How Disney Movie Backgrounds Evolved Over 17 years | Movies Insider | Insider
Tech advancements have allowed Disney to go from more static environments in its earliest computer-animated movies to a living, breathing landscape in “Strange World” (2022). This new setting has a level of movement, texture, dimension, and scale that would have been unthinkable 17 years ago, when Disney made its first foray into full computer animation with “Chicken Little” (2005). Since then, Disney has expanded its tool set with each successive film to create landscapes that feel just as alive as the characters.
For the storybook setting of “Tangled” (2010), the environment artists created new tree-modeling and growth tools to help them build art-directed forests at scale. For the even more highly stylized vegetation in “Frozen” (2013), Disney developed a full vegetation tool to create not just trees but bushes, foliage, and plants, all in very specific and artistically guided shapes.
Having mastered these organic environments, the studio took on the challenge of a densely packed, lights-filled urban setting in “Big Hero 6” (2014). To handle the hundreds of thousands of lights in the city of San Fransokyo, Disney’s engineers built a powerful new renderer that could work with several million rays of light at once.
The island environments of “Moana” (2016) drove Disney to find new ways to simulate water, lava, sand, mud, and foam, improvements that laid the groundwork for more ocean simulation in “Frozen II” (2019), while the Southeast Asian settings of “Raya and the Last Dragon” (2021) pushed Disney to revamp how it creates atmospheric elements like fog and mist.
With all these tools, the team on “Strange World” had to balance creating an interactive, dynamic environment with a life of its own and staying true to the story-first principle of the classic Disney movies. To strike this careful balance, the filmmakers used a new animation pipeline and tools like camera lenses, editing, and sound design to make sure their world always supported — never distracted from — the characters’ emotional journeys.
We spoke with “Strange World” VFX supervisor Steve Goldberg, head of environments Larry Wu, animated environments supervisor Ben Fiske, and editor Sarah Reimers to find out how they did it.
For more of “Strange World”:
00:00-0:37: Intro
0:37-2:01: Tangled
2:01-2:26: Frozen
2:26-3:23: Big Hero 6
3:23-5:16: Moana
5:16-8:04: Frozen 2
8:04-9:09: Raya and the Last Dragon
9:09-9:47: Encanto
9:47-14:17: Strange World
MORE MOVIES INSIDER VIDEOS:
How Moving Cars And Vehicles Are Faked In Movies & TV | Movies Insider | Insider
How Extreme Ocean Storms Are Faked In Movies and TV | Movies Insider | Insider
What Marvel Movies Look Like Behind The Scenes | Movies Insider | Insider
------------------------------------------------------
#Disney #MoviesInsider #Insider
Insider is great journalism about what passionate people actually want to know. That’s everything from news to food, celebrity to science, politics to sports and all the rest. It’s smart. It’s fearless. It’s fun. We push the boundaries of digital storytelling. Our mission is to inform and inspire.
Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day:
Insider on Facebook:
Insider on Instagram:
Insider on Twitter:
Insider on Snapchat:
Insider on TikTok: @insider
How Disney Movie Backgrounds Evolved Over 17 years | Movies Insider | Insider
1 view
363
79
3 weeks ago 00:03:29 1
WISH KING & QUEEN ORIGINAL SONG |ANIMATIC| Our Message To The People【MilkyyMelodies ft @CalebHyles】
3 weeks ago 00:21:03 1
X-MEN 97 Episode 5 Breakdown | Marvel Easter Eggs, Ending Explained, Things You Missed & Review
3 weeks ago 00:01:10 1
SANDOKHAN FILM PREPEARING💥
3 weeks ago 00:02:36 1
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i - We Know The Way (From “Moana“)
3 weeks ago 00:12:25 1
This Invention Made Disney MILLIONS, but Then They LOST It!
3 weeks ago 00:02:25 1
THE WILD ROBOT | Official Trailer
3 weeks ago 00:03:08 1
Do You Want to Build a Meth Lab? (Frozen & Breaking Bad Parody/Mashup)
3 weeks ago 00:03:15 1
Wish’s Original Movie Scene: Evil Magnifico and Amaya (Read Description)
3 weeks ago 00:08:07 1
Mickey Mouse - On Ice - 1935 (HD)
3 weeks ago 00:15:05 1
The First Omen Interview: Nell Tiger Free and Arkasha Stevenson
3 weeks ago 00:44:24 1
Hoisted from Hell (Full Episode) | Extreme Rescues
3 weeks ago 00:06:23 1
How fans talk about their passions ⏲️ 6 Minute English
3 weeks ago 00:18:52 1
Controlled Opposition Explained as a Game Theory Strategy
3 weeks ago 00:01:13 1
Nala & Scar - Trust in me, child
3 weeks ago 00:00:30 1
Pirates Of The Caribbean (2003) Cast Then And Now
3 weeks ago 00:01:07 1
Tangled Live Action (2025) | TEASER TRAILER | Disney (4K) | rapunzel trailer
3 weeks ago 00:01:10 1
Cruella 2 (2025) | TEASER TRAILER | Disney & Emma Stone (4K) | cruella 2 trailer
3 weeks ago 00:30:03 4
How to Draw CUTE! (Character Design Course Sneak PEEK)
3 weeks ago 00:07:05 1
Aarons Art Tips 2 - Using the “Less than“ and “Greater than“ symbols in your work
3 weeks ago 00:52:12 1
What Life Is Like For 20 Million Waste Pickers | World Wide Waste Marathon | Insider Business
3 weeks ago 00:05:21 1
INDIE CROSS ANNIVERSARY SHOWCASE - INDIE MINI DIRECT 04/08/2024
3 weeks ago 00:03:20 1
ASHA’S VILLAIN SONG | Animatic | Wish cover by Lydia the Bard
3 weeks ago 00:01:06 1
DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN - Teaser Trailer (2024) Marvel Studios & Disney+
3 weeks ago 00:01:21 4
TOY STORY 5 (2024) | Teaser Trailer | Pixar Animation Movie (HD)