Bringing the Disney Pixar Coco Skeletons to Life through Technology, Crafts, and Jokes

In Disney Pixar COCO you can’t help but fall in love with the skeletons in the Land of Dead.  The Disney Pixar COCO skeletons are colorful and lively.  And while you might think all skeletons are the same, it became clear early on in watching COCO that each skeleton character was very unique.  Each had their own personalities that were reflected in their clothing, facial expressions, and facepaint.  Take a look as I share some interesting details about how Pixar animators brought the COCO skeletons to life, easy skeleton crafts you can do with your kids, and funny skeleton jokes to tickle their funny bone. 

How do you animate a skeleton? 

How hard do you think it might be?  When we sat down with the team responsible for animating the Disney Pixar COCO skeletons, during the press junket, we learned that animating the skeletons in COCO was quite complex.  Think about it… all skeletons look the same.  However, if you are creating a movie with a cast of skeletons playing different characters each skeleton has to be unique.  As a result, it took 3 years to animate all the COCO skeletons.  Here are some other fascinating facts that Supervising Animator Gini Santos and the team of Pixar animators shared with us. 

Pixar COCO Skeletons details that will WOW you! 

Skeletons have never been animated before in a Disney Pixar film.  The animation team studied anatomy and bones in great detail for the COCO movie. 

While eyes and hair do not normally remain as part of a skeleton they were added to COCO skeletons to make the skeletons more relatable and less scary.  The additional facial features allowed the skeletal characters to also show emotion. 

Computer 3D models were used to determine how bones move when in motion.  Animators wanted to understand how far apart the bones would be while walking, running, talking, and other movements.  They wanted the gaps between elbows and arm bones, knees and leg bones, and other joints to seem natural.  A knee should stay in line with the leg when a skeleton walks.  Jaws in a skeleton may show large gaps when a character talks.  Animators had to overcome these challenges to create the COCO skeletons as relatable characters while also not taking away from the fact they are skeletons. 

Simulation Technical Director Emron Grover, Supervising Animator Gini Santos and Character Art Director Daniel Arriaga at “Coco” Long Lead Press Day, which included a filmmaker roundtable, presentations about the music, story, characters and set designs of the film, on August 4, 2017 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)

Figuring out the clothing for the COCO skeletons was one of the more time-consuming tasks in the animation of the skeletons.  With the animation software, initially, the clothing worn by the COCO skeletons would get caught between the gaps in the skeletons’ bones.  Simulation Technical Director Emron Grover explained how they had to create connections between bones in some areas to allow clothing to drape over the bodies correctly. 

There are 127 bones in the body and nearly 100 skeletons in the COCO movie.  Character Shading artist Lead Byron Bashforth had the challenge of shading the bones to reflect the character.  His team created a computer program, using human and animal bones, to shade the COCO skeletons. 

So much of our regular body movements are determined by our weight.  Understanding how skeletons would be much lighter than a regular ‘live’ body, animators had to take the lighter weight into consideration when designing how the COCO skeletons would move. 

For more information about COCO visit the COCO Official Channels

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Jennifer Auer is the hyperlocal mom blogger who runs Jersey Family Fun.  From New Jersey, this mom of 3 boys just can’t sit still!  Her husband likes to say she’s a work-at-home mom who never stays home.  Jennifer started traveling as a child and hasn’t stopped since.  Instead of letting her husband and boys slow her down, she brings them along!  Did you know that boys behave better when they are out exploring?  As her boys start to become teens there’s still so many places she wants to discover with them both across the U.S. and internationally. 

She has been a Jersey Girl for 20+ years, and a Jersey Mom for 8+ years and a New Jersey mom blogger for 7 years, although she’d much rather be referred to as an influencer or just by name. 

She has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus on Entrepreneurship from Bryant University in Rhode Island.