The Cincinnati Museum Center is giving guests their turn in the artist’s seat in their upcoming exhibition, “The Science Behind Pixar,” opening Oct. 22. The interactive exhibit showcases the boundless limits of STEM. Guests will come face-to-face with such popular characters as Buzz Lightyear, Dory, Mike and Sulley, Edna Mode and Wall-E.
In case you are unfamiliar, Pixar Animation Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, is an award-winning film studio with world-renowned technical, creative and production capabilities in the art of computer animation.
CMC will share the magic of Pixar and the science that brings it to life with Greater Cincinnati. The ingenuity of animators and engineers comes to light in an immersive experience that explores the science, technology, engineering, art and math concepts Pixar Animation Studios uses to bring their characters to life.
“The Science Behind Pixar” demonstrates how wonderfully the components of STEM intersect to create whimsical worlds and iconic characters who have defined a generation,” said Elizabeth Pierce, president & CEO of Cincinnati Museum Center. “With interactive elements that make the complex concepts of digital animation accessible to a variety of age groups, the exhibition will inspire the next generation of imagineers to bring their own visions to life.”
Through eight interactive areas, the exhibit empowers guests to imagine the STEM concepts behind Pixar’s films by shining a lamp (Get it?) on eight steps of the filmmaking process: modeling, rigging, surfaces, sets and cameras, animation, simulation, lighting and rendering. The exhibition delivers an unparalleled view of the production pipeline used by Pixar’s and computer scientists, featuring more than 50 interactive elements.
To better understand the science and math that goes into creating Pixar films, guests will hear firsthand from members of the studio’s production teams, and are invited to experience different roles within the production pipeline through screen-based activities and physical interactive elements.
Some of the activities included in the exhibition:
- Discover how camera placement and angles create a bug’s-eye view in “A Bugs Life“
- Create a digital sculpture from an artist’s sketch
- Use lights to solve challenges similar to ones faced by Pixar in creating underwater scenes in “Finding Nemo“
- See how models are given a virtual skeleton that enables animators to pose them
- Build a robot inspired by those in “Wall-E”
- Try your hand at stop-motion animation of a jumping lamp and watch a short film of what you produced
- See and touch scale models of many Pixar characters
“‘The Science Behind Pixar’ is an interactive exhibition that offers people a hands-on opportunity to understand how we make our films,” said Jim Morris, president of Pixar Animation Studios. “At Pixar, we use science, technology, engineering, art and math- along with a significant dash of creativity and fun- and this exhibition is truly a great demonstration of how all those ingredients come together in our filmmaking process.”
Films and characters represented: “Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Finding Nemo,” “Finding Dory,” “Brave,” “The Incredibles,” “Up,” Wall-E,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Cars,” “Luca” and more.