The many faces of Scooby-Doo: R & H focused on the dog’s facial performance in this film.

An on-set model of Scooby was set up for eyeline. The actors had to act as if Scooby was really there. Neil Fanning, the voice of Scooby, did the lines live providing repartee with the actors. A lot of spontaneous improvisation came out of these sessions. Joosen says they make Scooby act to the voice making sure “that he was funny. That he blended in. And that he was part of the five, not just something on his own.” The animators had a free rein to experiment with new character ideas. If necessary Fanning would rerecord dialogue over the new scenes spawned by his original dialogue. “It was a very good give and take situation,” according to Joosen. “It was synergy.”

The first film had a lot of lead-time. All the decisions of what Scooby was going to look like and how he was going to act had to be worked out. The animators had to figure out how to make Scooby transition from a 2D to 3D character. He couldn’t look exactly like the cartoon because that would look too freakish in the real world. It became a matter of how doggy-like and how realistic he should be. The first film was a battle back and forth as to what would be acceptable. Joosen explains, “For the end sequence we went whole-hog and did absolutely over-the-top cartoonery. The audiences loved it.” The second time around Joosen had parameters. The team knew the audience would accept just about anything as long as the transition between being a real dog and being a stand-up type of human was correct and not abrupt or jarring. There are even moments when Scooby barks with a real dog bark, so at moments in the film he is an absolute real dog.

For the CG slope sequence, art director Mike Meeker (left) created the matte paintings. Lighting supervisor Raymond Chen figured out how to get the computer to render foreground and background images in different resolution.

Paterson compliments Joosen: “He’s great. He really is Scooby. He, more than anyone, developed the character and what the 3D Scooby is all about — how he reacts to things.” Paterson and Joosen worked closely with the director, and came up with a lot of the gags that Scooby does. Paterson adds, “We’re very proud of Scooby’s acting abilities.” The acting ability is improved because the first film served as a reference of what Scooby should be like, so it was much easier to get a consistent character. Having the same animation director and a lot of the same animators, everyone felt like they already knew the character. The same 3D computer model was used, but they rebuilt the structure underneath. Scooby’s shape remained the same, but how he moves, how his skin deforms, was all tweaked and refined to work better.

Joosen expanded the facial acting. He could stretch what was originally conceived as a real dog’s face into something that simulated what Scooby would do in the cartoon. The team developed more facial controls, more subtlety, even a little muscle that twitched under the eye — things that would make Scooby seem absolutely real and alive. It came in handy in the emotional scenes that are Joosen’s favorites. There was no need to have Scooby sobbing, he could just stand there staring, with that muscle in his eye twitching and his nostrils flaring as he tries to hold back a sob. He doesn’t have to sob. He’s doing the acting for it. These different facial attributes bring a CG animal to realistic life. Joosen admits, “We were opening the envelope with Scooby as far as what his performance levels would be.” This time the animators were not afraid to bring him to levels of despair that would put him on the verge of crying.