by RUTH KIM
Yoo Jae-hyun, a visual effects artist who specializes in fire, water and ice, got the opportunity of a lifetime when he was put in charge of perfecting Elsa’s magical powers in Disney’s megahit Frozen.
“Ice is solid and it glitters,” Yoo said Tuesday at a forum organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency in Seoul. “I wanted to make her magic into something of a misty one. Like a glittering mist.”
He certainly succeeded in creating an icy, magical atmosphere completely unique to the world of Frozen. It was a painstaking process. According to Yoo, the visual effects on Elsa’s iconic icy, turquoise dress alone took a year and a half to complete. 
“What I do is to create my own little world with fire or water,” he explains. “I can make them move in a way I want, which is not necessarily in accordance with the rules of nature. That way, I could create Elsa’s magical world. You see, in Elsa’s magic, there’s fire in the ice.”
An avid StarCraft gamer during his teenage years, Yoo worked as an FX Technical Director at CIS Hollywood, working on films such as Watchmen and Tropic Thunder, as well as the Senior FX Artist at Blizzard Entertainment, dealing with games such as World of Warcraft and Starcraft.
A part of Walt Disney Studios since 2012, Yoo had a role in the production of Wreck-it Ralph and Big Hero 6.
Although Yoo praises Korea’s animation sector to be more advanced than that of the U.S. industry, he firmly believes in the power of money to get things done.
“Typically in Korean studios, directors would refrain from changing the plot, once animation works are almost done, because that would mean all the time and money is just wasted,” he said. “But at Disney, it happens routinely and we, artists, start over and over again, but that’s just part of the process. I can’t help but say that quality equals budget.”
Photo via Korea Herald
