This article originally appeared in If Magazine #149 (October-November). In February, Brave won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Re-writing the rules of animation is no small task but for the team at Pixar, it is a regular occurrence. With Scottish-set animation Brave, the 80-strong team of animators immersed themselves in the Scottish way of life as part of their method-acting approach to creating authentic characters.

They even wore kilts and visited local zoos to observe the behaviour of native animals. Director Mark Andrews, in particular, was obsessed with organising bi-weekly lessons in swordplay. The regular animation reviews would often end with an invitation to pick up a sword and act out a specific shot move-for-move.

Character rigging and modeling supervisor, Bill Sheffler, says this was important because ultimately, the physical performance came from the animators. "We videotape ourselves doing activities like archery and horse-riding and then caricatured that.