The New York Times looks at the process by which Pixar Animation Studios re-rendered the pioneering hit computer-animated features Toy Story and Toy Story 2 from 1995 and 1999 into 3-D format for a rerelease this month.
We have every scene in ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Toy Story 2’ saved, and so we have this bit of action that is frozen in time, “ Mr. Lasseter said. “If we bring that up in our system, we’re going back in time into that moment.” Without changing any of the film’s action, Pixar’s 3-D specialists, or stereographers, returned to each frame of the film and virtually placed a second camera next to the original, creating left-eye and right-eye views of the scene. Then all of the scenes were re-rendered in the computer with this additional perspective.
Like this year’s Pixar film, UP, Toy Story 3, to be released in June of next year will be released in regular 2-D and in 3-D.