People are still amazed that Toy Story 4's cobwebs were made by AI spiders

The toys wend their way through a cobwebbed path
(Image credit: Pixar)

We've written before in our roundup of Disney animation secrets about how Pixar used AI spiders to create the cobwebs for Toy Story 4. It's a fact that never ceases to amaze people, but today it's creating a whole new debate: was it really AI?

To recap, the cobwebs you saw in Toy Story 4 weren't created by human artists or pulled from a reference library. They were generated by digital spiders that don't actually exist. Pixar dubbed these critters 'AI spiders' since they were created mathematically as a form of machine learning.

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Joe Foley

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

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