{"id":420887,"date":"2026-10-07T03:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420887\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T03:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:38:11","slug":"the-science-behind-pixar-opens-at-frost-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420887\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science Behind Pixar opens at Frost Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buzz Lightyear may have doubts about humans and space travel, but when it comes to bringing Pixar characters to life, filmmakers take technology to infinity and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Science Behind Pixar\u201d exhibit, opening Saturday, Oct. 10 at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, shows visitors that creating a Pixar film takes not only creativity, but also some pretty sophisticated technology.<\/p>\n

\"Sulley Sulley and Mike from \u201cMonsters, Inc.\u201d are among the familiar Pixar characters featured throughout \u201cThe Science Behind Pixar,\u201d which explores the technology and artistry behind the studio\u2019s films. (Photo by Michael Malyszko) <\/p>\n

Through the exhibition, visitors explore the filmmaking techniques behind Pixar favorites including \u201cToy Story,\u201d \u201cFinding Nemo,\u201d \u201cMonsters, Inc.,\u201d \u201cThe Incredibles\u201d and \u201cBrave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analisa Duran, Knight vice president of science education at Frost Science, says that the exhibit offers a behind-the-scenes look at how creativity, engineering, art and math bring these movies to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that really was the perfect fit for us. We are a science museum and it\u2019s part of our mission to bring experiences that get people excited about STEM to the museum and this exhibit is definitely going to do that,\u201d Duran says.<\/p>\n

More than 50 interactive experiences introduce visitors to parts of the filmmaking process through familiar Pixar characters including Buzz Lightyear, Dory, Mike and Sulley, Edna Mode and WALL-E.<\/p>\n

Michael Horvath, vice president of exhibits at the Museum of Science in Boston, helped develop \u201cThe Science Behind Pixar\u201d in collaboration with Pixar Animation Studios. He says activities such as rigging help visitors understand the complexity behind creating an animated character. Rigging determines how a digital model can move.<\/p>\n

One gallery experience lets visitors manipulate a rigged version of Jessie\u2019s face from \u201cToy Story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can move her eyes in every direction and change her eyelids and just see how much articulation can be done in one character, which is a toy, by the way,\u201d says Horvath. \u201cIt\u2019s not even a real face, but it makes you appreciate the level of detail that Pixar puts into a character, and you get to play and sometimes break those models.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking a complicated filmmaking technique like rigging and turning it into something that museum visitors can understand and try for themselves was a challenge facing the team that created \u201cThe Science Behind Pixar\u201d in 2015. The idea for the exhibit followed another collaboration between the Museum of Science in Boston and a Hollywood film studio.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Horvath says they launched \u201cStar Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination,\u201d which was an exhibit developed with Lucasfilm that later led to the \u201cThe Science Behind Pixar\u201d exhibit.<\/p>\n

\"An An exhibit display featuring characters from \u201cThe Incredibles\u201d helps explain rigging, the process that allows animators to control how digital characters move and pose. (Photo by Michael Malyszko) <\/p>\n

That same year, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened the exhibit \u201cPixar: 20 Years of Animation,\u201d focusing on the art of Pixar. But Horvath says that exhibit left the science and technology side of the studio\u2019s work untold.<\/p>\n

This gap brought Pixar and the Museum of Science in Boston together to figure out how to turn the studio\u2019s highly technical, largely digital filmmaking process into a museum experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn our end, we were like what could we do? What would visitors do? Is this experience that we\u2019re making better than a TV documentary,\u201d Horvath says. \u201cSo, the idea of making things physical and real and also making them experiential and interactive is really important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horvath says that there were many iterations of designs and prototypes developed to get ready for the exhibit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have meetings and say, \u2018Hey, tell me more about this thing,\u2019 and then we\u2019d sort of go back and forth and we would develop things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Horvath says that Pixar even had to go back into older \u201cBrave\u201d files and change parameters so that visitors would be able to see what happens when simulations are altered, allowing people to turn off the simulation controlling the characters\u2019 clothing and hair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so fun to see clothing not drape the way it should drape, and just turn, basically, into paper doll clothes,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, to get the scenes where the clothing was wrong or the hair wasn\u2019t right was just doing crazy anti-gravity things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horvath explains that Pixar can also create an entire field of grass by changing parameters on a parabola, which is a U-shaped mathematical curve. This concept turned into an exhibit element where visitors could manipulate the parameters themselves and create different fields of grass.<\/p>\n

He shares that during prototyping, he watched a young girl view the video about the blades of grass in \u201cBrave.\u201d Afterward, he noticed that she had written something on her hand.<\/p>\n

\"Dory Dory from \u201cFinding Nemo\u201d is featured in \u201cThe Science Behind Pixar,\u201d where visitors can experiment with lighting effects and learn how Pixar creates believable underwater scenes. (Photo by Michael Malyszko) <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, then we asked her, \u2018What did you write on your hand?\u2019\u201d Horvath says. \u201cAnd she said, \u2018I wrote the word \u2018parabola\u2019 because I wanted to go home and Google it and find out more about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This encounter led the team to include more information explaining what a parabola is and how it relates to computational thinking, he says.<\/p>\n

Now, 11 years after the exhibition debuted in Boston, one of two versions of the traveling exhibit comes to Frost Science. The exhibit has toured internationally and nationally since 2015.<\/p>\n

Horvath says Frost\u2019s large gallery allows the exhibition to be seen much as it was originally designed, rather than divided among smaller spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the visitors will really love to see it there. I\u2019m excited to see it there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sulley Sulley and Mike from \u201cMonsters, Inc.\u201d are featured in the rigging section of \u201cThe Science Behind Pixar,\u201d where visitors learn how animators create movement in digital characters. (Photo by Michael Malyszko) <\/p>\n

The exhibit is designed for all ages, with some experiences created specifically to engage younger visitors. Horvath recalls watching two adults play with one of those activities, using magnetic 3D parts to assemble a robot in the modeling section.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, yep, we did it. We made it for little kids and big kids,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Frost will also put its own touch on the traveling exhibit. A live clownfish aquarium will greet visitors in the foyer before they enter the exhibition, bringing \u201cFinding Nemo\u201d into the experience.<\/p>\n

The museum is also creating a Pixar Pass that will connect concepts from the exhibit to other parts of Frost, including the planetarium and aquarium.<\/p>\n

Duran hopes the experience continues for families after they leave the museum, whether they talk about what they learned on the drive home or rewatch a favorite Pixar film with a better understanding of what went into creating it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t just create fire by pressing a button, right? They created a simulation based on code,\u201d Duran says.<\/p>\n

If you go:<\/p>\n

WHAT: \u201cThe Science Behind Pixar\u201d<\/p>\n

WHERE: Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, 1101 Biscayne Blvd., Miami<\/p>\n

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Opens Saturday, Oct. 10 through Sunday, April 11, 2027.<\/p>\n

COST: Included with museum admission, $29.95 for adults, $24.95 for children ages 4-11 and free for children ages 3 and under, museum members and active military\/veterans with identification.<\/p>\n

INFORMATION: 305-434-9600 or frostscience.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don\u2019t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buzz Lightyear may have doubts about humans and space travel, but when it comes to bringing Pixar characters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-420887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}