
The Algorithms Behind Moana’s Animated Ocean - jansho
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/the-algorithms-behind-moanas-gorgeously-animated-pacific-ocean/528645/?single_page=true
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Animats
Very nice. In the 1990s, when I was doing Softimage physics plug-ins, I met
the guy who did the first good water surface shader. The first application was
_Waterworld_ , which was such an awful movie the reputation rubbed off on his
plug-in. Then he sold some to _Titanic_ , and the business improved.

(Add-ons for Softimage were a crappy business. "400 people chasing $4M in
revenue", one Softimage rep told me.)

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vnglst
I loved Waterworld!!

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JetSpiegel
At least it wasn't the Postman, that's the best thing I can say.

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bfu
I loved Postman!!

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bryanrasmussen
I liked that part where he only rang twice.

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JabavuAdams
""" “You know it’s hard for me to go to the beach nowadays,” she said. “When
I’m there, I’m looking at how foam dissipates, at how the water recedes back
into the ocean, the cadence and the rhythm of the little breaks. I’m looking
at how the beach itself is modeled to create the reef breaks, how the light
affects the water, the clarity of the water itself, the colors. There’s just a
million things going through my head.” """

Yup. Once a graphics nerd ... always a graphics nerd. This is me looking at
everything.

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jedimastert
Ah yes, the beauty of a flower.

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AndrewKemendo
CNET did an in depth video last year that I think does a better job without
the fluff.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-HG8IA-2TI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-HG8IA-2TI)

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anomie31
I didn't see any particular algorithms in this paper, I felt kinda let down.

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santaclaus
The water on Moana was cool, but the hair was _way_ cooler!

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amelius
I wonder how soon we'll have animated movies that seem entirely realistic,
including the actors.

(I know, not a goal of this movie).

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babyrainbow
Something I have wondered often.

Why animate a movie, if you all your characters are human beings? I don't get
it. Isn't the whole point of animation to bring creatures and stuff into life
in fantastic ways...

Think Tom & Jerry. You cannot do that using a conventional movie (unless you
have Jim carry at your disposal, of course)

It feels so pointless when animated movies try to get accurate portrayal of
human attributes.

That is not at all the point of being an animation!

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macintux
Cheaper talent, risk-free stunts, don't have to worry as much about an actor
getting seriously ill or dying during filming (voice acting can be time-
compressed, and you can replace someone much more easily). CGI actors don't
have bad days on the set.

I'm sure there are more reasons. Ultimately I think it gives a director much
more control.

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amelius
Also, CGI actors don't age, and they don't need contracts. And they can be
copyrighted.

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amelius
Another thing is: they can be "optimized", like, god forbid, given larger
eyes, or made unnaturally thin.

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0xbadf00d
Along similar lines there was a fascinating video about modelling different
types of snow for Frozen which goes into some detail about the Material Point
Method (MPM) algorithms:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0kyDKu8K-k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0kyDKu8K-k)

