Big Hero 6 The Series: Baymax Dreams of Too Many Freds in New Short

Disney XD is in the process of airing a new season of “Baymax Dreams” shorts this week in support of Big Hero 6 The Series, the animated television show that picks up after the events of the animated Big Hero 6 movie, which is itself loosely adapted from the comics of the same name. The shorts use Unity and other gaming industry tips and tricks to provide film-like real-time rendering, and the new season is even better than the first. Disney has provided the second episode of the new season exclusively to ComicBook.com ahead of its airing later tonight on Disney XD.

“When a data backup machine splits Fred into a hundred tiny clones of himself,” the logline for the new short reads, “Baymax must smoosh the tiny Freds back together.” As noted above, the new short marks the second episode in Season 2 of “Baymax Dreams,” which originally premiered its three-episode first season back in 2018. You can check out the first episode of the new season, which aired earlier this week on Disney XD, below:

Notably, this season of “Baymax Dreams” goes above and beyond what the team accomplished back in 2018. For the first time, the shorts have human character, evidenced above in the second episode by having Fred running around. Disney Television Animation, with support from Unity and Disney’s Direct to Consumer & International Technology (DTCI) group, has also dramatically improved the visual effects, lighting, and shading in Season 2.

“Using Unity’s VFX Graph & Shader Graph, TVA’s artists were able achieve creative results in a user interface that would previously have only been possible using code,” Disney says of “Baymax Dreams” Season 2. “The screen on Baymax’s stomach, the firepit, even the detail of the weather of the sky are all more detailed and life like – contributing to a more dynamic and engaging viewer experience. Using Unity’s High Definition Lighting Pipeline (HDRP), light layers and light flags allowed artists to make refined light-directing decisions, elevating the traditional ‘physically-based’ lighting approach typical in games.”

“We’ve said from the start of our little experiment, technical innovation is the core goal, but we’re not going to inspire lasting evolution unless the creative quality captures imaginations,” said Gino Guzzardo, Executive Director, Multiplatform Content, Disney Television Animation. “That cross-section of creativity and technology is in the history we’ve inherited as modern Disney storytellers, so we’re constantly pushing ourselves to carry that tradition forward on the Multiplatform Content team at Disney Television Animation.”

What do you think about the new “Baymax Dreams” shorts? Are you excited to see the next one? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things animation!