An Effects Recipe for Rolling Dough, Cracking Eggs and Pouring Sauce

Tolga Goktekin, Jon Reisch, Darwyn Peachey, Apurva Shah

Abstract:

Creating the digital effects for cooking in Ratatouille posed a number of unique challanges. First we had to adopt efficient methods for simulating a wide variety of material behaviours. Second we needed to direct our simulations in order to match the expressiveness of the character's animation, e.g. forming specific shapes while the character pounds a dough. Finally we had to apply shading to our simulated surfaces which underwent complex deformations and topological changes. In this sketch we will focus on materials ranging from elastoplastic solids to viscous liquids and illustrate with several shot examples from the film.

Paper (PDF)

Available as Pixar Technical Memo #07-06