Disney Animation Designer Breaks Down Cinderella's Dress Transformation

Hey, I'm Marlon West from Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Today we wanna talk about the lasting impact

of the Cinderella dress transformation.

This is Notes on a Scene.

Something simple, but daring too.

Oh, just leave it to me.

What a gown this will be.

Bippity, boppity.

Bippity, boppity.

Bippity, boppity, boo!

[angelic music]

This was one of Walt's favorite moments,

and as an effects artist, it's one of the touchstones

of what we call character effects.

It is actually a moment where effects

and character animation are interlinked

and this unique collaboration between character animation

and effects that feels to the viewer

like one beautiful thing.

It's something that we go back to over and over.

So the character animation was done by the great Mark Davis

and the effects animation was done by George Riley.

This whole effect here that we dig so much,

this pixie dust, it goes next level.

So one of the reasons we call it pixie dust in the business

is because George Riley also did it in Peter Pan as well

for Tinker Bell and it really kind of became

associated with her magic and other faeries and pixies.

Even to this day, actually,

that effect goes over the castle logo on our current films.

So getting into this scene,

this is actually a really great frame

where Cinderella is between transformation.

This dust and all of the design, all of the sense

of motion your get here and you can kind of see

in these little areas and I can draw it over here.

The thing about this effect that is so cool

and why it's emulated all the time

is how it starts to fall.

Not as fast as rain or anything, or water.

You'll also see in here, and this is a good frame for it,

you've got some of these little stars that are at their apex

and then some of 'em that are actually starting to pop.

If we were animating this,

they all probably start like this,

become that, and do, do that and that is just something

that gets done like all the time.

These are the original pencil test footage

that Mark Davis and George Riley did together.

It's very evident here in these pencil tests

just how unified the character performance

and the effects are.

You can see this line here.

So obviously the character animator went first

and the effects are actually laid over top of it

but you can see how these lines really support the action,

the hemline of the gown, move along with her,

and so even after the transformation is done,

there's all this magic kind of

interspersed within the dress.

Kind of keeping that sense of magic,

that sense of transformation, even after it's already done.

The brand-new-ness.

There's a real intersection between effects animation

and the design and I love also how

there's not also a dissolve, there's a color shift here.

The dress actually transforms.

And so much of this movie is about clothing.

Making clothes, getting gowns to go to this ball,

and this beautiful transformation is like the apex of it

and watch, watch this strap go from a like hanging

to this actually billowing things right here.

That is really kind of cool.

I'm just noticing that for the first time.

Mark Davis is actually animating all the overlap

of this little piece of her dress that moves

and all the transformation from one dress to another,

her hairstyle, all of that is the character animation

even though it's feeling like an effect happening to her.

And the effects artist is making all

of this beautiful, magic pixie dust.

They work really together in tandem

to actually make this one beautiful effect on a character

with this transformation which is why it's so iconic.

It's had a lasting impact on the whole industry,

but certainly here in this building

on the films we do today.

[magical music]

This is a scene from Princess and the Frog,

a film that I was the head of effects on.

[water spritzing]

[breathing deeply]

[lips smooching]

[water bubbling magically]

[magic tingling softly]

It was a kind of a return to 2D animation.

It came out 10 years ago this year.

Instead of actually turning into a princess,

like Cinderella does, we've got Tiana who's dressed

as a princess, who gets turned into a frog.

[screaming]

Let's break down that transformation and the effects

we actually do to turn her into a frog.

They're kind of inspired by, but trying to do a little twist

on what was done in that dress transformation.

She goes in, bam!

So this is actually a good frame.

You know, you have all these tasty light beams going out

that hide what happens to her.

So one of the things to kind of help support

that this is actually The Princess and the Frog,

that this is actually, it takes place in New Orleans.

Instead of the traditional pixie dust that we've done,

we've got these kind of water droplets.

So everything instead of actually these points of light

that I had described earlier,

are these little water splashes.

The character animation was done by the great Mark Henn.

He's done a bunch of Disney princesses.

Dan Lund did the effects here,

and you can see, over down here in the corner,

there's like a soap bubble,

but you can't do these magical Disney effects,

without some little sparkles.

Here's some sparkles over here.

But you can see more of these big water droplets

as this transformation goes on

and one of the things they weren't doing in Cinderella

is these, I was gonna say under lit effects,

but these were digital effects.

But, you know, back in the day, they were actually

on an animation camera with a light shooting through them,

but all those pixie dust drawings

were actually just paint,

but these were actually radiating light.

All these water droplets, but as well as these sparkles.

They kind of behave the way the other pixie dust does.

They kind of float down, not quite like water would

and we carry it over through this shot

and get rid of it here,

'cause now we're in Tiana's point of view.

There ain't no magic anymore,

'cause sister's gonna be disappointed.

See?

[magical music]

Going a little bit further in time, is Wreck-It Ralph.

[electronic dinging]

Whoa.

And what's with all the magic sparkles?

[electronic beeping]

So this is a clip where Vanellope is revealed

that she in fact is a princess even though

she's been like an around the way girl this whole time.

So this shot in particular, I wanna just stop on,

because it's this wonderful mashup of the pixie dust

we've been talking about

and this is actually an overt callback to Cinderella

because it actually is a parody, so, you know,

we were trying to do something else in Princess and the Frog

but this is really trying to take you back to that moment

and get a little laugh going at the same time.

But another thing it's got happening,

is all this kind of electrical effects here.

Bright light, this electronic stuff raining down as well.

Letting you know that you're still in a video game.

Again, here we are with our friends the little pixie dust.

Gotta have that popping off.

Bam, the whole world transforms.

Now this is a combination of both the effects and look

so you've got two different environments

actually being revealed here by an effects pass.

There's all this kind of digital imagery here

and there's all this lighting.

It's also a real collaboration between the look department,

environments, effects, and lighting.

You know, we don't have this kind of like,

one department hands off to another.

We're working like right alongside

which brings me to my next clip

which is from the original Frozen.

[magical music]

♪ Let it go ♪

♪ Let it go ♪

♪ And I'll raise like the break of dawn ♪

♪ Let it go ♪

♪ Let it go ♪

♪ That perfect girl is gone ♪

♪ Here I am ♪

[Marlon] The transformation of Elsa

from Queen Elsa to Elsa Elsa is beautiful

in this like Let it Go sequence and I wanna

kind of breakdown how we made

that sequence happen. ♪ Let it go ♪

♪ The cold never bothered me anyway. ♪

The wonderful about thing about Elsa

is she's her own fairy godmother.

So one thing I like about this is that

before the magic transformation happens,

she is defiantly, takes her crown off, tosses it.

No magic, and this is just straight

to just lets her own hair down.

Another cool thing about this character animation

was done by Becky Bresee

who is a character supervisor for Elsa.

Jay Yoon did the effects animation in here

and we go full, full pixie.

We actually take some of the similarities

of Elsa's royal gown

and reveal her classic Elsa costume underneath.

So you can kind of see how we kind of like

light up the crest on her chest.

The effects are helping reveal her dress

and because she's doing it on her own,

she throws her arm out, bam!

Dress comes on 'cause she's in control.

Just doing it for herself.

So that's one thing that we were really trying to do here

in this transformation is because it is not something

that's actually happening for Elsa.

She's actually doing it herself and then she walks off,

makes this cape, almost afterthought, like bam!

Take this cape.

So one of the things that makes Elsa's magic very important.

Now we have these kind of pixie dust in here

we've been talking about, but we also have snow and ice

as well kind of mixed in to this traditional magic.

So this was actually weeks of back and forth

between Dan, who I mentioned earlier

from Princess and the Frog, Jay, and Becky,

working together to kind of plot what she was gonna do,

when this effect was gonna happen based on this pose

and that pose.

So let's step through this again.

Watch how the effects kind of light up here

along the patterns of Elsa's dress that are already there,

that are actually part of the design of her costume

that she's already wearing.

That lights up and creates all of this magic.

And of course, this is a musical, so it has to be done

to the song that's she's singing.

The effects, again, going all the way back to Cinderella

and Princess and the Frog, Wreck-It Ralph,

and anything that we've actually done

is that we have to be in support of her performance,

of who she is as a person at this particular moment in time

and the particular action that's going on.

So here she is almost fully formed here

and then we just have these kind of accents of both

the classic kind of pixie dust magic

and the snow and ice that you kind of associate

with Elsa throughout the film.

And even before the gown actually forms

we start bringing these signature Elsa

kind of snowflakes on.

Almost anticipating it.

You get this almost,

pre, preview of what's gonna happen.

And then here, start off with her reflection, bam!

All fully formed, and this is all lighting actually.

This actually, I don't believe we actually did effects

on this shot.

Thinking that we just pull these sweet little highlights.

So that's the lasting legacy of the dress transformation

from Cinderella going all the up

to some of the films we're doing today.

Tiana, Vanellope, of Elsa.

Whether it's the character animator actually

drawing the dress changing from one dress to another.

Whether the effects artist

is revealing the dress underneath.

The collaboration that it takes to actually

make a transformation like this,

between character animation and effects

can actually make something that feels to the viewer

like one thing, one big particular bit of magic.

I think that's kind of cool.

[Fairy Godmother] Bippity, boppity boo!

[angelic singing]