Today we want to talk about the lasting impact of the Cinderella dress transformation.

This is notes on the scene, something simple but daring Do Oh, just leave it to me.

What gown?

This Will be thing was one of Walt's favorite moments and has 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.

This unique collaboration between character animation and affects the fields to the viewer like one beautiful thing is something 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 Rally this whole effect here.

Do 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 Raleigh also did it in Peter Pan as well for Tinkerbell, and it really kind of became associated with her magic and other fairies and pixies even to this day.

Actually, that effect goes over the castle logo on our current films, so getting into the scene.

This is actually a really great frame where Cinderella is between transformation, this dust and all of the design, all the sense of motion You 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 whites 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, they're at their apex, and then some of them there are actually starting to pop.

If we're animating this all probably start like this, become that and do do that.

And that is just something that gets done.

Like all the time is of the original pencil test footage the Mark Davis and George Rally did together was very evident here in these pencil tests.

Just how unified the character performance and the effects are.

You 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 him line 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 that sense of magic, that sense of transformation even after it's already done the brand newness.

There's a really intersection between effects, animation and the design, and I love also how it's not just a dissolve.

There's a color shift here to 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, like hanging to this actually billowing thing right here.

That is really kind of cool.

I'm just noticing that for the first time, Mark Davis is actually animating, although overlap of this little piece of her dress that moves and all the transformation from one dress to another, her hair style.

All of that is the character animation, even though it's feeling like an effect happening to her.

And the effects artists is making all of this beautiful magic pixie dust they work really together in tandem actually make this one beautiful effect on a character with this transformation, Which is why it's so iconic that had a lasting impact on the whole industry.

But certainly here in this building on the films we do today.

This is a scene from Princess and the Frog, a film that I was ahead of effects on you.

It was a kind of a return to two D animation came out 10 years ago this year inst actually turning into a princess like Cinderella does.

We've got Tianna, who was dressed as a princess who gets turned into a frog.

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 friend, you know, you have all these tasty light beams going out did hide what happens to her.

So one of the things that kind of help support that this is actually a princess and the frog that this is actually 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 have described earlier, or these little water splashes the character animation was done by the great mark hand.

Who's done a bunch of Disney princesses.

Dan London.

The effects here and you can see your down here in the corner.

It was like a soap bubble, but you can't do these magical Disney effects without some little sparkles.

Here's some sparkles What we here, but you can Seymour of these big water droplets does.

This transformation goes on and one of the things they weren't doing and Cinderella is, I was going to say under let effects.

But these additional effects.

But back in the day, they were actually on an animation camera with a light shooting through them.

But all those pixie dust Strong's we're actually just paint, but these were actually radiating like all these water droplets.

But as well as the sparkles kind of behave the way the other pixie dust does kind of float down, not quite like water with, and we carry it over through this shot and get rid of it here is now We're in Tian s point of view.

No magic anymore.

His sister's gonna be disappointed.

I see going a little bit further in time is wreck around magics.

So this is a clip where Penelope is revealed that she in fact, is a princess, even though she's been looking around the way girl this whole time.

So this shot in particular I want to just stop on because that wonderful mash up of the pixie dust we've been talking about and this is actually an overt call back to Cinderella because it actually is a parody.

So, you know, we were trying to do something else and Princess and the frog.

But this is really trying to take you back to that moment, Get to get a little last one at the same time.

But another thing is got happening.

Is all this kind of electrical effects here bright like this Elektronik stuff raining down as well, letting you know that you're still in a video game again.

Here we are with our friends.

Little pixie dust gotta have that popping off.

Damn, your world transforms Now.

This is a combination of both effects and look so you've got two different environment speciale being revealed here by in effects passed.

There's all this kind of digital imagery here, and that's always lighting.

It's also real collaboration between the look department environments, effects and lighting.

You know we don't have this kind of one department.

Hands off to another were working like right alongside.

Which brings me to my next clip, which is from the original Frozen.

The transformation of also from Queen Elsa to also Elsa is beautiful in this.

Like let it go sequence and I want to kind of break down how we make that sequence happen.

The wonderful thing about Elsa issues her own fairy godmother.

So if one thing I like about this is that before the magic transformation happens, she just defiantly takes the crown off, tosses it no magic.

And this is just right to just let our own hair down.

Another cool thing about this character animation was done about Becky Brady, who was a character supervisor for Elsa.

J.

Une did the effects animation in here, and we go full, full pixie.

We actually take some of the similarities of else'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 were helping reveal her dress, and because she's doing it on her own, she throws her arm out.

Bam dress comes on because she is in control, just doing it for herself.

That was one thing that we were really trying to do here in This transformation is because this is not something that's actually happening for Elsa.

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

Makes escape almost afterthought.

Bam!

Take this, Kate.

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

We have these kind of pixie Dustin here we've been talking about.

But we also have snow and ice as well.

Kind of mixed into this traditional magic.

So this was actually weeks of back and forth between Dan, who I mentioned earlier from persistent Frog J and Becky working together to kind of plot what she was going to do when this effect was gonna happen based on this pose and Nat pose.

So let's step through this again.

Watch how the effects kind of light up here along the patterns of else's dressed 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 has to be done to the song that she's singing the effects again, going all way back to Cinderella princes in the Fried record.

Ralph.

And anything we've actually done is that we have to be in support of her performance for who she is as a person at this particular moment in time, in 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 gallon actually forms, we start bringing thes signature.

It also kind of snowflakes on almost anticipating it.

You get this almost pre preview of what's gonna happen, and then here start for the reflection bam!

All fully formed and this is a lighting it way.

This actually, I don't believe we actually did effects on the shot that can actually just pull these sweet little highlights.

So that's the lasting legacy of the dress transformation from Cinderella going all the way up to some of the films were doing today.

Tianna Penelope of Ailsa, Whether it's the character animator actually drawing the dress, changing from one dress to another, whether the effects artist is revealing to dress underneath the collaboration that it takes to actually make a transformation like this between character animation and effects to naturally make something that feels to the viewer like one thing, one the particular bit of magic.

I think that's kind of cool.