Lighting and atmosphere in animated films were elevated to new levels by the creators of Monsters, Inc.

A typical day for Porter found him going over shader reviews, lighting reviews, keeping track of the big issues and running render checks to examine individual frames for problems that can develop. He oversaw approximately 100 people in the departments of lighting, shading, modeling and shots. The shots department was established for this project to implement the hair and clothing simulation.

Pixar also has a new laser recording system that was used to transfer digital images to 35mm film. It offers a wider range of colors. Despite the use of this state of the art system to create the finest 35mm prints possible, Porter prefers seeing the film digitally. It will be shown this way in some larger markets. He says, "Digital projection looks terrific! It's rock solid. It's so much better than watching film going through a projector. Film has a slight jumpiness to it and grain; it looks a little different. Digital looks exactly as it does on the monitors here when we are doing the lighting reviews, the effects reviews and everything else. That is what the director wants to see."

Check out this fur! New simulation software was developed to create the realistic movement of Sulley's blue rug of a coat.

Taking Advantage Of New Technical Innovations
According to Glenn McQueen, supervising animator, the increase in computing power allows "you to get more visual complexity on the screen. More stuff, more atmosphere, more characters, more clothing, more everything." This can make scenes more complicated to animate and keeping track of all that detail can become a problem.

McQueen is a big fan of their new simulation software. It allowed the animators to spend more time on the performance of their characters. "That's where I want to see our animators spending their time. It was a terrific improvement." In Toy Story 2 Al's shirt and pants had to be moved by hand. "I hate animating things like that. You have to spend a lot of time on it and if it is done correctly no one will ever look at it. It doesn't help the film develop the story or provide entertainment. Having a computer do that grunt work is a great improvement."

Strangely, they preferred to animate one hair element by hand. The only human in the film is the little girl who invades the world of the monsters. She has a ponytail. It was easy to animate by hand as the movements were similar to animating the antenna on ants, "something we all have had a lot of practice doing" thanks to A Bug's Life.

The studio created a "tentacle package" in case they were going to animate a character with lots of arms or legs. At one time Sully had 8 tentacles. McQueen said 8 tentacles would have been very difficult to animate within the production schedule planned for the film. "It said monster loud and clear, but I gave a sigh of relief when the director and art directors decided to go with a two legged character. It made getting the film done on time more realistic."