The sequel to Wreck-It Ralph hits theaters on November 21.

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Bringing Wreck-It Ralph to Life

An animator explains what it’s like to work on the sequel to a hit movie

November 2018
By Alexa Kurzius

This month Wreck-It Ralph is back in a new movie. It’s called Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. It’s the sequel to Wreck-It Ralph, a hit animated film that came out in 2012. In the new 3-D movie, Ralph and his best friend Vanellope von Schweetz try to find a missing part to an arcade game by going into the internet.

For Kira Lehtomaki, working on the new Wreck-It Ralph movie was like catching up with an old friend. Lehtomaki is the co-head of animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios. She worked on the first Wreck-It Ralph movie along with almost a dozen other people at Disney. She spent so much time creating the characters that she felt like she got to know them. Working with them again brought back many good memories.

Wreck-It Ralph is back in a new animated movie. It’s called Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. It comes out this month. The movie is the sequel to Wreck-It Ralph. That hit film came out in 2012. The new 3-D movie stars Ralph and his best friend Vanellope von Schweetz. They need to find a missing part to an arcade game. To look for it, they go into the internet.

Kira Lehtomaki worked on the new movie. For her it was like catching up with an old friend. Lehtomaki is an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. She worked on the first Wreck-It Ralph movie with other people at Disney. She spent a lot of time creating the characters. She felt like she got to know them. Working with them again brought back many good memories.  

©Disney

Kira Lehtomaki

Developing an animated movie is difficult. Hundreds of thousands of still images called frames are linked together to create the film. Just one minute of animation has 1,440 frames!

Eighty animators worked on the movie. Computer design software helped shape each character’s every move.

Lehtomaki’s favorite scene includes 14 Disney princesses. “Disney princesses were what inspired me to be an animator,” she says.

The scene lasts just six minutes, but it was one of the most challenging to complete. Many princesses—like Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Pocahontas—had never been animated in 3-D. So the team had to work hard to make sure the characters looked realistic.

To do this, animators recorded videos of themselves acting out the scenes. It helped them know when to make a character blink or take a breath. “These little moments make the characters feel real,” Lehtomaki says.

You’ll have to watch the movie to see what happens. Meanwhile, Lehtomaki is excited for her next project. “It’s a huge thrill to be an animator,” she says.

Developing an animated movie is difficult. The film is made up of many still images. Each one is called a frame. Hundreds of thousands of frames are linked together to create the whole movie. Just one minute of animation has 1,440 frames!

Eighty animators worked on the new movie. Computer design software helped shape each character’s every move.

Lehtomaki’s favorite scene includes 14 Disney princesses. “Disney princesses were what inspired me to be an animator,” she says.

The scene lasts just six minutes. But it was one of the hardest to complete. The princesses included Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Pocahontas. They had never been animated in 3-D before. So the team had to work hard to make sure the characters looked realistic.

To do this, the animators recorded videos of themselves. They acted out the scenes. It helped them know when to make a character blink or take a breath. “These little moments make the characters feel real,” says Lehtomaki.

What happens in the scene? You’ll have to watch the movie to see. Meanwhile, Lehtomaki is excited for her next project. “It’s a huge thrill to be an animator,” she says.

MATH TALK:

In what ways do you think animators use math in their daily job?

MATH TALK:

In what ways do you think animators use math in their daily job?

Division with Remainders

Division with Remainders

Solve the following problems with partial quotients on a separate sheet of paper.

Solve the following problems with partial quotients on a separate sheet of paper.

Five animation supervisors worked on the new Wreck-It Ralph movie. The supervisors want to divide the work evenly among their teams. There are 47 sequences, or scenes, to divide. Which expression could you use to solve?

A. 5 ÷ 47 

B. 47 × 5 

C. 47 ÷ 5

D. 5 × 47

Five animation supervisors worked on the new Wreck-It Ralph movie. The supervisors want to divide the work evenly among their teams. There are 47 sequences, or scenes, to divide. Which expression could you use to solve?

A. 5 ÷ 47 

B. 47 × 5 

C. 47 ÷ 5

D. 5 × 47

Evaluate your expression above.

Evaluate your expression above.

Which division expression with friendly numbers can you use to check if your answer in part B makes sense?

A. 5 ÷ 45          

B. 47 ÷ 5

C. 45 ÷ 5      

D. There is not enough information to answer.

Which division expression with friendly numbers can you use to check if your answer in part B makes sense?

A. 5 ÷ 45          

B. 47 ÷ 5

C. 45 ÷ 5      

D. There is not enough information to answer.

A human blinks about once every 4 seconds. An animator wants to make one character blink as often as a human does in a scene that lasts 33 seconds. About how many times will the character blink?

A human blinks about once every 4 seconds. An animator wants to make one character blink as often as a human does in a scene that lasts 33 seconds. About how many times will the character blink?

One Wreck-It Ralph animator finished 83 frames in a 5-day workweek, completing a roughly equal amount of work each day. About how many frames did the animator work on each day?

One Wreck-It Ralph animator finished 83 frames in a 5-day workweek, completing a roughly equal amount of work each day. About how many frames did the animator work on each day?

Write and solve an equation with friendly numbers to help you check whether your answer makes sense.

Write and solve an equation with friendly numbers to help you check whether your answer makes sense.

There are 5 animators who work on scenes that contain big crowds. One crowd scene lasts 249 seconds. The animators want to divide the work evenly. How many seconds of the scene does each animator work on?

There are 5 animators who work on scenes that contain big crowds. One crowd scene lasts 249 seconds. The animators want to divide the work evenly. How many seconds of the scene does each animator work on?

Let’s say you could animate the 6-minute (360-second) scene with 14 Disney princesses. You want each princess to be on-screen for an equal amount of time. How much time would they each get?

Let’s say you could animate the 6-minute (360-second) scene with 14 Disney princesses. You want each princess to be on-screen for an equal amount of time. How much time would they each get?

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