Implementation of Live Action and Animation in Feature Films using the examples Mary Poppins (1964) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Implementation of Live Action and Animation in

Feature Films

using the examples Mary Poppins (1964) and Who Framed Roger

Rabbit (1988)

History of Live Action/Animated

movies• First example of this combination was in 1914 with

Winsor McCays, “Gertie the Dinosaur”

• McCay drew out his animation and projected it on a white screen

• He then stood in front of the projection screen and “told” Gertie to do different things like one would command a dog

• You would then see Gertie act out the various commands

• The live action and the animation are two completely different parts of the film and are not connected on one reel.


movies• Examples of interaction between Gertie and McCay

• He called her out from her cave to start the act

• He would command her to bow to the audience and she would obey

• He would ask her to raise her right leg, then her left

• One of the better acts was he would have an orange in his and hand and he would throw it to her to catch. He would palm it as he throw it and an animate version would appear on the screen where she would then catch it

• For the finally he would hide back stage and an animated version of himself would be picked up by Gertie and carried away

Gertie the Dinosaur

• Some examples of this style of film making since then:

• 1945 The Three Caballeros

• 1946 Song of the South

• 1971 Bedknobs and Broomsticks

• 1977 Pete’s Dragon


movies

Techniques

• Double printing two negatives onto the same release print

• Optical printers

• Aerial image animation cameras

• Rotoscoping

Double Printing Negatives

• Director would film the live action and the animation on two completely separate reels

• They would then combine the two reels in the final edit to create one final release print that is then sent to the theaters to be viewed

Optical Printers

• A devise consisting of one or more film projectors mechanically linked to a movie camera

• This allows filmmakers to re-photograph one of more strips of film

• In this case they could photograph the live action and the animation to create the one combined reel

Aerial Image and Animation Cameras

• An aerial image is one that is basically floating in space and is added to an existing scene.

• Used to add an animated character of scene to a live action shot or sequence

• An animation camera is a type of rostrum camera (which is used to animate a still picture or a still object) that is adapted for frame-by-frame shooting

Rotoscoping

• An animation technique where an animator traces over live action film movement

• Instead of tracing over a live action sequence, they would use it as a reference to add the animation to play off the live action actors

Mary Poppins

• Released in 1964

• It was the third live action/animation movie done by Walt Disney

• This film is widely known as his crowning achievement

Mary Poppins

• Technique used by Walt Disney

• Disney used the sodium vapor process to combine the live-action actors and the animated background

• An actor is filmed performing in front of a white screen and lit by powerful sodium vapor lights

• Sodium light is used because it is a narrow spectrum source that falls neatly into a notch between sensitive layers of the color film

• This allows the complete range of colors to be used in costumes, make up, and props

Mary Poppins

• Techniques cont.

• They would then use a camera with a beamsplitter prism that exposes two separate film elements

• The first film element is regular color negative film that is into very sensitive to sodium light

• The second is a panchromatic fine grain black and white film that is sensitive to the color of the sodium vapor lights

• The second film element is used to create a matte, to that the regular color footage can later be combined with another shot without the two images showing through each other

Mary Poppins

• Techniques cont.

• The matte is then used as a the template for the animated portion of the movie

• Making it at the same time as the live action makes it an easier fit in post production optical printing

Mary Poppins

• They had the actors acting to practically nothing.

• They sometimes had cardboard cutouts marking the location of the object the actors had to react to

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

• Was released in 1988

• Had a budget of 70 million dollars

• Directed by Robert Zemeckis

• Animation director was Richard Williams


• Fun Facts:

• Animation was all hand drawn

• Rogers voice actor Charles Fleisher dressed as a rabbit and stood in for Roger in some of the scenes

• Sparked the most recent era in American animation

• Last appearance of famed cartoon voice artists; Mel Blanc (Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, and Sylvester) and Mae Questel (Betty Boop)


• Fun Facts:

• First and only time were characters from several animation studios appeared in the same film

• First time Bugs Bunny and Mickey mouse met on screen

• First time Daffy Duck and Donald Duck met on Screen


• Techniques:

• As a reference the film makers created exact, life sized rubber sculptures of the animated characters so that the live actors could react towards them

• These models were also used to see the size of the character on camera and how the light would fall on them

Roger Rabbit as a Puppet


• Techniques cont:

• They used a blue screen as a blank canvas when the live actor had to be in an all cartoon environment

• The actors went to mime training to gain an understanding of how to make it look like there is something there event though there isn’t

• Film makers created robots, machines and puppets to move the objects the cartoons came into contact with, such as guns, plates, pianos, etc.

Blue Screen vs. The

Finished Scene

Robots as Cartoons


• Techniques cont:

• When the animators where drawing out the individual slides for the animated characters they created 4 different layers per slide

1. created one where Roger Rabbit is alone

2. created one with Roger Rabbit as a matte where they backlit him

3. created one for highlights

4. created one for low lights

• All the layers where then sent to ILM and using their optical printers would composite them with the live action plates


• Rule in animation is to keep the camera still so that you only see one side of the character, which makes it easy for the animator cause they only have to draw them from one angle

• Zemeckis shot the live action like a normal movie, so the camera was always moving

• The animators had to compensate for this movement and draw the characters more 3D then they usually would

• Which meant drawing twice as much

Style in Animation

where DOES it comes from??

by erika bird

A movie clip:

from the beginning of Hercules

Greek Pottery(in case you’ve never seen one)

Abstract Muses world

Gerald Scarfedesign consultant

Gerald Scarfe

Where is strong design seen in

Hercules?

Landscapes

Phenomena

I see some greek columns here!

Characters

remember how Scarfe drew?swoop and reverse-lines

Scarfe Characterslook at those lines! swoop and reverse!

Now, a clip to apply our learning (and to reward your patience)

I’ve edited this one, so in the first short bit, check out the cloud hades makes with his hand;

the rest of the clip is about the two minions (they are quite stylized-especially the pink one)

A clip to apply our learning

Hercules

design permeated environs and characters; matched each other

an example of a 2-D animated movie with a strong design ethos

ok, now we’re done with it

Let’s shift to my other example, The

Incredibles, another very stylish movie

I’ll preface this one with a clip about the film’s style from the Director, Brad Bird* and the Production Designer, Lou Romano*

QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Retrofuture

graphic style

caricature

The IncrediblesDriving Forces in its Design

Retrofutureinfluences included Tomorrowland,

Hanna Barbera, Bauhaus, Minimalism

Incredibles house

Graphic style

Brad Bird wanted graphic, but CG requires photoreal surfaces.

So Teddy Newton, Character Designer did photo cutouts

Paper Cutouts

Simple Textures

Other Concept Art; emphasized pastelseffective for palette

Palette (y’know--colors, lighting)

pure colors in the “Golden Years”; highly saturated

a shift to drained colors at Insuricare

introduce some color back in to support the story

at end of film, color is natural and balanced

Color Script for palette consistency

The Golden Years


Insuracare


Incredible Clip

the setup: a scene with the family at home, just normal family stuff

you can get a good look at their house and furniture

An Incredible Clip

Conclusion

style in animation doesn’t happen accidentally

most movies create the look first, and then everything stems from that ‘bible’

style can be really cool--you just don’t often notice it right away

for dessert, a final clip of something cool and only sort of relevant:

Flatworld

Documents

Implementation of Live Action and Animation in Feature Films using the examples Mary Poppins (1964) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)