Published between 1982 and 1995
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
Mill Kahl confirmed that. Disney was always trying to do different things. He said he never chewed his cabbage twice, he never did a sequel. But those were the guys he had to work with and they tended to draw that way, so the pictures came out that way. They were developing the medium from … Read more
Animation is very technical. The essence of it is like Vincent Van Gogh starting out, he goes to life class and draws a woman. His early drawings look as if they have been drawn with a hammer. You can say they look great, but they’re not great. He became great. He had to get the … Read more
1. All the cartoon action was storyboarded to link-in with the live-action. In this scene Roger is hiding in Hoskins’ kitchen sink. He pops up and spits out a mouth-full of water. 2. A metal pipe was rigged for the live action shoot to spray out water. 3. A photostat was made of … Read more
7. The animators also prepared a shadow matte to add shadows to Roger. This is painted with hard edges and softened in the optical printing by throwing it out of focus. 8. Shadow mattes were also used to add a shadow cast by Roger onto the front of Bob Hoskins. 9. An articulate … Read more
Benny the Toon taxi To create the live-action for the cartoon taxi in Who Framed Roger Rabbit a small off-road vehicle was used. The actor, Bob Hoskins, holds a dummy steering wheel while the real driver sits at the back dressed in black. The spare wheel at the back of the cartoon taxi is used … Read more
David Williams and Robin Allan have been reading a book which pays tribute to a neglected artist and animator of genius. Those familiar with John Canemaker’s editorship of Funnyworld and his beautifully researched documentary films on Otto Messmer and Winsor McCay, will need no more than that acquaintance to recommend this sumptuous book. Its large … Read more
McCay was fascinated by the theatre and by the circus in particular; his early professional work was to paint posters for a dime museum. This can best be described as an amusement arcade, variety hall, circus and fun fair all under one roof. There was, alas, no equivalent on this side of the Atlantic. It … Read more
By George Collin The trouble with ordinary perspective is that it assumes an image fixed on a flat sheet of glass between the viewer and the view, square on to the viewer and with the viewer staring at a single point (see figure 1A). Although this can take in a wide field of view (up … Read more