Inside Out 2 characters: revisiting the old and making space for the new

Inside Out 2 (2024) presented a unique set of technical and artistic challenges, requiring careful decisions on retaining elements from the original film while embracing new technologies.As we transitioned from RenderMan's REYES to the newer RIS framework, we navigated the complicated task of preserving the iconic look, particularly the emotions and human elements.We enhanced the visual quality and accessibility for artists through advancements in our SA Technical Communications '24, December 03-06, 2024, Tokyo, Japan Lacaze, et al.character pipeline, including reusing shading libraries and optimizing procedural workflows in Houdini, implementing show emotion specific hair illumination.Innovative rigging and grooming techniques were created to address technical and design challenges in character creation.Lighting techniques were refined to reflect the characters' story arcs, we also enhanced the Hexport [Coleman et al. 2020] system to be more user-friendly and accessible, streamlining shading and lighting workflows while reducing computation time and storage costs.