How did you combine hand-drawn animation and live-action video in the era without CG and realize reality?

Film director Robert Zemeckis released in 1988Roger Rabbit"Is a movie produced in the form of synthesizing animation in live action. There are other movies that synthesized live action and animation than "Roger Rabbit", but among them "Roger Rabbit" has reality as if animation characters are present in the work, how to put out reality Did you do a secret movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"Has been released.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit - The 3 Rules of Living Animation - YouTube


"Roger Rabbit" is a movie produced with the setting that animation characters exist in the real world, and the person who saw should have felt the reality as if the character really exists in the world of the work.


I made a movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"KaptainkristianAccording to Roger Rabbit, three methods are used to make the character reality. One of them is "eye".


The line of sight plays an important role in giving characters and actors an emotional connection, letting people who see the characters and actors on the same world line feel.


In the scene where "Roger Rabbit" character and actor talk, it is always made to match your line of sight.


This is one scene of "Mary Poppins", but because the line of sight of the actor and the character does not match, I get the impression that both are not in the same world.


In "Roger Rabbit", we shoot live actions first and then synthesize animation later. As a result, there was a scene in which the height of the actor 's line of sight became higher than the Roger Rabbit as shown in the image below.


In this scene, Roger Rabbit made an animation that stretched back sticking to the wall on the wall instead of shooting the live-action photograph, and he corrected it to match the actor's eyes with Roger Rabbit.


The animator of "Roger Rabbit" draws the character directly on the black-and-white PhotoStat that printed the live-action photograph, and decides in detail how the character moves and how the actor moves with it in advance There was a need.


The second is "physical interaction".


When characters and actors, props and sets make physical contact, physical interaction occurs between the two.


If Roger Rabbit hits the dish against the head, the dish must break at the moment it hits the head. Also, at the moment when Roger Rabbit takes the plate, the superimposed dishes slightly shake, and these fine effects will give the character realism.


In order to produce this physical interaction, "Roger Rabbit" shot with a simple robot.


In the scene where Roger Rabbit exudes water ......


Equipment made using thin tubes is used.


When an action occurs, a reaction always occurs, and if this mutual relationship collapses, reality is lost.


In the scene where Jessica Rabbit can take off his clothes, I impress people who are watching that the characters are really off their clothes, that is, they are living in the same world as the actors and characters.


In the synthesis movie "cool world" of live action and animation released in 1992, even if the character touches the clothing of the actor, there is sense of incompatibility because the clothes do not move at all.


The end is "light and shadow".


This is Roger Rabbit drawn on Photostat. Because there is no shadow and light, you can see that it is perfect.


In "Roger Rabbit", he adds 5 types of shadows to animation and makes the character reality.


When five kinds of shadows are superimposed ...


A shadow is added to the character, and it looks more like 3D.


When the light is hit ...


When you look at the time when light is not hit, the difference in shadows is clear.


In this scene the shadows are thinning only in the ear overlap with the light. There is nothing to be noticed by those who are watching these stages. However, without this, it is difficult to give the character realism.


CG technology itself was adopted in the movie "TRON" published in 1982, but it has been growing rapidly since entering the 1990s. Its representative work is "Terminator 2" published in 1991 and "Jurassic Park" published in 1993. The movie "Roger Rabbit" is a wonderful place to combine live action and animation in times when CG is not at its best, and even more realistic than other live action & animation movies.