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How Disney Movie Backgrounds Evolved Over 17 years

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,

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