Tokyo progression 1

On June 24, Pixar will release its 12th feature film, "Cars 2," the sequel to "Cars" from 2006. In the new film, the heroes from Radiator Springs--Lightning McQueen, Mater, and others--join the World Grand Prix, an auto race that visits exotic locales like coastal Italy and Tokyo. And then they plunge into a dark, mysterious spy story.

For one of the sequences that takes place in Tokyo, Pixar's animators and artists had to make sure the audience was treated to just the right level of the cacophony of lights that is Tokyo. In this image, and the four following, we see how a single frame representing the Tokyo sequence evolved from early work to final composition.

This is the earliest composition of the frame.