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Back to the fold: 'Toy Story 4' features a bold new Bo Peep
When fans got to see the first full trailer for Toy Story 4, they were delighted to see a familiar face: the porcelain lamp Bo Peep, still carrying her shepherd’s crook but now sporting an all-new look.
After being written out of Toy Story 3 (with “outgrown and given away” as the official reason for her absence), the shepherdess is back, taking the spotlight in Toy Story 4. And after spending a considerable amount of time as a “lost toy,” she has ditched the restrictive dress for more practical attire.
A (lost) toy’s story
“I think what we were thinking about when we were approaching her design and, you know, what she’s been through, what she would appear like in Toy Story 4, we were mostly thinking about, ‘Okay, what makes sense for that character?’” explained Mara MacMahon, Bo Peep’s character modeler and rigger, in an exclusive interview with GMA News Online.
MacMahon's job entails translating the art department’s designs for Bo Peep into a 3D model. Think of her as a puppet maker, shaping the doll and adding the strings so that the animation department could bring Bo Peep to life.
According to MacMahon, she only found out about the project — and that she would be on it — a couple of years ago.
“When I started on Toy Story 4, Bo Peep was already modeled and got some rigging done, but I got to kind of step in, pick up where the riggings had left off, but also work on the design for the modern Bo.”
Unsurprisingly, Bo Peep’s design, much like the rest of the film, was a work in progress for a very long time.
“When I started on Bo and Toy Story 4, we knew what she was at that time,” said MacMahon. However, the team constantly refined and updated her look, exploring different takes on the character as the story progressed, developed, and eventually became the final version fans will see on the silver screen.
No time for negativity
“The really cool thing was that we’d hear from the [writers] and the director, what they were thinking about for Bo at the time,” shared MacMahon, who added that there was quite a lot of back and forth among the teams in terms of shaping the character’s look and story.
Throughout the process, though, MacMahon and the team stuck to one simple guiding principle. “I think what we were thinking about when we were approaching her design and, you know, what she’s been through, what she would appear like in Toy Story 4, we’re mostly thinking about, ‘Okay, what makes sense for that character?’”
Since Bo Peep is a porcelain figurine (unlike Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the other toys who are arguably more suited for play), the team considered how she would get outgrown more quickly than the average plaything.
Of course, since this is the Internet, it shouldn’t be much of a shock that some fans reacted negatively to Bo Peep’s evolving fashion sense. Then again, it didn’t seem to bother MacMahon and the rest of the team.
“I don’t think there was any talk about ‘Oh, how would the wider world react to that?’” shared MacMahon. “It was really more about what would make sense for this character and the story that we’re trying to tell.”
Keeping things real
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the team went all-out in terms of getting every single detail right. Naturally, this involves doing a fair bit of research, as well as applying some real-world physics.
As a specific example, MacMahon cited Bo Peep’s eyebrows. Having examined real porcelain dolls, a colleague pointed out how Bo Peep’s brows should look like.
“We spent weeks trying to make sure that every expression she makes would look like it were painted with a single brush stroke,” revealed MacMahon. “Nothing too complex or too complicated-looking.”
Another challenge was the fact that while Bo Peep is a toy like Woody or Buzz, her proportions are much more realistic than the slender sheriff or the stumpy spaceman.
“We have to cue audiences in on the fact that she’s only, like, 10 inches tall,” said MacMahon.
Animating Bo Peep also involved thinking about how fabric clothing would look like on that scale, or how a 5-inch cloth cape would flow in the wind (as opposed to how full-sized capes look when an adult human wears them).
“Let’s start from a point of reality. What do we know? What are we familiar with? What can we make a little more believable or a little more exaggerated?”
Time to play
Much like any other creative profession, being a character modeler and rigger can sometimes be physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing. Appropriately enough, MacMahon recommends playtime as a way to deal with creative burnout.
“An hour or two’s break, if you’re really smart about it, can rejuvenate you for another day or two of work,” said MacMahon, who plays one or two soccer games a week to keep herself energetic and motivated. “Find something out of work to recharge the battery.” — LA, GMA News
