June 2, 2009

a camera is a camera is a camera

This a new discovery for me, and everyone else may already know it, but I'm stoked about it and had to share...

As you may know, Hans Bacher posts many recreated animation backgrounds. Same same, but different. While screen-capping Polanski's Oliver Twist I was mainly looking at composition and lighting, but eventually I found myself wondering "How did he do that shot?" I took sections of each pan (or truck, or diagonal...) and stitched them together in Photoshop. Without realizing it, I had discovered how the layout would have to be drawn if the shot was animated!

The patched-up shots clearly showed what would be in the frame at any given time, where the necessary warping would be, which elements needed to be animated, where the characters would walk, etc.! For someone like myself, who finds planning a complicated layout about as easy as climbing Mount Everest, this analytical look at live-action shots shows that a camera is a camera regardless of whether the film is animated or live-action. Animation layouts may look all warped and funky, and they may seem to be a beast of their own, but they are drawn that way because that's what we see on the screen in live-action!

Below are a few of the quilted shots from Oliver. Some match up perfectly, but where they don't quite work is where the drawing would be warped or animated. It all makes sense now!!





4 comments:

Brittney Lee said...

What an awesome discovery - thank you for sharing!

Saud Boksmati said...

these are great jamie!

Ayan Sengupta said...

Thanks Jamie...Maybe I should sit down sometime to get some tips on these things and would love to get a perspective of your's on films..

Jamie said...

Thanks, guys, but I don't think I can take credit. Roman Polanski is a God...minus the pedefile stuff. I'm studying more films' layouts now, so I'll be sure to post some more.

@Brittney, thanks for the comment! Love your blog. :)

@Saud, would love to get your opinion on this.

@Ayan, we can definitely talk about this schtuff, but I'm still learning myself. Maybe by September I'll be a master! ha ha.