If you head out to see "Finding Dory" this weekend, you'll also see "Piper," Pixar's newest short film.
While the six-minute short about a fledgling sandpiper hatchling is adorable and will resonate with both adults and children alike, it’s the animation that steals the show. “Piper” is absolutely stunning.
The dialogue-free short introduces us to the wide-eyed baby bird as he’s being trained by his mother to get food on his own from an incoming ocean tide. We watch as Piper scurries hurriedly down a beach towards the water and that’s when you realize you’re watching something special.
"Piper" animates what are probably two of the most difficult things to illustrate and make look realistic — sand and water.
Just look at these shots:
And it’s not just regular sand that’s animated, but wet sand. And it all looks incredibly real.
If you’ve ever stepped in sand, you know it’s not simply one color. It’s made up of billions and billions of tiny specks that are shades of brown, orange, white, and even black. Pixar took all of that into consideration to create pebbles of sand so detailed that you may as well be looking at real grains of sand.
"Piper" director Alan Barillaro told Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio it took over a year and a half to do the animation on the latest Pixar short. Why? Barillaro estimates there were billions of sand pebbles animated to create the beach.
He also said there were about seven million feathers individually created for the sandpipers. Up to 40 animators spent time drawing almost everything the old-fashioned way, by hand.
So when you're watching "Piper," yes, you are watching a labor of love. Check out a teaser of "Piper" below:
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