The Art of Animation
Hao & Cleo Yumei
How Pixar Created Inside Out 2
KELSEY MANN, DIRECTOR
“I began by listing all the sequels I could think of: everything I liked and didn’t like about them. What I found was that the sequels I liked had a sense of originality. Something new was happening instead of just rehashing everything that worked with the first movie.”
A sequel to Pixar’s 2015 box office hit, Inside Out 2 brings the audience back inside the mind of Riley, as she begins a new adventure of puberty and adolescence. Joining the ensemble cast of emotions from the first film—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust—are new complex feelings, emotions, and beliefs to help guide her through this new stage in life.
From the Studio: Production Notes
REFLECTING MENTAL HEALTH
To accurately depict anxiety and mental health, Pixar brought in real psychology help, including clinical psychologist Lisa Damour and emotion researcher Dacher Keltner, to make Riley’s teen stress and Anxiety feel authentic rather than exaggerated. They also sanity-checked teen realism with a small advisory group of actual teenagers.
ANIMATING DURING COVID
Production overlapped with the start of the pandemic, so Pixar had to adapt by developing software the team could use so that animators can follow along from home. Animators used iPads, which tracked whoever is “driving,” so the entire process can also be done remotely for their entire team seamlessly.
3,988 408
TOTAL STORYBOARD FRAMES DRAWN
STORYBOARDS SENT TO ANIMATION
Staffing Production
From Producer Mark Nielsen, the film staffed a record 150 animators. This was largely because the sequel has a bigger cast of emotions, requiring more character-performance shots that added production complexity. Pixar also had to deal with major technology pipeline changes, such as updated shading/lighting tools, which increased iteration and staffing needs.
Franchising a Blockbuster Animation
THE ANIMATION PIPELINE
The animation pipeline takes a story from script to final rendered film, moving through stages like storyboarding, layout, animation, lighting, and compositing. Each step builds on the last, involving specialized teams working in sequence and collaboration.
ANIMATION BUDGET BREAKDOWN
While every film distributes funds differently based on its creative demands, projects often invest heavily in new software tools, rendering power, and the talent needed to operate them.
Pre-Production
Meet Riley’s New Emotions
KELSEY MANN
“If you’re in your minivan, playing animated films
How to Tell a Good Story
ACT I: INTRODUCING THE PLOT
Hollywood films use a “Three Act” structure that divides a narrative into three main Acts. Act One begins with the inciting incident This is the moment that shakes up the hero’s world and sets the story in motion.
ACT II: FACING THE CHALLENGES
In Act Two, the hero attempts to solve the problems introduced earlier. Near the end of the act, the midpoint reveals the central conflict on which everything hinges, propelling the hero towards the final act.
ACT III: RESOLVING THE STORY
Act Three resolves the hero’s conflict and shows how the outcome of the hero’s journey has changed them. This peak tension of conflict is called the climax
More Than One Way of Writing
DISNEY: ONCE UPON A TIME...
Disney is all about taking fairytales, books, and stories that already exist, and reinventing versions of them. As a result, character arcs are typically more flat and one-dimensional. The villain is usually the one who puts the plot in motion and hero has to overcome the villain’s interference in order to reach their happily ever after. If it weren’t for the villain, there would be no plot.
PIXAR: WHAT IF...
Pixar’s core stories come from a “What if” structure. What if monsters lived inside our closets? What if a rat wanted to be a chef? There aren’t any “true” villains in Pixar movies. The main source of conflict movies are rooted in the hero themself. They are their own biggest enemy that they must realize and grow from.
DREAMWORKS: TWISTING THE TROPES...
Dreamworks subverts fairytale and fantasy tropes to commentate on tradition. Similar to Pixar’s stories, characters have internal battles they need to overcome through a redemption story. Something needs to change about them for them to overcome the external battle.
Act I: 19 minutes Flynn Rider climbs into Rapunzel’s tower.
Act II: 50 minutes In the flooded cave, Flynn reveals his true name, and Rapunzel reveals her magical hair to save them.
Act III: 85 minutes Eugene cuts off Rapunzel’s hair, leading to Mother Gothel’s defeat.
More Than Just the Big Three
Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks once won almost every Annie. Today, smaller studios are breaking tradition, proving that innovation can come from anywhere.
Since 1992, the Annie Awards’ Best Animated Feature category has offered a yearly snapshot of the films that shaped our childhood. For decades, the winners reflected the rise of CGI and the dominance of what became known as “the Pixar look,” a polished, hyperreal aesthetic that blended cartoon appeal with near-photographic detail.
But the past few years mark a noticeable shift. Studios are moving away from realism and toward more expressive, stylized worlds, inspired by the success of Into the Spider-Verse. As techniques evolve, the future of animation is shifting to become unapologetically artistic and stylized in a never-seen-before way.
What’s the Difference Between the Styles?
Each animation style comes with its own balance of craft, time, and resources. Some styles are fast and clean. Others are slow but charming. One isn’t necessarily better than the rest, but a different method of visual storytelling.
TWO-DIMENSIONAL (2D)
Originally hand-drawn on celluloid, but artists now digitally draw and layer elements directly in software.
The workflow, though laborintensive, requires less technical complexity and fewer resources
STOP MOTION
Creating physical models, settings, scenery, and objects and photographing them as each small movement is made, which is incredibly time-intensive Animators must also consider realworld physics and consistently manage lighting.
3 -DIMENSIONAL (3D)
Using computer-generated imagery (CGI) to animate depth and movement similar to real-life. With modeling, rigging, and even rendering, the technicality involves a longer timeline.
HYBRID/MIXED
Combining different animation styles (i.e. 2D and 3D) within a single project to create a stylized visual experience, pushing the technical complexity the most in order to integrate a separate 2D pipeline with a 3D one.
What the Annie Doesn’t Tell You
What the Annie doesn’t tell you is the scale of innovation, experimentation, and technical artistry that goes into every frame. Behind each win are years of problem-solving, worldbuilding, and
How to Read This
THE LION KING, 1994
It took approximately three years to develop the technology to animate the 2.5 minute wildebeest stampede scene so the animals wouldn't slide through each other.
RATATOUILLE, 2007
Animators developed a new lighting technique: Gummi lighting to mimic how light passed and diffuses through translucent materials like grapes and cheese.
CORALINE, 2009
Adrian Molina — PIXAR
“So much of the film is about the stories that your family passes down, and the stories you don’t know about.”
ELIO, COCO, THE GOOD DINOSAUR
Maggie Kang — SONY
“I saw an opportunity to show a different kind of female superhero that I felt like I wasn't seeing.”
K-POP DEMON HUNTERS
Getting the Story Right
Animation
However,
“A gem that doesn't get talked about as much as the big Pixar movies, but wellworth checking out.”
“There is a poignancy to how the film depicts these abandoned spaces and how the means of bringing order out of chaos is to hear the past and remember all who once called them home.”
Brenda Chapman — DREAMWORKS
“That's when I realized why princesses in their films were so helpless. They had all been created by men.”
BRAVE, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, UP, THE LION KING
“There was clearly a dramatic attempt to land Adrian Molina’s ship gracefully vreplacement directors, with a few scattered unsolvable issues along the way.” TELLING ANOTHER PERSON’S STORY
“It's hard to decide what is most annoying about this cinematic botch: the ugly animation, the contrived story or the blatant product placement, or the fact that the
“Everything feels more real and urgent, it actually feels more human than some live-action films we get to see.”
“Coco is a divine representation of the human condition rooted respectfully within marvelous cultural heritage.”
“Ratatouille puts the anyone can cook motto to the test and while it’s an absurd premise, this film is absolutely beautiful in every way.”
“It’s a cherry-picked approach to allegorical storytelling that muddies its own water, or blows down its own structure.”
“The Despicable Me franchise, which follows a bumbling ex-villain as he tries his best to be a good example to a trio of orphans, has evolved from a relatively amiable cartoon with a genuinely safe concept to an unabashed cash grab.”
Jennifer Yuh Nelson — DREAMWORKS
“We
animation studios still haven't included diversity, equity, and inclusion into their values, indicating that many are still beginning the journey.
WHAT ARE WOMEN’S AMBITIONS?
In an interview of 38 earlycareer women in animation, 90 percent desired to hold a leadership role.
2 & 3
“I
Domee Shi — PIXAR
TURNING RED, ELIO
KEMP POWERS, WRITER AND CO-DIRECTOR OF SOUL
“For the process of making Soul, it’s really important that we invited a lot of other black voices into the fold in the creation of not just Joe, but all the of the characters in the film.”
Hayao Miyazaki — STUDIO GHIBLI
“My movies have strong female leads that don't think twice about fighting for what they believe in with all their heart.”
HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, SPIRITED AWAY
Female Characters on Screen
Inclusion is still lacking, with many women, people of color, and characters with disabilities remaining underrepresented both on screen and in the creative pipeline that shapes what gets told.
FEMALE DIRECTORS
However, only 4 women of color worked as film or TV directors across 120 top animated films. All of these women were East Asian.
IS THE INDUSTRY CHANGING?
Despite significant strides, the industry still grapples with underrepresentation and a need for comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in their studios.
What Does the Future of Animation Look Like?
The Small yet Mighty Studios Resisting 3D
CARTOON SALOON
“Cartoon Saloon's animation is breathtaking, hand-drawn, and stylized. It’s deeply rooted in Irish folklore like a living tapestry.”
AARDMAN ANIMATIONS
“Inventive, nurturing of new talent, funny, quirkily, lovably, and eccentrically British. Their films are just as funny and just as delightful at the age of thirty-two as they were at the age of eight.”
STUDIO GHIBLI
“Ghibli doesn’t operate from the need to manufacture franchises; each of their hand-painted films convey philosophically
intricate tales of wonder.”
JEFF ROWE, CO-DIRECTOR OF THE MITCHELLS VS.
At first Spider-Verse gave studios permission. Now with Spider-Verse 2, it’s made it a mandate. If anyone makes a film that looks like a C.G. 3D film from the last 30 years now, it’s going to feel dated.
Audiences are not just only accepting of different styles, but they crave it.”
Studios featured: Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Cartoon Saloon, Studio Ghibli, Laika, Sony Pictures Animation, Netflix Animations Studios, Aardman Animations
Special thanks to Professor Karen Cheng for her continual guidance and feedback throughout this project. This project would not be possible without her support.
KLAUS
THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES 2019
ZOOTOPIA 2016