' with Penny.? We knew we had a huge task ahead of us to go from basically that to 70-foot-long flowing hair. Narrator Engineers then created a program called Dynamic Wires, which combined physically based simulation with laws for determining the hair's behavior that defied physics.. This allowed the artists to make Rapunzel's hair twist and turn in exactly the ways they wanted. In real life. This hair would weigh 60 to 80 pounds so it'd clump into a mass or drag on the ground like a heavy tail., But in the movie you see it gliding smoothly, along.. Meanwhile, to give the artists more power to sculpt the look of Rapunzel's hair, the team broke down her 140,000 strands into 147 different tubes. Michelle. The idea was to sculpt tubes of hair that would represent the main blocks of hair.. That process allowed us to kind of control the way the hair would break apart and interpolate. Narrator. This tube-grooming tool was the predecessor to Tonic the hair-grooming software that Disney still uses today. Nadim A lot of the technology from that movie. Pretty much still exists till this day or has evolved into a newer, form. Narrator. You can see that clearly in `` Frozen ,'', which had over 50 unique hairstyles. Believe it or not. Elsa was originally going to have black spiky short hair., But, as the characters evolved, Disney decided to give both Elsa and Anna light-colored braids. In line with the Norwegian cultural traditions that inspired the movie. Michelle, We were pulling the hair from her head, weaving it through into a braid all the way to the end. And just trying to ensure that those braid pieces didn't crash into each other and would bend And move properly was a challenge for us. Narrator For `` Bolt ,'' Disney had developed a hair-brushing tool called iGroom which worked well on short-haired characters., But that plus the tube tools from `` Tangled'' weren't enough for braided looks so Disney's engineers built a new hair-grooming system Called Tonic. Tonic is a volume-based tool which lets artists group, the hairs on a character's head and move and direct those sections of hair in the desired ways.. This allowed look artists like Michelle to create the first versions of complex styles within a few days, a process that, before would've taken several weeks., The team was also able to use Tonic for the hair on the wolves and horses and the shaggy reindeer hair on Sven's Neck. Elsa's hair had another environmental element to adapt to snow. Michelle Particles of snow or sparkles on top of hair is like procedural geometry on top of procedural geometry., So that was hard to figure out. Narrator, And then there were the gusts of wind., Michelle Very stylized. Bang shapes that you know these kind of pieces that formed that really distinctive silhouette.. She really does towards the end of the movie, get blown around quite a bit and trying to balance maintaining that stylization and that kind of appealing shape language with real physical motion.. Narrator Figuring out hair's interaction with the wintry elements in `` Frozen'' paid off in `` Moana ,'', where the focus was on hair's interaction with more forces like water and character. Movements. Things might have been more straightforward if the demigod Maui had been bald, like The Rock himself, which was the original plan.. But Polynesian cultural advisors pointed out that Maui's long hair is a source of his spiritual energy. So both Maui and Moana ended up with long curly-wavy hair.. I'Ve only been thinking of keeping this hair silky and being awesome. Again. Narrator The first task was sculpting their zigzag or S-shaped curls, a hair shape Disney hadn't created before. Michelle, Making those shapes on very, very long hair and then trying to figure out how to manage those individual curl locks. So they don't poke through each other and catch on each other. Narrator. This task required Disney to expand Tonic's tube-grooming tool, giving it the ability to curl the hair up. After sculpting the shape the team figured out how the waves would move and hold their look. Nadim Part of the trick with something like wavy, hair or curly. Hair is retaining the volume of the hair., Because, if you just sim it as is it'll just collapse and fall flat on her head., So how do you retain the flowiness of it Narrator? The team developed what they called an elastic rod model which determined the degree to which the hair would retain its twists and springiness under different forces like wind or water. Nadim. If, let's say, Moana is falling through the sky and her hair's really stretched well. How much of her hair is going to be a full straight line versus how much curl is going to be there Or, if she compresses? How much is it going to bunch up Narrator, But Disney also wanted to give its animators an ability to guide the simulation of the hair., So the engineers built a new hair program Quicksilver that combined rigging and grooming controls. Instead of animating the characters with static hair? Now the animators could put the hair into starting poses and Quicksilver's engine would use those poses to determine the resulting movement. By allowing artists to shape the posing of the hair. Disney was able to recover some of the expressiveness of hand-drawn animation that could often get lost in CG.. It'S particularly useful for the interaction moments where the character is doing something with their hair specifically and the animator wants to guide what that's going to be. Narrator. They wanted Moana in particular to be able to constantly play with her hair, since that habit is typical of teenagers as they observed it in actor. Auli'I Cravalho as she performed Moana's lines in the studio.. The characters' darker hair also broke new ground for Disney. Nadim. If you look at kind of previous movies, ,'' Tangled ,'' `` Frozen ,'', we haven't really done any black darkish hair colors., So that reacts fairly differently to light than other hair colors. And how do you kind of still show its richness, You kind of have to have a movie that needs a hair color to then be able to see how far your technology goes and then tune to that. And now we're at a pretty good spot with? Actually, the shader being able to handle a wide range of hair, colors. Narrator, All of these technologies and more came into play in `` Encanto.''. The shading advancements from `` Moana'' made it possible to get the rich shades of hair in the Madrigal family and the S-shaped curls, seen on Moana and Maui appeared on some characters in `` Encanto.'' Jose. We had the software to be able to do type 1, hair type 2 hair very easily, but we hadn't really figured out how to do coils that are actually helical and that actually look like springs., Specifically for Mirabel. She had kind of a type 3 curly hair like loose ringlets that get kind of tighter in certain places. Narrator. The team added this tighter type of coil into Tonic. Jose. So there was a lot of collaboration with the technology team, trying to figure out what is hair actually doing when it starts to coil versus when it's wavy and then figuring out how we can get our tools to actually do. That. Narrator, Emphasizing the unique attributes of each hair type was a big part of Jose's job as a character. Look development artist. Jose We're trying to figure out what naturally is beautiful about this type of hair, and how can we emphasize that Narrator And the diversity goes all the way down to the individual hairs on a character's head. Curl direction is very important. Because you don't Want two curls to look exactly the same, because then it feels very artificial. In everybody's hair. There'S a lot of variation. Things like variety in size of the curls hair color.. We try to make sure that nothing is symmetrical. Narrator. Every strand of hair also figured in to the dance sequences of `` Encanto ,'' building on the movement work in `` Moana.''. The artists started by looking at a lot of reference material, including footage of the choreography. Michelle. We knew that Mirabel and Luisa, and a lot of the characters were going to be really active and jumping around and in a musical fantasy sequence that they could be hanging upside down.. Sometimes, in those tests you find out that, like one piece of hair is quite a bit longer than the other., And so you have to go back in and adjust it. Narrator. The team would have to look at whether all the strands of hair reacted naturally to the character's movements and to each other.. It was important as ever, to honor differences in textures for every character.. Previously Disney princesses had mostly straight hair that moved in big sweeping paths. To make more tightly curled hair move. Naturally, in `` Encanto ,'', the team had to adjust this approach. Edna. We used to talk about how, when they were dancing how the hair would have to move how the hair would have to perform.. For example, we have the idea that Afro, hair or African hair has not movement., And we have the perception that that's something bad, but that's not bad.. It'S just our hair.. Our hair doesn't have a lot of movement.. It'S OK that it stay like that. You know So it doesn't have to be a ponytail with straight hair to be beautiful. Narrator. What set `` Encanto'' apart from previous movies, was also the sheer scale of its hair diversity, not just for the Madrigal family, but for the entire town. Edna. We have the 12 hair textures in the 12 chapters of the family, but also we have different styles in the whole town in `` Encanto.''. You can see turbans., You can see other type of braids., More indigenous population, for example in Colombia., There's a little girl in the town. She has an Afro not like this with turban, but all free., And also you can find women with braids very Colombian and African style. Narrator. Every single head of hair had to be styled meticulously by the artists, picking up where they left off with `` Frozen.'' Nadim. So if you watch kind of the evolution of having straight-hair characters and then suddenly, `` Encanto'' has all these crowd characters with braids and we could barely do two-braid characters on `` Frozen.''. So the advancements are really there and they trickle down. Narrator. But at the start of production, braiding hair was still a very manual process., Jose So like how you would actually braid actual hair in real life. We have to do that with essentially 3D tubes that we use in our computer. By the end of the movie. We had a more automatic process for making braids where you just draw, or you create a curve, a line along the head. Where you want your braid to come out and then it'll do a little computer-made braid for you. Narrator. That doesn't mean all the work is finished., Jose, There's so much diversity, even within braid types that then there's more complex braids that we're looking at to try to figure out how to make those look really good. Narrator. Ultimately, ,'' Encanto'' made history as the first Disney animated movie to represent the full range of hair textures from 1A to 4C, a milestone reached by building a foundation of tools and then adapting them. Nadim. What'S also great about these tools is we're able to repurpose them in areas that you might not expect.? The system that we use to do hair is the same system that we use to do plenty of other things like Mirabel's dress.. Her skirt has tons and tons of embroidery on it.. We were able to use iGroom to be able to do some of the embroidery. Narrator. The technological progress is impressive on its own, but it's always done in service of telling bigger, stories. Michelle. I think now at this point we have a really complete set of tools and we should be able to make and represent the panoply of humanity, which is a really good place to be

Comments

Michelle M: I’m surprised when they talked about Tangled they didn’t mention mother Gothels curly hair as well. She was technically the first one to rock her curls in 3D.

Star Cherry: I liked how Moana’s curl wasn’t perfect lush curls They were frizzed. Very accurate for someone living on a humid island who always wants to swim! Also she doesn’t seem like the type to spend much time on her hair anyway

Lola Baker: I actually took a lot of notice with the curly hair in encanto. I really appreciated it because I have probably around 3a if not 2c (think mirabel) and I haven’t really seen hair like that in an animated movie, like the hair was one of the first things I noticed because it looked so similar to mine with the bounce and the shine and the insane frizz. I appreciate it.

Awesomemay: the patience of animators is so admirable

Emily Black: It’s incredible how well Disney was able to balance the engineering side and artistic side of hair animation. Engineers probably weren’t huge fans of having to integrate artistic controls into physics based simulations, and the artists probably had some beefs with the limits to their control. I hope they continue developing this technology on both sides, and I’m excited to see what will come next! I’m guessing box braids would be fairly easy with the technology we already have, but a leading lady with a magical Disney style afro is next on my wish list.

hs: Its amazing how technology and animation has come so far and the fact that more hair types can be represented in more detail - but to be honest I do miss the hand drawn movies very much so and personally prefer them and the classic style which I grew up with - where the details may of been less but in my view the characters somehow looked more realistic (without the 3D big eyes and same-face style) and have started watching their on the side tv shows that present that style. I wish we could still see more of it in a movie now n then but hey I did love encanto

Darialis Pacheco: I know this is about Disney, but there was NO MENTION OF PIXAR’S BRAVE/MERIDA! Technically the FIRST 3D PRINCESS TO HAVE CURLY HAIR Thanks to HER is that more characters nowadays have more hair textures and lemme say that, even though is Pixar’s character, it is called Disney Pixar so…they should given at least some credit

KittyLover Aaliyah 2: I love that they incorporated each hair type in Encanto. They also showcased different skin tones and body types. The amount of representation in that movie is wonderful. ❤

Studio Hannah: Does Pixar not count here? They do belong to Disney. Brave was the first 3D Disney curly hair as far as I can tell. Definitely leveled up with Encanto, though. Man, the hair looks great in Encanto.

Carolan: I confess, what I noticed right away when I watched Encanto was: all the different skin tones, hair types & body forms, and it made me so so happy to see this! With Encanto people see what a lot of Latin families look like- often a mix of so many beautiful cultures & peoples. Can have the same parents but the kids come out all really really varied. From blonde to black hair, straight locks to tight curls, short to tall in height, very light to very dark skin & every size too- all in one family. The same with the town's people in Encanto, a Latin community or city can be just as varied too! It was accurate.

•Careless Dreamer• Project Lyrii: When I was watching Encanto, I found myself paying a lot of attention to the fabric and hair physics going on. It’s mesmerizing to watch the dancing, how the skirts and hair moves and bounces during it all.

deavve: As a curly haired person it makes me really happy! I started noticing that curly hair is not present in games and animations just some time ago and I figured that it's probably because it's hard to animate curls. I'm almost never able to customize my character in games to look like me, because of the lack of curly hair and as dumb and insignificant as it may seem, it really bummed me. My curls are important to me. When I was a kid I was often bullied because of them, but I've grown to love and fully accept them as a part of me so I wish I was able to fully express it when creating a character in game and see curly haired people in animations that I love to watch!

Lukky: It feels great to know that animators at Disney love their job and care so much about the final product. They're really passionate about all of this and it shows

🌟神𝕂𝕒𝕞𝕚𝕜𝕒𝕫𝕖風🌟: Its just insane how realistic Encanto itself looks. The hair on Luisas Neck or the movements of the plants,trees and other people in the Background. Or the different textures in total. You cant even see, that these textures are copied and placed next to the same. I never found any Texture, that is similar to another. And most people dont even look that close. Honestly, i prefer this way over reality.

D: OMG! I didn't expect to see *Bolt* here!! Needs more representation honestly! One of the first ever 3d animated movie I watched as a kid and I still love the story and animation till today.

ishi91: As a senior 3D Grooming Arist for VFX seeing this video really makes me really proud and happy; all of it is very well researched and documented. Big thanks

opencabinets: I loved the part where she talked about how it's okay that African hair does move it's just not how our physics work I'm so glad that mainstream art continues to become more inclusive

Braddah Leeks: Now that they’ve pretty much mastered diverse hairstyles, what’s the next obstacle that needs to be overcome in 3D animation?

Shadow Watcher Productions: Funny 'cause I remember watching Encanto and thinking "wow, the hair in this movie looks really good"

NotPrincessElise: The amount of love and effort put into these movies and projects just give me shivers. It's so amazing how things evolved through the years, and how each movie helped the next. Obssed with Tangled and now Encanto, can't wait for what's to come!

a bean with intentions: not only did encanto show a lot of diversity with hair types, but it also showed a lot of diversity with facial structure. disney has had a repeated problem with making all their female characters facial structures look the same, especially their 3d ones. but no female character in encanto looks the same. although moana and ralph breaks the internet both led to the evolution of disneys female characters though, like with moana, pocahontas, jasmine, and mulan. disney has come a long way.

NathCabs: Hair and water are the hardest to animate realistically. But still nothing beats untill now how the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within animated the characters' hairs.

lynzi moore: as a person with curly hair, i loved seeing how they did them so well in encanto! it really looked amazing:)

Aisadal: I love this story! I remember reading all of the interviews and consultations they did to make each and every individual hair thread so realistic; so happy to see it getting revived

Gulshan Barkud: Encanto is really a gem .. the way they have created detailed work in smallest thing.. it's amazing

Stranger In A Dark Alley: When I think of hair animation I remember Merida. Her hair was incredible. I’ve made a few simple 2d animations, but I can’t even imagine working with so many individual strands, making then float and move around throught the whole thing

N Baua: What a informative video on a technical advancement in animation and the focus only on specific topic. I loved it. Can you guys please make a similar video on the fabrics and clothing done in the animation?

Tiny Ember: Now that they’re able to portray kinky hair I can’t wait to see the characters with more black hairstyles, I think seeing box braids or cornrows on a Disney character would be beautiful.

ssamint: been invested in this series along with the hair animation in merida from brave. hair physics in animation is one of the most challenging but rewarding aspects in the field! as a curly haired person, it is really amazing for me to see my own hair texture in encanto <3

MacabreRomance: Dolores’s hair being curly made me so happy, I’m glad Disney is showing more different types of hair.

Lilacꨄ: the entire movie I was obsessed with the hair especially how bouncy mirabels curls are! they moved so naturally it was amazing

Dr.InTheMaking: I loved Encanto bc they really did well to represent curly hair. When I was a little niña my hair looked exactly like Mirabel’s but alas I had to have it straightened due to societal pressures

nivish: No matter how many animated movies are out now, nothing can compare to tangled <3 like I legit can’t believe that movie came out in 2010

KHTimeProtector: The most unnatural part of hair in Encanto is that Isa’s hair hardly ever falls in front of her shoulders no matter how she moves.

t k: seeing curls being represented in movies is so much more important than people would think, not many people have curly hair in my area so as a kid growing up with big curly hair i quickly became insecure especially because kids were so mean, seeing brave as a kid with the big curly hair as a focal point was the first time i had felt like i should appreciate my curls more

Aimée: My baby brother (age 7) started noticing and appreciating our natural african hair after we watched Encanto together. When our mom would often say that i should style it differently (implying less afro-esque) my brother would say that he liked it and that it looked like Mirabelle. i remember being his age and hating back then my dark coily hair. Diversity is so important and I'm so glad today's youth will get to be heroes of ton of inspiring stories.

Jessie Ray: Brave was the first time I actually felt represented. I'm yt (100% Nordic) with natural dark auburn 3b/3c curls. You very rarely, almost never, see a yt character (animated or not) with natural curls. They always have straight or a slight wave, so it was awesome to see ❤️

Avatarguille: The way I'm crying so much right now after watching this. As a person with Curly hair, this has shown me how important representation, even with hair, is. Growing up, you are surrounded by a lot of hate and criticism because you have not straigh hair. calling it ugly , dry, and bad hair, to the point you feel the need to use products to make it straigh so you can feel less criticised from people always commenting on it. Even your own family. Watching has mame truly appreciate the beauty of the curly hair, how it moves, its uniqueness, character, which is different from straigh here, but AS beautiful! I wish I had this when I was growing up so I didn't hate myself so much just because of my hair as well. Thank you Insider for making this video, and thank you Disney animators for creating movies that represent people from different places. Representation it's so important. My 10 year old self thanks you right now. And for all the new generations. Thank you.

Avery the Cuban-American: "pretty much breaking every real-life law of motion" Rapunzel's hair: *Reality can be whatever I want* How impressive they did the hair in Encanto is one more reason to love the movie, they looked at all the past soundtracks, animations, and characters and said *"Hold my arepa con queso"*

Kiki B plays...: When I watched Encanto, I was absolutely fascinated with the hair from pretty much the moment the movie started. It was so cool to see not only my own hair texture represented, but so many others as well. My hair is the same texture and almost the same length as Mirabel's and it was just so amazing to see that on the screen. It might seem small to some people, but I think it goes a log way toward helping people to understand that straight hair is not the only type that's beautiful. I always say the best hair texture is whatever grows out of your head. It was also amazing to see such a variety of body types and sizes, as well as skin colors. It's a great step forward, and I hope this will become the norm going forward.

MrRedacto: I just wanna know how long all this hair takes to render! Especially in shots with a whole family with curly hair.

taee: the way disney/pixar designs their hair is just so beautiful. even if tangled is a bit outdated now, i cant help but still watch in awe at how well they animated her hair. same goes with moana, i was very excited to see disney animation go from straight hair and try out wavy/curly types. the way encanto was animated in general.. i have absolutely no words for how realistic it was developed. the characters’ hair moved like it was actually real, (and less like string attached to a doll’s head) it really tied the movie altogether with great storytelling. i cant wait to see where disney brings their creativity to next.

‍‍‍Spider-Man Mosque: Doing this while having many things to do with deadlines is impressive. These animators are admirable. I never thought anything of the hair so it’s good they didn’t lack in everything else

b1njjj95: I really hope that now that Disney has gotten better at animating different hair textures and materials, they will start focusing on creating more 3D movies centered around non-European characters and cultures, and instead focus on creating more diverse characters from different geographic locations. I would love to see a 3D movie set in Africa featuring African culture. I can just imagine how beautiful the traditional clothing would look, and the vibrant beads and jewelry, the hair textures, the dances, the food, the backgrounds, etc. We still have a long way to go in terms of representation. Hair texture is just one of many obstacles that Disney has faced.

Bilal Rasool: I was rewatching Aladdin once and started to focus on the character's hair, I was looking at how 2D hair was made and what techniques were used to make it look real. A while later I was watching Entanto again and in one scene I was blown away with the hair physics, then I was only looking at their hair and it looked real and interacted in its environment like one would expect it to. Shocking work that pulled off by Disney.

Forever Loving: I remember when I first noticed the quality of the hair in Encanto and kept staring and constantly rewinding mirabels hair movements and flip and how realistic and organic it looked was so amazing to me!

邪 YOKOSHIMA: Can you imagine how more attractive this technology would have made Ariel the little mermaid? He hair movement was phenomenal already.

The Fourth Dimensional Gaming: yknow its amazing how much more real this hair makes everything look. a lot of people might not realize it, but hair is one of the first things we see when we observe someone, for some, it is the first.

M. de Oliveira: People have pointed out the lack of Brave in this mutiple times but also: why leave out the initial struggle with Violet's hair in The Incredibles like, bro that was legendary

kay kay: Mirabel doesnt really have "coils". Coily hair would be Dolores', Antonio's, and Felix's.

Nasaba Bora: The technicality that goes into creating all these animations is purely spectacular.

Zoie: its just so impressive how much hard work goes into making something like this. It just blows my mind how people can just make 3d models that look so good and not creepy you know?

Warrick [Mzansi Levvolk]: Disney should share this hair simulation program with 3D animators in general. It would be revolutionary. Imagine videogames with Type 4 hair(apparently the animators say it's hard to do) & cartoons where everyone can see themselves represented(changing the world doesn't start with adults, it starts with the kids).

ClaryFlynn98: I remember watching Frozen 2 and realising how much the animation had evolved from the first movie. The documentary they made was incredible. Also, the animators who did Rapunzel’s hair did an amazing job

Violet Manu: I would hardly call Mirabel's hair coily. That usually refers to 4 type hair. Mirabel's hair is 3b. So tight curls yes but not coiled.

Nathaniel Ho: Seriously the main thing I love about Disney movies is the satisfaction of the bouncy curls. Brave and encanto give me so much euphoria in that

Drew Blackmon : No one mentioned Merida, her hair has many different textures and types of curls, I love how that looked in the end, and I was very happy that Disney represented Scottish hair ( not Irish) ( I’m Scottish)

Ren Namara: It's great how Disney is become more inclusive with how it's developing it's animation. Great informative video.

Bondan D Prasetyo: See, this is why i love disney & pixar. They always implemented new kind of technology or technique in every single their new movie.

Kim Jong-un: For those asking about Merida, Pixar has a separate animation studio (though owned by Disney) and thus they don't count These improvements through the years are great and all but it doesn't change the fact they haven't done a movie about me and my glorious hairstyle

Alyssa Dufresne: My respect for my favorite movie, Encanto, just went up even more.

Kz: Soo I have 3B hair and my lil cousins always like to call me Mirabel, growing up I was SOOOO insecure about my curls and i begged my mom to straighten them or just braid my hair so i wouldn’t be made fun of, today i’m proud of my hair and seeing characters that children (some maybe like me) love really makes me happy

abbie gump: Moana’s animation (specifically the hair) truly blew me away. It still does to this day. I watch it not only enjoying the storyline but also appreciating the amazing carefully thought out animations. It brings me a lot of joy for some reason haha

Maura Harms: The movie Brave from Pixar was really the main pioneer in curly hair physics. Khan Academy has a really good video about it called "Computer Simulation (Pixar in a Box)". It formulated the core curl technique which is where an invisible tight curl is put in a looser curl, this helps hold the curl together while keeping flexibility. I know that this video is about Disney, but technological advances are shared throughout the animation industry (and not to mention disney *owns* Pixar). It makes no sense to leave it out.

cool beans: Incredible passion and work ethic from the production team. Watching videos explaining the complexity of the animation process makes me feel so ridiculously giddy

Jasmine Spencer: Wow I didn't even think about how they would have to improve I'm looking forward to them trying to achieve different hairstyles on different textures Like braids on 2a compared to braids on 4c or straightened c hair compared to a hair I didn't even see the villager with the coilier hair braids.

Amani Scott: I have to argue I didn’t really like Isabella’s hair from Encanto. I felt at times it moved in one cluster, felt kind of stiff and unnatural, clay-like, and too perfect… which *could* make sense considering her character

Chloe Garcia: This is incredible, I've always wondered about the process of all the animation. Having the same type of hair as Mirabel, I was blown away by the realism!

Miniamo: Oddly enough, this actually makes me feel really nice about my 4c hair! I don't know, it just makes it seem more beautiful I think

Julia: Honestly, I love that animators are finally getting all hair textures right, because I think it's part of non-WASPS getting a more visible _and_ getting visible with natural hair, hurray. And you can see on first glance that they had to animate the different strands / curls independantly. I'm not surprised that long straight(ish) hair was the first to be more realistically animated; it's pretty much the default Princess look, and we're all trained to think of it "normally" looking like one smooth, homogeneous mass. Just check out anything from centuries of paintings, (pre-raphaelite !) and a few thousand hair care ads. As far as programming goes, I think it's a craftsmen thing: "okay, we just got a good deal better. Let's have a hot beverage/smokes, and then back to the drawing board to figure out how we can get a lot better!"

Vanessa Rodriguez: Just love how encanto shows how diverse Colombia actually is.

Bread: I have SO much respect for animator's the things they do are insanely beautiful

Wen: It’s amazing to see the amount of effort and hardwork the behind of the scene staff has put it. It inspires me to want to do the same too, wanting to achieve as much too

Takke: What I find so upsetting is how all these amazing artists can only really express themselves under their megacorporation dictator wich is unfortunate. Just imagine how much more of this fantastic art we could makie together if it wasn't all dictated by just the 1% who are feeding us our culture and art in ways it is most profitable for them only.

AkaNeonfox: I'm so impressed by Disney's animations especially 3D CGI animated movies. Technology really has improved so much and so it's a nightmare in a good way.

jfan4reva: The most subtle thing of all is that all of these advancements in animation were all based on improved software, and I suspect, advances in the computer hardware that the software runs on. I suspect this kind of thing would have needed days of rendering back in the 90s and early 2000s. Also amazing is that they probably don't just have a room full of developers working every day to create these animation tools. It's most likely an 'on demand' situation where hey, we've got a new movie, and we need to do new things, and now that we've got money budgeted, lets start creating the software we're going to need. The downside is that now they're creating even more perfect people (not just princesses) for us to compare ourselves to.

Koriander Yander: I have curly hair and appreciate this. I had a lot of insecurity about my hair not being straight. My mom put dangerous hair straightening chemicals in my hair.

Planet Draws: The amount of hair representation makes me love Encanto even more <3

Bluelight Studios: Yet the Oscars felt they had the right to disrespect the work these legends had to go through to make realistic hair by basically saying it's only worth was that it entertained children and children only.

Julia: Wow, I LOVE the different hair textures in Encanto SO hard. And I love that it's in movies aimed at children and young teens, which is the age where we suck in all those beauty ideals, no matter how unrealistic. (Or harmful.) I can't help comparing it to that awful, hideous, hack "beauty make-over!!!!" trope where a perfectly lovely heroine with glasses and curls gets "freed" of those awful glasses and awful non-straight hair, and oh look, NOW she's worth getting attention and being a heroine! Well ----- that. If you can't tell that a woman is beautiful because her hair isn't straight, you really shouldn't date, go out, talk to women or otherwise risk anything that might end up with you procreating.

Kortni Kemp: Kudos to the engineers developing all of these programs. So talented

Kodi (•&• ): This is why I absolutely value each one of these movies, because they’ve shown that they improved upon hair animation which made the animations all together feel like we’re actually living it, it makes it feel real.

Emily2739: This is really why Encanto is so important to me. It was really one of the first times I saw hair like mine (3B) animated, the first time I watched Encanto I almost cried because of it

Ana Nikolovska: okay but didn't they mention that mother Gothel has curly hair in tangled, they kind of already had done a curly haired character and it wasn't a first time thing when it came to moana's hair also, Merida from brave is an honorable mention since it is a disney movie and came out wayyy earlier than Moana, still this video is very amazing and shows the progress and evolution of disney's hair programming skills they have developed throughout the years they really improved!

TightySims44: The fact that animators are taking the time to make a character with hair like mine (4B) look good is just sooo amazing. I can't wait to see what the future holds for more styles like the locs I have had for 9 years!

AtarahDerek: Imagine having a job description of, "hair stylist for animated characters." I'm glad Encanto gave them the opportunity to perfect their hair software. They'll be able to do any character's hair so much easier in future films.

054 Sahil Dahat: Artists are really amazing and they show the world from an Awesome perspective that we don't everyday see! All the artists that Humanity ever had are amazing! They have the vision to change the world for a better place! Thanks everyone!

Peachiyaa: As someone with hair like Dolores this movie just made me feel nice. Ive never rlly had a Disney character that I can say looks like me. So this whole movie spanning with such diversity was honestly so cool and I cant wait to see where this technology goes.

Ruru: its so cool to hear abt these processes! with professional studios like this (and even just individual, unfamous artists) you only see the finished product and it can seem like they make these things almost effortlessly (as in, yes, it still takes a lot of work, but the only struggle for them is the amount of time it takes), but hearing about processes like this shows that no matter who you are, or how skilled, an artist is always going to be growing and adapting and having to work through problems till they can get it just right

Ben Fluke: I'm in literal tears from some of the most intense fomo i have ever felt as a creator. the world that could exist if the public had such wonderful tools for creation and expression. Will i die dreaming of this magical realm?

Paola Animator: I loved seeing the curly hair on a 3D animated movie, I appreciate the hard work and it made me so happy as a curly haired person!

Perrine: Thanks for this really in depth video, as a 3d artist student, I just love all the details about the technical obstacles they faced and fixed ! I didn't know about all the type of hair in Encanto, I think that's great cause Disney has some work to do on representation and it's a step towards it, "diversity of all humankind" indeed !

xXmlgamingXx: It’s incredible how far technology has come in just a decade!

JamesLC: I love it how they make it so realistic but still keeping that animated vibes we all love since

Ana Cristina Ruiz: It's intresting how hair textures change over time in digital animation

Elizabeth Catlion: My Spanish class watched Encanto a while ago and when we paused it at the end of class it happened to pause on a close up of Mirabel's hair (I think some scene of her hugging Luisa after Surface Pressure?). Everyone, even the boys who were usually just talking about Clash Royale or something were like "wow how do they make her hair look so good?" It was rly funny

Jazmine: This was the coolest video I have seen in a while, I was fascinated from beginning to end. Frozen, Moana, and Encanto are 3 of my favorite recent Disney movies and I love the hairstyles and animation in all three special shoutout to whoever added Luisa's hair on the back of her neck at the beginning of the Surface Pressure scene!! I'm always so impressed that they put that level of detail into the animation and hair. It's such a joy to watch each time.

MegaChickenfish: It shows how people saying a lot of the Disney animated movies lately "look similar" aren't appreciating the technical feats needed for something as seemingly minor as a single character's hairstyle.

maltsoy marai: The representation of curly hair Encanto made me stop straightening my hair actually. The work and love that went into getting the hair so right is truly amazing!!!

craftedbythemoon: Looking at all the hard work it takes to get things moving…It just makes me appreciate these films more

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