In the same way that Pixar released great concept artwork for Monsters University and Brave leading up to their theatrical releases, the studio is following suit for their upcoming spooktacular television special, Toy Story of Terror!. The concept art follows one particular frame through a sequence called “Sleep Well Motel” (which must be the name of the motel that the gang stops at for the night). In addition to the great images, you can also read about additional facts – a few of which we have highlighted below.
The image in the upper-left is one of approximately 27,171 storyboards created for the upcoming television special. In an interesting comparison (as we learned from these fun facts) there were 100,856 storyboards drawn for Monsters University. And in case you wanted to get nerdy for a moment (and I do), that would mean that there were approximately 970 storyboards drawn for each minute of the final film for Monsters University (104-minute film) – whereas there were approximately 1,208 storyboards drawn for each minute of the final twenty-two-and-a-half minute film for Toy Story of Terror!. Whew, that’s a lot of sketches and digital ink flying around! I wouldn’t have imagined that there would be proportionally more storyboards for the special as there were for Monsters University, would you?
Following the remaining images – in the upper right, you can see what the Art Department (John Lee) created to give the downstream teams a feel for the mood and lighting for the scene. In the middle left, the Modeling department is when the characters and sets are created in the frame. The middle right frame shows the Layout department’s work, in which the varying camera angles are defined. In the lower-left, the Animation department works to bring life to the characters while the Simulation department also adds detail work to the characters and set pieces (e.g., fur, cloth, texture). Finally, in the lower right, the Lighting department (this scene lit by Nick Bartone) works their magic to create the final mood of the scene and bring us what we’re accustomed to viewing on our screens. Magic!
