This post was written by Hatchet reporter Katrina Kagan.

On Monday at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design’s 17th Street building, students joined Pixar’s lead lighting artist Jonathan Pytko for a behind-the-scenes animation presentation.

Pytko offered a sneak peak into the animation world of Pixar for their upcoming film “The Good Dinosaur,” which hits theaters Nov. 25.

The film’s premise explores what would have happened if an asteroid never struck Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. The main character, an Apatosaurus named Arlo, loses his father in an accident and becomes separated from his family. On his journey home, Arlo befriends a cave boy named Spock and the two travel together to return to their homes.

While Pixar films often involve sophisticated story lines and emotional complexity, the role of light and animation takes center stage in “The Good Dinosaur.”

“In this movie we’re trying to use weather and time to help move the story forward,” Pytko said in an interview.

Pytko’s team has spent about two and a half years developing “The Good Dinosaur,” sometimes working up to 80-hour weeks. To capture the landscapes seen in the film, Pytko and his team embarked on research trips by white-water rafting, ranching and hiking in the Teton range in the Rocky Mountains.

“We would go outside and watch the sunset, we’d go outside when there were clouds in the sky, and we’d just take thousands of pictures, the whole team, and share them,” Pytko said. “And that is the seed that sprouts what’s in the film and how it looks.”

He added that the landscape is “its own character in a way.”

Pytko explained that his team uses multiple layers of lighting and colors to build a complete scene. Using a shot from Pixar’s “Wall-E” he showed the audience how, without lighting, the image of a junkyard looks more like a crayon-colored “Where’s Waldo” page. Once the lighting comes in, the scene comes to life.

The lighting, he said, could underscore and enhance the characters’ emotions. For example, Pytko could direct light around Arlo to convey happiness. Placing Arlo in the shadows could allow the audience to understand when the character was feeling sad.

“We wanted it to be something that shows why Arlo is so afraid of his world, but then also why he finds it so beautiful at the end of the movie, after he finds his courage,” Pytko said. “He starts to see how gorgeous it really is so we tried to put that into the lighting, mirroring growth over the film.”