Eric Goldberg: Back In Action
Eric Goldberg is among today’s master animators and animation directors. He began his career with Richard Williams and later animated such memorable characters as Aladdin’s Genie and Philoctetes after moving to Disney. While there, Eric also co-directed the film Pocahontas before animating and directing the stunning “Rhapsody In Blue” and “Carnival of the Animals” segments of Fantasia 2000. He is currently the animation director for Warner Bros. upcoming film Looney Tunes: Back In Action.
Dr. Toon: Eric, how is post-production going on Looney Tunes: Back In Action?
Eric Goldberg: Well, we’re still in PRO-duction as opposed to post-production! We’re still animating furiously, but it’s going well. Like all movies of this nature that are expensive and difficult to make because of the live-action/animation combination, there are many changes that are still going on, all the way through production. So we have to be flexible in terms of — “Uh, oh, that line of dialogue changed!” I feel kind of like I’m a waiter who takes peoples’ food away before they’re done eating it, but I have to say I’ve got a great crew and they really do beautiful work. I think it’s going to surprise people that it has the Looney Tunes spirit.
Dr.T: Joe Dante said that one of the challenges was that he’s got human characters that are six feet tall and animated characters that are three feet tall. What type of challenge did that present to you and your team?
EG: That’s actually a huge challenge. The other factor in that is that we’ve got a Panavision screen frame as well. So, aside from the fact that you’ve got six feet and three feet, if you cut Brendan Fraser off at the knees, you’re cutting Bugs and Daffy just under the chest — or just under the head — so we have to be able to compose these things to be able to work. We do take cheats once in a while, just to make it look as if everybody’s in the same frame for that format, but it is tough. Obviously, you have to look after eye lines, you have to look after size relationships and make sure they’re consistent from scene to scene, but by the same token, I’m not above cheating for the composition of the scene to look right within the screen format.
The method has been, on this show, that we actually posed out the entire movie before it got to the animators. I used the Wacom Cintiq tablet; I can draw poses of the characters and the editors can superimpose them over the live action so we can see immediately how the scene is going to play. Everybody started dissecting all these poses as to whether they were right or wrong on the first few sequences that we did. But then, when the animation came in, they got it. They could see that Bugs and Daffy really were in that scene, acting and reacting, and so things got more comfortable.
It’s given me and the animators here more license to put in some extra bits. Little acting choices, little timing choices, some nuances that everyone’s been very pleased with. We could also throw in some secondary gags that weren’t necessarily in the poses. Which is all to the good, because I think the animators came up with some great ideas, and they all have ways of realizing something that’s beyond what an initial pose drawing would be. And that — that’s what’s going to make it all work.
Printer-friendly version
Post new comment