The Bare Bones On Disney-Pixar Coco Skeletons: 8 Fun Facts on Bringing to Life Skeletons For Disney-Pixar’s Coco Movie

Disney invited me to Pixar to get to know the world of the new film Coco, in theaters everywhere on November 22nd.  All opinions shared are my own.

The world of animation is not only fascinating but a fantastic art form that gives us so much.  Have you ever thought about what goes behind the creation of a character? To learn all about it, we sat down with the creators of the skeletons and I was blown away by The Bare Bones On Disney-Pixar Coco Skeletons and Bringing Them to Life and what it all entails.  

Character Shading Lead Byron Bashforth, Simulation Technical Director Emron Grover, Supervising Animator Gini Santos and Character Art Director Daniel Arriaga at “Coco” Long Lead Press Day, which included a filmmaker roundtable, presentations about the music, story, characters and set designs of the film, on August 4, 2017 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)

The Bare Bones On Disney-Pixar Coco Skeletons: 8 Fun Facts

No real reference for how a skeleton moves?  No problem.  Pixar will research, study and create for us.  Your guide?  Questions like how do you make a skeleton come alive and be relatable; how do you give emotion to a skeleton?  We got the Bare Bones on Disney-Pixar Coco Skeletons with these 8 Fun Facts on Bringing the Skeletons.

1. Each character has its own skull shape as a way to help define them individually. Variations of shape also come from making some fuller than others.
2. Normally for skeletons, the lower jaw is detached from the skull.  Coco skeletons have the lower jaw and skull as one unit.
   

   COCO – Mamá Imelda concept art by Daniela Strijleva. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

3. Stylizing skulls to make them appealing included decisions like “do we give them teeth? black around the eyes? face paint for the day of the dead?”. Those details will give shape to the expression of the skull.  Coco skeletons have lips!
4. Hector is the most difficult of all skeletons to clothe because he shows of so much bone!
   

   COCO – Hector concept art by Shelly Wan. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

5. Mexican actor Jorge Negrete’s image was used as a model for a skull to see if they could replicate the charm of his character on a skeleton.
6. Clothes get snagged a lot on skeletons, so in the software clothing the characters, pieces of clothes were set in between bones under the clothes to stop this.
7. To give skeletons the appearance of being fuller  pillows of different sizes are  hidden all around different characters.  
   

   COCO – Concept art by John Nevarez. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

8. Digital paint and a special program was created to be able to make color and texture on the skeletons to react to light.

Animators are used to worrying about the muscle and skin action.  Here it is all about making bare bones engaging.  The aim was having details and realism without the creepiness. Did they make it?  Get a glimpse on the trailer:

About Disney-Pixar’s Film Coco

Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel (voice of newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (voice of Benjamin Bratt). Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector (voice of Gael García Bernal), and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history.