Moana 2 was one of the biggest box office hits of 2024, bringing back Auliʻi Cravalho as beloved heroine Moana and Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui as they assemble a crew to find the lost island of Motufetu, break its curse, and reconnect the people of the ocean. Breaking box office records, Moana 2 was the third highest grossing film of 2024, crossing $1 billion worldwide, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film as well as multiple Annie and Visual Effects Society Awards.
Produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and directed by Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller, and David Derrick Jr., the animation of Moana 2 earned high praise from critics, with the water in particular described as “remarkable” and “breathtaking.”
Disney is a Founding Member of the Academy Software Foundation and an integral player in the open source community, having contributed to multiple projects including DPEL (Digital Production Example Library), MaterialX, OpenEXR, OpenVDB, and many more. Read on for an overview of how the studio utilized a variety of open source tools in the making of Moana 2:
OpenVDB:
Both the ocean and storms in Moana 2 are filled with volumetric effects. The OpenVDB file format was essential for the effects team to bring the monstrous storm and waves to life in the final sequences of Moana 2.
OpenEXR:
OpenEXR is the primary image format integrated into the studio’s rendering, compositing, and viewing tools. Moana 2 had 129,507 final frames to make up the final runtime (and double that for stereo 3D). OpenEXR was used throughout the asset and shot departments to aid in reviewing in-progress imagery and constructing each final frame.
OpenColorIO:
OpenColorIO is a key part of color management for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ pipeline – any artist viewing imagery using the studio’s Hyperion Helios user interface for rendering is reliant on OpenColorIO to ensure consistency and accuracy, through show-configured settings.
OpenTimelineIO:
Walt Disney Animation Studios is in the process of converting all of its Story and Editorial pipelines to OpenTimelineIO, and it has become a core technology in their new internal macOS app, Nautilus. The software enables directors to quickly identify their favorite takes from voice talent recording sessions, assemble them into a timeline, attach notes for editorial, and send them down the pipeline. Leveraging the OTIO AAF adapter, Editorial can import the timeline with all notes attached directly into their Avid Media Composer NLE. Building the application around OpenTimelineIO was key for the studio to be able to develop a prototype quickly and roll it out to users, despite the tight Moana 2 production timeline.
OpenUSD:
Since Encanto, the studio has adopted the OpenUSD framework across the majority of its animation pipeline. By using OpenUSD to define, exchange and simulate 3D data, artists and developers are able to work more seamlessly across industry standard platforms. Because of this change, the studio was able to move its lighting workflows and toolsets into Houdini on Moana 2, which enabled lighting artists to use a modern and more efficient workflow that is similar to how the rest of the industry works.
Ptex:
Ptex is an integral part of Disney Animation’s material authoring toolset. Ptex was used everywhere in the world of Oceania, from the skin of Moana and her crew, to Maui’s tattoos, to the worn wood of the canoe, and to the disco-pulsing tunnels of the giant clam in “Get Lost.” Look development, effects, and lighting artists relied on Ptex to bring the worlds and lighting to life.
UNF:
The USD Notification Framework is used within several of the studio’s applications to simplify stage notifications to clients. A typical example of this is when elements/assets are added to or removed from a shot, the Hierarchy Viewer receives just a single notification from UNF, which internally bundles the several low-level USD stage modified notifications.
Congratulations to the team at Walt Disney Animation Studios and the full cast and crew for their achievements on Moana 2!
