Blog Post #2 – A Scanner Darkly

In the film, A Scanner Darkly, a technique called interpolated rotoscoping, or commonly referred to as just rotoscoping. In this method of filing and animation, a scene is filmed normally and then an animator then traces over the lines and animates the scene. Rotoscoping laid the groundwork for most blue and green screen work, most notably in Stars Wars Episodes 4-6. The rotoscoping was used to animate the lightsabers.

In the scene that I have posted below, Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) barges into house to exclaim pride over the new bike he has just acquired. While he is perfectly fine at acting, I believe that the use of rotoscoping here gives the scene more action and emotion. The animator is able to exaggerate certain features and the seemingly constant motion of the people makes the scene all that funnier.

One part in particular happens near the end when the discussion of asking someone about the bike and the missing gears. Woody Harrelson’s character gets up and spouts off about fighting the guys who sold the bike to Barris and how they cheated him. The animation here gives Woody a larger than life personality. He looks like he is ready for anything. Also he is probably high on Substance D, a drug frequently taken in this movie.

I personally like this technique and feel it can help to get more out of an actor or actress than is physically in the realm of live action.

Blog Post #1 – 9

In this computer animated tale, humans have suffered annihilation at the hands of their own creations and a groups of dolls is left to figure out what happened and attain an understanding of the world.

The animation in this film uses a lot of soft lines juxtaposed against sharp and rough edges. The best example of this is found in the way the characters are animated. The main character, 9, is drawn with a majority of soft edges. His eyes, hands and body are all rounded giving him a more jovial appearance and therefore letting the viewer know that he is the protagonist. The evil characters (i.e. the machines), however, are drawn with rough lines and very sharp edges. One of these characters is a snake-like creature composed of spider-like appendages used for catching and sewing up the protagonist and his companions. This character also has the head of a beat up baby doll adding to the evil nature of the lines. There is one character who encompasses both traits of soft and sharp lines. This character, 1, has very soft features except for his eyes. His eyes have three slits that close in a triangle shape giving him meaner eyes. 9 has many slits giving him more rounded and nicer looking eyes.

The film has a very bleak tone due to its apocalyptic nature. There are very few bright colors save the occasional neon green or red and usually these colors indicate some form of danger. The film also carries the theme of man vs. nature, and in some ways man vs. self. This is told mainly through little vignettes played by twin characters who join with 9.