"Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

A perfect example of a film that successfully animated 2D drawings over a film is the wonderfully captivating and action-packed "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". This film binds together two storytelling techniques into one fun and humorous tale of a rabbit trying to prove his innocence in a murder investigation. The animation is fantastic and fluid, and really pushes the boundaries of how far you can go with film making.

There is one scene I would like to go in to detail with, as I feel that it is possibly one of the most challenging animation sequences ever accomplished. It's a scene where Eddy and Roger go into the bar back room with Dolores. Eddy and Roger are handcuffed together, so Eddy attempts to saw himself out of the cuff. Roger comically weeves his arm out of the handcuff, causing Eddy to get cross.



See 5:39 on the video above for the scene I am talking about

For any animation that is implemented into a real life film, you have to ensure that it moulds into the surroundings well. You have to take into account the colours and lighting. If a character is bright and cheery-looking, and the surroundings are really dull and gloomy, the character will look out of place.

The animators came across a challenge on top of this issue. The light hanging from the ceiling is swinging around. This affects how the light hits the characters in each frame. It was vital that the animators nailed the colour and lighting in this scene. If they didn't, Roger Rabbit wouldn't blend into the scene very well.

But it was quite the contrary. The shadows and light are perfectly added to Roger in each frame in co-ordination with the moving light source, and really help to give that chaotic atmosphere to that scene.

I must bare all this in mind when animating my Little Miss Sunshine sequence. The way the light hits a character really helps the audience know what to focus or not focus on, and also suggests the mood of the scene and character. I must ensure that I try and think about how the lighting in my scene will effect how the dog will look.