11 Facts about the Skeletons from COCO

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During my trip to Pixar a few months ago, I watched a cool presentation on bringing the skeletons from COCO. All this animation stuff is so cool. They do so much worth to make the film and character’s look amazing! Here are some Fun Fact About Bringing the Skeleton’s to Life for Pixar’s COCO.

During my trip to Pixar a few months ago, I watched a cool presentation on bringing the skeleton's to life for Pixar's COCO. All this animation stuff is so cool. They do so much worth to make the film and character's look amazing! Here are some Fun Fact About Bringing the Skeleton's to Life for Pixar's COCO. — COCO – Concept art by Zaruhi Galstyan. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Gini Santos working on “Coco” on July 25, 2017, at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)

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The animators studied the bones, muscles, and anatomy to help them build the skeletons for COCO. Explored as to whether the skeletons would have teeth, eyes, tongues, eyelashes, hair or wigs, face paint for Dios de Muertos.

FUNNY BONES – In Disney•Pixar’s “Coco,” several members of the Rivera family call the Land of the Dead home, including (from L-R): Miguel’s great-grandfather Papá Julio (voice of Alfonso Arau), Tía Victoria, family matriarch and Miguel’s great-great-grandmother Mamá Imelda (voice of Alanna Ubach), identical twin uncles Tío Oscar and Tío Felipe (both voice of Herbert Siguenza) and Tía Rosita (voice of Selene Luna). Directed by Lee Unkrich, co-directed by Adrian Molina and produced by Darla K. Anderson, Disney•Pixar’s “Coco” opens in U.S. theaters on Nov. 22, 2017. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

When deciding on the final look of the skeletons, the animators explored as to whether the skeletons would have teeth, eyes, tongues, eyelashes, hair or wigs, and even face paint for Dios de Muertos. They did not want to make the animation too scary.

The animators toyed with the idea of how the skeletons should look. They explored this through drawing. Do we want them to feel like folk art or real skeletons?

Pixar has never animated skeletons before COCO

Only twenty percent of human body weight is from the skeleton. The bodies of the skeleton’s are much lighter than alive characters. Therefore they behave differently.

Using rigs within the animation program, the animators tested how far the bones might separate when the skeleton moved. How far could they separate and let it continue to believable?

Hector’s Walk Inspired by Midnight Cowboy Played by Dustin Hoffman

Hector’s walk in the film COCO is inspired by Ratso in the film Midnight Cowboy played by Dustin Hoffman. The character of Ratso had an old injury that healed over wrong. It symbolized a brokenness as a character and the animators really like that as detail and wanted it to be part of Hector in COCO.

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

Skeletons from COCO have Eyelids

The thought process of the characters is shown in the eyes. The animators committed to having eyeballs and eyelids.

11 Facts about the Skeletons in Pixar's COCO — COCO – Mamá Imelda concept art by Daniela Strijleva. ©2017 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

COCO Skeletons Have Lips

The skeletons have lips, and the skull is one piece to help with clear month shapes and dialogue.

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

Keep the outline of the rigid skeleton support the idea that the skeleton’s are hard and rigid.

The collision system that helps animate the way clothes move on top of the skeletons was upgraded for this film. The traditional animation of humans are smooth and don’t have gaps for cloth to get caught in between. Since bones are separated, the material was getting caught between the bones during simulations. It was pretty funny to see a dress getting caught in a waist or elbow. The worked with different methods to keep the clothes behaving normally.