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When they are standing or lying down, blinking toys will open their eyes. I have seen them before. If you tilted them, I believe you could make them blink out of one eye. So it might just reflect mechanical toys behavior.
As computer animation evolved, we noticed a trend. When things are “too human” our brains reject them. They instantly flag it as “not real”. When things are cartoonish or rough estimates of objects, anthropomorphizing is not a problem.
Take a look at this shot from Final Fantasy
Even though it was among the best CG at the time, something seemed off. It was challenging to empathize and relate to.
was simple to identify with, even now that his polygon count is absurd.
I have seen this effect called “Uncanny Valley” and is simply put, the more human like an artificial thing looks, the more it freaks us out. You can read a bit about it here
In order to make the charters more relatable and less “spooky,” some offset blinking and a few other minor “irks” that are noticeable to our brains but not really to our conciseness have been added.
Because Andy does it as soon as he enters the room in search of Buzz to take to Pizza Planet, it is NOT to imply that the toys are still “toys,” as has been suggested. More likely, the animators thought it would be a special feature of their movie, then realized it was ridiculous and annoying sometime before Toy Story 2, and they never did it again.
The majority of Toy Story characters blink each eye individually. Offset blinking, which is what it is known as, is frequently used in animation to indicate a character who is out of place or stupid. It’s probably used in Toy Story to remind viewers that the toys are still just toys. Pixar has continued using the offset blink in other films. Click to see full answer. Do both eyes blink simultaneously in this context? Well, technically speaking, closing one eye at a time is “winking,” and closing both at once is “blinking.” The central nervous system regulates bilateral blinking, which is more of a reflex. The “blink” stimulus, which causes the eyes to briefly close, is typically sent to both eyes at once. Excessive blinking can be brought on by issues with the eyelids or anterior segment (front surface of the eye), habitual tics, refractive error (need for glasses), intermittent exotropia or turning out of the eye, stress, and refractive error (need for glasses). Excessive blinking rarely indicates an untreated neurological condition. In this way, Tinny from Lasseter’s short film Tin Toy served as the inspiration for Buzz in Toy Story. Woody was first designed as a ventriloquist dummy. Later, the producers decided it was too “creepy,” and they switched to the pull-string doll we are all familiar with today. Disney characters’ eyes are blinking thanks to a cable control mechanism that also controls the actor’s mouth movements. On the actual costume, we use two hemispheres to create eye movement by having the eye go back over itself when it blinks. The costume head must be constructed with a separate, protruding lower jaw in order for the mouth to move. Source:
People, prepare to feel old: Pixar was founded 30 years ago, on February 3rd. Here are 20 things about their (and the world’s) first full-length computer-animated movie that you might not know, to help you get over the realization that, yes, you really are that old now. Toy Story. There’s one fact for free, right there.
8) Buzz Lightyear was named after astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who takes great pride in being the second person to walk on the moon. But you probably already knew that.
11) According to director John Lasseter, early drafts of the script allegedly depicted Woody as a bully and a “sarcastic jerk”. The writers went back to the drawing board to create a much more likeable protagonist after the cuddly good-timers at Disney weren’t too happy with this characterization.
10) Tom Hanks, who brought the cowboy to life in the movie, doesn’t voice Woody in real life; instead, Jim Hanks, who is Tom’s brother, does so in Toy Story video games and other merchandise. What a swizz.
9) Except for The Incredibles, every Pixar film since has included the Pizza Planet truck that Woody and Buzz mistake for Andy’s car. Consistency is important.