Published between 1982 and 1995
DJ: Can you tell me about the Irish Bank Commercial. It looks to me as if you used a combination of 3D animation and cel animation. NL: The action was painted on cels, we achieved the appearance of depth by the use of multi-plane. We have been experimenting with multi-plane to overcome the inherent problems. … Read more
DJ: How does the amount of work compare with a cel film? NL: The thing about cel is it can be used in so many ways. You can have limited animation where a body may be static while the head moves. When you do that eel is very quick and crayoning would be phenomenally longer, … Read more
DJ: What do you take along to the dubbing studio in the way of pre-recorded sound? NL: In this particular instance they had all the music and all the voices and edits of the shows that had already been done. They must have spent the first day or so recording sound effects because they had … Read more
DJ: What about transferring for the American market as their television runs at sixty-fields-per second whilst in Britain it is fifty? NL: The system used is called standards conversion. Every fourth field is seen twice for NTSC. DJ: When American programmes are transferred for British television you often see strobing on fast movements. NL: That … Read more
Jeremy Clarke talks to Richard Williams, Director of Animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. RICHARD WILLIAMS: The initial feeling I had about the picture was that it would look a bit gimmicky. The problem was how to ensure the cartoons didn’t make the live action look false, and that the live action people didn’t make … Read more
Then when I saw it, we all fell around and started to scream because it worked at 100%. I had never before worked on anything where you were trying a new innovative kind of system that worked first time. You always have some bugs to get out, but this Spitfire was perfect first time. It … Read more
JC: Yes, I am a great admirer of The Cat Who Hated People. I like King Sized Canary too. RW: That’s the best one! And Bad Luck Blackie, that’s the other good one. We had copies of all those as a reference for the movie. JC: These films from this fertile period of American animation, … Read more
Bob said, “Apart from getting the story right, and the movie right as a film, what this picture is going to stand or fall on is the relationship of the main character to the Rabbit.” Roger had to be a fully developed equivalent of Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig, or Mickey or Donald. Those characters … Read more
JC: What did the rough version say? RW: It just had the drawings with the backgrounds sketched in and the soundtrack. There were two drawings a second at least, sometimes three, click click click into the different positions. JC: And these drawings would say: we see him, and in fifteen seconds we learn that he’s … Read more
Bob Zemeckis thought of a split-screen device to remove a character from the screen. In the scene in the ‘Ink and Paint’ nightclub, Jessica (Roger Rabbit’s cartoon wife) walks up behind Stubby Kaye, grips his cheeks and shakes them. An actress was used in the live shoot. Bob, knowing what ILM can do, found a … Read more