Letters

A digital wardrobe specialist at Industrial Light and Magic takes issue with Sarah Lidgus' "Digital Fashion Design Ain't as Easy as It Looks."

Jan 4, 2005 | [Read "Digital Fashion Design Ain't as Easy as It Looks," by Sarah Lidgus.]

As a clothing simulation supervisor (or as I like to think of it, "digital wardrobe," including hair and accessories) at Industrial Light and Magic, I read with interest your article on Pixar's clothing simulation for "The Incredibles."

I thought the author did a good job of conveying the tricky work of digital clothing, at the intersection of art and science. I do, however, take issue with her assertion that "'Nemo's' success allowed for the realization of the cast of 'The Incredibles' and the first large-scale use of CG clothing." If she had written "at Pixar" at the end of this sentence, I would have been satisfied, and without it, it is in danger of becoming yet another recycled publicity piece about a technological or artistic "breakthrough" from a studio, when people around the studio have been doing similar or more advanced work for years.

At ILM we have been producing complex, multilayered digital costuming for years now. Starting with "Star Wars Episode I" back in 1999, through "Episode II," Harry Potter movies No. 2 (Dobby and the Quidditch players) and No. 3 (the Dementors), "Pirates of the Caribbean" (all the skeletal pirates), "Van Helsing," "Peter Pan" and now on "Star Wars Episode III," we have been producing dozens of digital creatures with muscle, skin and layers upon layers of costume, accessories and hair, all interacting with one another in realistic ways.

-- Juan-Luis Sanchez

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