Leanne
Stone
analysing a scene
EXAMPLES OF THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS IN…
Jerry Mouse and Gene Kelly dance - Anchors Aweigh (1945)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2msq6H2HI-Y
PRACTICAL EFFECTS
The main practical effects in this scene is to do with the actions of the live action character. Having Gene interact with Jerry makes his presence a lot more believable. Examples of this include Gene reaching down to pick up Jerry and interacting with him when dancing.
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LIGHTING EFFECTS
Some lighting effects here include a shadow cast from the animated character onto the shiny floor below. Because of the floor they have also shown the reflection of the animated character to make it feel more realistic. Some other lighting effects is the actual shade onto jerry cast from surrounding objects and also the shadow on Gene that jerry would be casting.
MASKING
Masking is used both when Jerry goes behind and in front of Gene. When Gene picks up Jerry with his hand and goes in front of him, part of Jerry has to be masked out so Gene's hand can appear in front realistically. another example of masking is when Jerry slides through Gene's legs and Gene is in front of Jerry so it resembles a live action of a character being in front.
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MATCHING CAMERA MOVES
In this scene the camera follows the animated character to create a more realistic illusion. For example as the camera moves backwards, Jerry starts moving towards the camera helping create the illusion that Jerry is walking forward. This also happens when Jerry begins moving around more whilst dancing, when he slides off to the side of the screen. This also happens occasionally when Jerry starts to move to the sides of the screen.
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OTHER EFFECTS
One effect that was apparent to me was when Jerry slides away from the camera, either the physical drawing was made smaller, in this case the lines wouldn't be varying in thickness, or the drawing was zoomed in on meaning the lines become thicker. This creates the illusion of depth with the animated character.
EXAMPLES OF THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS IN…
Who Framed Roger Rabbit "Drink the Drink" (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv6dWhBlsoM
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PRACTICAL EFFECTS
There are a lot of practical effects used in filming this to make the whole environment act as if the animated characters were actually there. To begin with the physical movement of the live action as they react to what the animations will be doing. For example as Rodger is being held at the beginning the man holding him is reacting to his movement showing the characters animations are physically going through him. Furthermore, as the scene around is breaking and moving around the animated characters are shown to be making chairs, tables and bottles etc break. This was done by attaching wires and strings to the tables and pulling them down at the right time within the shot. The chairs for example are also breakaway, so when thrown to hit a character are rigged to break and act as if they have just hit a character.
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LIGHTING EFFECTS
The lighting effects here show shadows from the animated characters, and also show shade on the characters from where they enter parts of the scene with less intense lighting making a darker colour cast across them. Then with the live action characters, shadows and shade had been added where the animated characters would be adding a shadow across the live action characters.
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MASKING
Masking can been seen occasionally throughout this scene, at the beginning Rodger is being held by his neck which means his neck would have to be masked out. As each live action character fights with the animated characters also, their hands occasionally swing in front of the animated characters and the animated characters occasionally fall behind the broken up pieces of tables and chairs meaning the characters will have to be masked out to allowed the hands and pieces fly in front.
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MATCHING CAMERA MOVES
In this scene the camera doesn't appear to match the moves of the characters as much as thought. The camera appears to occasionally move with a characters if it is swung across the room for example but other then the odd camera move it appears in a set place in most shots.
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OTHER EFFECTS
One interesting effect from this is when the drink in the live action collection is cut out when passed to Rodger and then becomes part of the animation almost. This is because the cup cannot be moved the way Rodger would be moving without having someone there, so this cup is cut to be animated along with Rodger.
EXAMPLES OF THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS IN…
Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out Of Water (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmfmnOKW97s
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PRACTICAL EFFECTS
This scene is recorded on a beach. Therefore the practical effects are to do with the sand on the beach, the water and the reactions of the people in the scene. When looking at the water, it reacts to the mood/ movement of the animated characters specifically the dolphin. The sand is recorded to have marks in where Spongebob and the gang walk, for example when they slide onto the beach, there are marks in the sand which were obviously already there and not created by the CGI characters. As well as this, the man in the scene reacts for example to Patrick touching his foot so its realistic when animations are added and his skin is recorded to be effected when touched by the animated characters to form little dents etc.
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LIGHTING EFFECTS
There are a lot of clever lighting effects in this scene. For example the strong shadows because of the high light intensity from the sun when on a beach. There is also a shade across the dolphin showing realistically how the strong light source would mean his head and fins create shadows over the rest of his body. Also when walking through all the people sunbathing on the beach there is a dark tone across the animations to resemble the shadows created from the people as Spongebob is quite small so they would be covered by these shadows. Also the shadows put onto the man from the animations helps realism.
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MASKING
When the animated characters go behind bodies of people masking is used here, for example Patrick walking behind the mans foot means the bottom of Patrick would have to be masked there. Also when the man falls onto the characters, they would have to be masked so the man gradually falls onto them. Also when walking in front of each of the animated characters the one behind would have to be masked to allow the other animation to walk across appearing to be in front.
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MATCHING CAMERA MOVES
There are different camera angles here. For example when flying onto the beach and through the air, the camera slightly pans along with the characters to show the movement of them and create a pace they are travelling at. When walking up through the beach also, the camera moves along with the characters creating a bigger motion effect.
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OTHER EFFECTS
One effect that stands out here is the way they zoom in and out of the characters once again to create the depth within the animations. This can be seen when they shot into the sky but also when the camera moves closer to the characters. Another effect I saw was when the dolphin flew into the sky, into a black hole. This is another animated effect that is animated to make the sky feel apart of the scene.
EXAMPLES OF THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS IN…
Conflicting Ideas (2011)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I62CwxUKuGA
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PRACTICAL EFFECTS
One of the first effects here is the way the basketball is thrown in the foreground of the camera to appear as if the animated character is throwing it. They also used string or a wire of some sort to pull the folder of the counter, resembling when the animated character jumps up for it. Another practical effect was when the actor reacted to the characters pulling at his arms and making it seem as if there is something actually hanging off his arms.
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LIGHTING EFFECTS
The lighting effects here are mainly to do with the surface of the floor. The animated characters create shadows on the ground where they would be moving and also create slight reflections where the colour could start to show through on the floor.
MASKING
Masking is used when the characters are appearing in front of each other but also when appearing behind the live action features in the scene. For example when grabbing onto the actors arm in the scene they needed to mask part of the man to bring the animation in front. However they need to mask the animations when they are being pushed behind the mans arms. Also when interacting with each other in the fight scene they were most likely masked around each other.
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MATCHING CAMERA MOVES
The camera seemed to pan to where the characters were a fair bit instead of necessarily following the movements of the animations. for example when we first meet the first character the camera moves down to show where the characters is hiding, thus creating a better knowledge of where and how to character is hiding there.
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OTHER EFFECTS
One other effect that stood out to me was the use of reflections in screens. When looking into the TV and computer screens an image of the two characters faces were also reflected behind the image on the TV creating the illusion of actually watching TV. I also liked the added animation of the dust when they were fighting with each other, this had become a part of the animation to make it appear that if the dust particles are moving so are the characters.
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