The Blue Umbrella

Let it rain!

OVERVIEW

The Blue Umbrella is a 3D animated Pixar short film. In a rainy cityscape, a blue umbrella (spoiler!) has a love-at-first-sight encounter with a red umbrella. But the umbrella owners separate them from each other and the wind separates the blue umbrella from his owner. After a rough time on a busy road, he eventually reunites with the red umbrella, ending the story on a sweet note.

The Blue Umbrella and the Red Umbrella

CHARACTER DESIGN

Director Saschka Unseld's inspiration came from seeing a broken umbrella in the city and feeling sad for "just" an object. He also incorporated how he'd always see faces in everyday objects into the film. The production team grew attached to the object characters and started naming them. This also made it easier to catch up new people working on the project. Below, you can see the appropriately named Triplets. And sadly, no one was awesomely named Leandra.

Final Frame of the Triplets

Umbrellas, on the other hand, typically don't have faces. The people at Pixar wanted their faces to completely oppose the photo realness of the city. So, they kept things simple with dot eyes and line mouths. Though, they soon found out some detail would be needed for more emotional range. Supervising animator Ross Stevenson made a flexible CG facial rig to achieve this.

Final Frame of the Blue Umbrella

LOOK AND COLOR

The city the characters inhabit was mostly inspired by reference photos of New York. The team also wanted an unpolished, unassuming feel with the look of a hand-held camera. This was done by recording the camera movement of a hand-held camera rig.

It was difficult to get photo real since it’s hard to explain exactly why early renders didn't look real. But Unseld's attention and love to detail was able to drive the photorealism to reality. And the rendering system for the film was able to create realism by using global illumination, rendering new types of lighting and reflection. The director wanted this photo realism to be balanced with lush painterly colors. Paul Abadilla was able to translate this vision into color keys to help the lighters get the overall color arc of the film. 

Color Key of Umbrellas Being Separated

Color Key of Harsh Rain

Color Key of the Street

The red umbrella's color represents warmth and romance, while the blue umbrella's represents rain and "feeling blue." At first, Unseld wanted the film to start with blueish tones of early nighttime and then bring in red reflections of a setting sun. But, the rain was something he wanted to celebrate, so now the rain brings the color into the film. Long streaks of water instead of drops made by the SFX team gave more control, enabling soft, harsh, and glittering rain.

Final Frame of Umbrellas Being Separated

CLOSING

The Blue Umbrella is a sweet and simple story against the backdrop of the complex real world. The short shows the beauty in the mundane and the emotion of the typically inanimate. The rain should also represent tears because I felt many emotions while watching this. Once your mind is emptied of the awe, sadness, and sweetness this short brings about, feel free to learn more about it in the links below.



Sources:

http://www.theblueumbrellamakingofholidaycalendar.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Umbrella_(2013_film)