Nina Denning

Blog of a practitioner

Posted on 24 June, 2016  in MDU115

One piece of work that has always inspired me is Tangled. I completely adore the story of Rapunzel, and Disney’s remake was brilliant. Something about Tangled really stuck with me after seeing the film on the big screen, i loved the story, the music was brilliant, the characters were well thought out and the art style was gorgeous. One artist made a serious contribution to the art in tangled, Dan Cooper. Dan Cooper worked on Tangled as the co-art director, this meant he had the challenging role of directing the creative vision, but he did more than that. Cooper was in charge of the key lighting throughout many scenes of the film, maintaining the tone and mood of the frame to fit within its context. One of the challenges for Cooper wouldve been Rapunzels hair, it glows therefore it creates its own form of light. These started out as paintings over a GC render. Here’s a link to Dan Coopers blog: http://dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au

Key lighting from Tangled by (Cooper, D. 2012).

Source retrieved from: http://dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/tangled-lighting-keys.html

Cooper explains a simple frame is passed from the animators to the director to the leads in lighting, then back to him to give the lighting key a shot. Cooper gives a lot of credit to other artists for his final key. Dan Cooper really displays the importance of lighting in any given sequence through his art which can be shown through these comparisons. 

Key lighting from Tangled by (Cooper, D. 2012).

The picture on the right has much more depth, mood and tone than its previous counterpart. I feel that the reason why lighting was so important in Disney’s Tangled, is because the movie had so much light to give! From the brightly coloured landscapes, the floating lanterns to Rapunzel herself…. “And at last i see the light!!!” 

Source retrieved from: https://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2016/02/Rapunzel-pushes-a-lantern-in-Tangled.gif

Tangled to me is an animated masterpiece and i feel Dan Cooper played a huge part in making it so beautiful, creative and inspiring.

References:  Çooper, D. (2016). Dan Cooper’s blog splotch. Dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au