Creative Synthesis

It’s often hard to imagine how we could ’see’ abstract concepts, sounds and even taste. People who actually have synesthesia usually taste shapes, so maybe the answer is to represent taste as shapes. Animator Michel Gagné takes a page here and uses color, light and movement to communicate the unique taste of cheese, fruit and even the resultant synthesis of the two in the new Pixar film Ratatouille.

As Gagné writes:

In the Fall of 2006, I was contacted by Brad Bird to create a series of animated vignettes for his movie Ratatouille. The concept was to design and animate abstract representations of what the character was tasting. (from Gagne International)

Not a usual call for an animator - but the crew of Ratatouille went to extra lengths to communicate the importance of food in the film. In addition to visualizing taste, and the synthesis of tastes as a insight into the cooking process, the animators actually used rendering intended for human flesh to add the same level of reality to fruits and vegetables. The result is a great film that actually makes you a little hungry. Plan accordingly so you can grab a nice dinner afterwards (I wish I had).