VR/AR/MR
IMMERSION IN THE VR WORLD OF MYTH: A FROZEN TALE By CHRIS MCGOWAN
All images copyright © 2019 Disney. TOP: Visual development by Brittney Lee. Myth: A Frozen Tale focuses on the duality and balance of the four elemental spirits of Frozen 2: earth, fire, water and air. OPPOSITE TOP TO BOTTOM: The environments team, led by Michael Anderson, developed simple textures to enliven the vegetation while reducing visual noise, allowing for characters such as the Water Nøkk to stand out. Visual development by Brittney Lee – the monoliths of Enchanted Forest at night The monoliths of Enchanted Forest in the daylight.
84 • VFXVOICE.COM SPRING 2020
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ virtual reality short Myth: A Frozen Tale explores a world inspired by the feature film Frozen 2 and may point the way to an intriguing new art form: VR experiences that immerse viewers in settings and stories associated with their favorite films. The approximately eight-minute-long Myth is the second VR short directed by Jeff Gipson, who won critical praise and the 2019 Lumiere Award from the Advanced Imaging Society for directing Cycles, the first VR film from Disney. While Cycles was a poignant look at a couple’s life lived in a beloved house, Myth immerses the viewer in the myths of Frozen 2. In Arendelle [the kingdom in Frozen], a mother reads a bedtime story to her children and the audience is transported to an enchanted forest where the elemental spirits come to life and the myth of their past and future is revealed. “They’re very different films,” Gipson comments. “Myth is more complex with many more effects than Cycles. We really leaned into having the music and the animation tie together, almost like in Fantasia.” Nicholas Russell is the producer, Jose Luis Gomez Diaz (Cycles) is the VR Technology Supervisor and Joseph Trapanese (Tron: Legacy) composed the original score. Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld, Mildred Pierce), who voiced the character of Queen Iduna in Frozen 2, is the film’s narrator, and her participation is an indication of Disney’s serious commitment to the project. Brittney Lee, a key visual development artist on the Frozen movies, is the Production Designer of Myth, and drew inspiration for it from the works of legends such as Disney Art Director Eyvind Earle (Sleeping Beauty) and visual development artist Mary Blair (Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella). She was intrigued by Gipson’s vision of creating a stylized world with the visual influences of pop-up books, graphic silhouettes and stage elements from vaudeville and music hall productions. “Something we tried to push on in Myth was this sense of 2D animation,” says Lee. “I wanted to have hand-drawn animation because Fantasia was one of the main
“One of the things in the film that I really gravitated towards was the elemental spirits. I just loved these characters. … What’s so great is that with the water Nøkk you feel its scale, with the salamander you feel how tiny it is on a rock, and with the Earth Giants you see them massively in scale. That’s the beauty of VR. You’re able to feel things that you’re not able to feel on a flat screen.” —Jeff Gipson, Director inspirations for this film. So we have a lot of our effects artists on the project. [Effects artist] Dan Lund came in and did beautiful 2D hand-drawn effects.” Gipson adds that the 2D animated work “adds a sense of heritage from Disney animation.” Myth started when Frozen and Frozen 2 writer and co-director Jennifer Lee approached Gipson about exploring the world of Frozen for his next VR project. “When Jenn approached me to create something, I felt a mixture of emotions,” Gipson recalls. “I was nervous, I was excited. I was intrigued. What is cool is that Jenn gave me complete creative control on the film that I wanted to make. I was empowered but I was also nervous. Frozen is one of our most iconic films at the studio, and those worlds and those characters are so special. I wanted to do something that would do that film justice and feel like it belonged to that world.” Gipson’s concept for the VR film came about a year ago when he was watching some early screenings of Frozen 2. “One of the things in the film that I really gravitated towards was the elemental spirits,” he comments. “I just loved these characters.” These include the Nøkk, mythical water spirits that take the form of stallions with the power of the ocean; Gale, a wind spirit that is playful and curious and can also rage with a tornado’s force; the Earth Giants, massive creatures that are the spirits of the earth; and Bruni, the fire spirit in the form of a tiny, fast-moving fire salamander who can wreak havoc in a forest in seconds. At the same time, he was thinking about his own family’s
SPRING 2020 VFXVOICE.COM • 85
