Bump the lamp
March 1, 2017 7:18 PM   Subscribe

Who Framed Roger Rabbit - The 3 Rules of Living Animation [SLYT by creator kaptainkristian; captioned]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle (20 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
That was really cool and makes me want to watch the movie again just to see the animation...but dear lord that guy needs to liven up his voice-overs! He sounded like he was intoning a funeral lament instead of giving us some fascinating information.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:42 PM on March 1, 2017


And I disagree. I hate! How awesome! and amazing... the

(wait for it 'cause this is a great point...)

OVERSELLING can BE on the production of some videos

(heavy metal background interlude)

who aren't confident in the ability of their material to sell itself. I loved this narration. I want the whole Internet to study this narration as an aspirational example.

And yeah, I never consciously noticed the bumping the lamp. But wow that was some above-and-beyond level of commitment, and it must have worked because I still believe the solidity of those toons.
posted by traveler_ at 8:26 PM on March 1, 2017 [5 favorites]


File this under things I never knew I wanted to know until I knew them.

Thanks!
posted by jacquilynne at 9:24 PM on March 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


I strongly disagree that kaptainkristian needs to change anything about his delivery, it's much easier for me to handle than the breathless over-emoted style that's so popular on youtube.
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 9:52 PM on March 1, 2017 [7 favorites]


Oh good grief, there's a whole range of delivery between "lackadaisical drone" and "breathless over-emoting". The rejection of one end of the scale doesn't preclude everything but the other far end of it!

Good voice-over practitioners can manage to sound reasonably interested in their subject matter without having to crank it up to 11. If normal human conversation - which is what one should realistically shoot for in a voice-over if one doesn't want to sound (a) dead or (b) like a shill - comes in roughly between 4 and 7, this guy's at 1 or 2 at most. For contrast, consider the MeFi podcasts, that are engaging without being manic...those are appealing and easy to listen to, right?
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:23 PM on March 1, 2017


There is one thing that I sort of liked. Right when he was saying "Don't be afraid to hit the lamp!" he did an animated of the cover of Richard Williams' amazing book "The Animator's Survival Kit".

Williams' book is truly amazing. It covers all the steps of how to do animation and really drives how difficult good animation is.
posted by pknodle at 10:25 PM on March 1, 2017 [2 favorites]


Metafilter: One Big Narration-Style False Dichotomy.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:44 AM on March 2, 2017 [5 favorites]


Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the movie by which I judge a lot of movies in these CGI-overladen days.

If I can watch it and wonder "how the fuck did they do that?" then I regain a childlike sense of wonder about what I am seeing and I feel joy. I still get that joy watching Roger Rabbit today. I have yet to feel that watching any of the Marvel movies.
posted by hippybear at 2:32 AM on March 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


I didn't really notice or think anything of the guy's narration at all, which to me means it was done well. Usually when a loud, high-energy voice comes on (especially if it starts with the words "HEY GUYS!!") I mute it.

As a kid I was fascinated with animation but didn't know too much about it (especially not for this movie). When I watched Roger Rabbit I thought quite a bit about how they must have done the shadows. It felt like sometimes the shadows were drawn in, or I assumed they had to be drawn in in order to match the character animations, but sometimes it looked more like a shadow was being cast by a puppet or something.

I think overall the movie has aged well, though there are some parts where I'll notice something a teensy bit awkward or out of place. I'm curious if there's been anything similar to Roger Rabbit lately, in terms of 2D/live action mashup, within the past several years? It'd be interesting to see if a modern take comes out better/worse now that there's more sophisticated technology to deal with camera movements. Back in the mid 00's I was hoping Enchanted would do that, but instead they kept the 2d and live action worlds separate.
posted by picklenickle at 3:05 AM on March 2, 2017


This is great. I love how thoughtful his approach is, getting at the larger issues of art through the smaller details of how it's done well. His piece on Calvin and Hobbes is also worth a watch.
posted by Mchelly at 3:49 AM on March 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


What's up, YouTube™?
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:53 AM on March 2, 2017


Nicely done. I've seen this film at least twenty times and never got some of the nuances that he points out. I knew about the great job that Hoskins did with the eye-lines but didn't pick up on the times when he screwed up and the animators fixed it. The fact that they did multiple layers for shadows and highlights is crazy; the amount of work to do that must have been insane.

I love films from this era when analog effects were really at peak and just before horrible looking CGI took over.
posted by octothorpe at 4:50 AM on March 2, 2017 [3 favorites]


Oh and his voice is fine. The last thing I want to hear on something like this is some tediously over-excited Pewdiepie clone. Just give me the information and don't try to oversell it.
posted by octothorpe at 4:52 AM on March 2, 2017


Right when he was saying "Don't be afraid to hit the lamp!" he did an animated of the cover of Richard Williams' amazing book "The Animator's Survival Kit".

That is a great book. Since he was animation director on Roger Rabbit, there was a bit about his peers giving him a bit of shit for doing the movie -- 30s style animation was in vogue, and they considered it beneath them as artists, favoring the realistic Disney style that they had more-or-less invented.

That, or they were pissed they weren't called up to do the job. Or that animators feel it is their right to bust any junior's balls until they die, which I think is also accurate.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:40 AM on March 2, 2017


octothorpe, I don't like over-excited overselling either, and that's exactly what I was trying to point out in my previous comments. The polar opposite of overselling is underselling, and there's a huge range of "just selling it" in between that won't annoy listeners.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:28 AM on March 2, 2017


I thought the voice over seemed fine. It wasn't particularly flat to my ear.

But then, I'm in law school, so my standards of exciting vocal delivery might be different than those of most of the world.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:02 AM on March 2, 2017


As much as I love Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I find it hard to watch. That's a testament to the animators, because the reason I find it hard to watch is that I spend the entire movie worrying about the little shoe Doom dips. We showed this to our kids maybe six or seven years ago, and I hadn't seen it in the 20-ish years since it came out, and even then I wondered if I'd tear up like I did when I was 8 years old. YUP STILL TEARED UP.

Greg-Ace, I think we get it. You really don't like this voice over. Ok. Can we agree that some people like things that other people don't like now?
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 9:58 AM on March 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


His piece on Calvin and Hobbes is also worth a watch.

Oh great, now I'm crying at my desk at work. Sheesh.
posted by Maaik at 9:59 AM on March 2, 2017


The voice-over was really just a mild irritant, that didn't prevent my enjoyment of the subject matter. What I "really don't like" is people acting like the only alternative to a monotone delivery is an over-excited one, and that's just silly. And I'm done now before I get over-excited.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:14 AM on March 2, 2017


I like his voiceover style. It's Tony Zhou filtered through Adam Lisagor.

I just discovered kaptainkristian a week or so ago. Definitely subscribed. This video is great. I particularly loved hearing about all the work that went into shadows and light.
posted by defenestration at 11:26 AM on March 2, 2017


« Older Milkshake?   |   Conan Without Borders: Made In Mexico Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments