TV - Movies
Chris Williams
On The Most
Difficult Thing
To Animate In The
Sea Beast
By MIKE BEDARD
As the director behind “Big Hero 6” and “Moana,” Chris Williams is responsible for some of the best animated movies of the past decade. But all his experience doesn’t mean that everything goes off without a hitch — in a recent interview about his work on “The Sea Beast,” Williams spoke at length about the one thing that's still a pain in the butt to animate just right.
As it turns out, ropes are especially hard to animate because they require certain mechanics to work just right in order to not look wonky. As Williams recalls, ropes were “the bane of our existence” while working on “Moana,” but the ships on “The Sea Beast” have hundreds of ropes compared to the few on Moana’s small boat.
Fortunately, Williams’ team spent a lot of time developing the technology to make the ropes in “The Sea Beast” feel as authentic as possible. Their hard work is evident from the finished product, so if you plan on watching "The Sea Beast" soon, make sure you notice how all the ropes function.