Baby Moana
This was one of the early sequences on Moana. One of the largest difficulties on the shoreline was to get the correct feel of the dry sand, wet sand and water to feel integrated. It was also one of the first times we worked on Moana’s parents in production. Getting the moment between Moana and her mom to feel intimate and cheerful was a big focus for the directors

The Next Chief
This montage sequence left a lot of room for unique lighting. I enjoyed developing the look of the character lighting in a indoor environment where all the light was coming from an open door. In the exterior shots, it was a challenge to ensure all the different greens separated well while looking lush and vibrant.

Inspirational Talk
One of the biggest technical challenges was getting a clean render of the shoreline behind the characters. Due to the length of some shots, it was impossible to get perfectly clean renders so some artifacts were cleaned up in composite to save on re-renders. It was a nice chance to work on another intimate moment between Moana and her mom.

Set Sail
These shots were really entertaining to work on. Maintaining consistency to the look of the water throughout the shots was a challenge, especially on Hei Hei’s reaction shot. There was a bit of blending between looks of the water so it was consistent in look in both the close up and the far away but still got the nice sun highlight to the horizon.

The Climb
The Climb was an interesting sequence as many of the shots were top down. Trying to add a sense of depth to the shot while still getting a nice framing from the side angled light was a challenge. I got the chance to add some 2.5D clouds in a few shots to help add scale.

Training Session
This was a quick sequence during the final weeks of the show. It was fun to get a chance to light Maui’s hawk and transformation flying through the scene. The mixing of the colors of a low morning light were fun to work with.