Recently, legendary animator Glen Keane and NBA icon Kobe Bryant appeared on The Late Late Show to discuss their collaboration, Dear Basketball, with host James Corden. However, Corden couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to ask Keane to show off some of his skills in an unexpected medium. In front of a live audience, Keane drew his favorite Disney character, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, while using the Tilt Brush VR app.
We came across this video via io9, and it is mesmerizing to watch Keane demonstrate what he can do. This clearly isn’t his first time using VR, as he showed off some perspective tricks that simply aren’t possible with two-dimensional images. Fittingly, Keane gave Ariel her distinctive “dinglehopper” while Jodi Benson‘s performance of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken‘s “Part of Your World” played in the background.
It’s worth noting that Keane spent over three decades at Disney, and he was the character designer and supervising animator for Ariel on The Little Mermaid. That’s probably why he seems to be able to draw her directly from his memory. Keane’s storied Disney career includes major contributions to Pete’s Dragon, The Great Mouse Detective, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, Tangled, and Wreck-It Ralph, among several others. Keane left the company behind five years ago to work for Motorola and later Google, in addition to other independent projects. Despite his departure, Disney recognized Keane’s contributions by naming him an official Disney Legend. After watching him work, it’s easy to understand why.
What did you think about Keane’s VR recreation of Ariel? Sing us a song in the comment section below!
Images: CBS
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