The Art of Collaboration: Integrating Live Action and Animation in Film

Movies with live-action and animation have been around for quite a while now. And while other movie industry innovations come and go, this one remains. Why? Because it works. Whether filmmakers animate many things or a few, it always adds a new layer of imagination and whimsy to the film. Also, it gives their audience a break from traditional pictures. 

Lately, Hollywood has become persistent in presenting new live-action and animated movies. One of the most recent examples is the outstanding fantasy comedy-drama film IF by John Krasinski, and many more are yet to come.

 

In this article, we’ll introduce you to the world of animation plus live-action in past and present films. We’ll elaborate on both technologies, their core characteristics, differences, and how these differences work together.

 

The Difference: What Is Live-Action and Animation in Film?

So, what is the difference between live-action and animation? Let’s take a closer look.

What is a live-action video? The simplest definition of a live-action video is one that features real people or animals rather than animated or computer-generated characters. Typical types of live-action videos include interview cases, scripted narratives, live tutorials, and demos of products. 

The benefits and drawbacks of live-action technology are presented in the table below.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Capturing real humans and their real emotions Creating a sense of purpose and setting Inability to model some real-life objects in computer graphics Creating some camera effects and atmospheric effects (sun, depth, lighting) is easier Exclusion of extensive skills and experience in creating live-action videos	Difficulties in demonstrating abstract ideas compared to on-screen graphics 80% of results are under the control of light There’s hardly a way to direct a character’s talent The shelf-life of a live-action movie is shorter, and contributing changes after production are more complicated The higher the quality of scenes, the more budget should be allocated

What is an animated video? Animation is creating movie images from original designs, drawings, illustrations, or computer-generated effects. The process starts with drawing done by a computer or a hand. A set of drawings then becomes an animated video. 

Those without the required experience and skills in animation feel like the technique is massive and tremendous. Yet, it does have two sides.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Demonstrating concepts and abstract ideas is easy Delivering much information in an accurate way Creating something out of this world and fictional or impossible is easy The shelf life is way longer than for live-action videos since changes are easy to make when needed	Imitating or creating emotions as well as creating characters is harder Real-life materials and atmospheric effects are difficult to duplicate Much training and skills are required Production is costly

 

A Mix of Live Action and Animation in the Film Industry

Some experts consider the combination of live-action/animated technologies a repelling pair. Early on, they were an experiment. But now, they have become part of the norm.  Unlike live-action technologies, animation is more into unique visual mediums. In this perspective, animation vs. live-action is a pair that establishes a shifting interlink of supplementation. 

If you’re developing storytelling in live-action, you don’t need to put that much effort into examining what is happening on the screen: for a car chase, skydiving, or football game, the viewer easily defines the objects and settings since the picture and motion are clearly shown and interpreted. But this doesn’t work for animations, where the audience faces something unknown. For this, an elaborate description is a must-have.

However, animation and live-action do have something in common: they both display real events and/or things’ imitations that take place in real-action mode. 

Live-Action & Animated Movies: The Realism

Harmonized perceptual realism is what directors and scriptwriters get when they combine animation and live-action technologies. The Enchanted Drawing was the first movie to mix animation and live action. Its production made its director, J. Stuart Blackton known as the father of American animation. But at that stage, realism wasn’t the case.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) is the first example of the modern mix, where a lot of diverse live-action and animation techniques are brought into one by Robert Zemeckis. This is when the interline is as close as possible. The movie is an example of how this type of technology mix hits most balances and ends up with great productions. 

What’s specific to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) is that cartoon characters act in the same manner as their human counterparts, representing their physical state and their surroundings. In his work, Robert Zemeckis managed to keep the viewer focused, engaged, and interested. This was perhaps the first time when animations facilitated new ideas among live actors who, in turn, preserved their genuine emotions.

Live-Action & Animated Movies: The Quality of Production

Let’s get back to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) as an example. For it, animators and artists were focusing on creating fewer images in a bid. This was done for the sake of budget and production time. This is, perhaps, one of the greatest drawbacks of animation films alone: they are time-consuming and costly. A mix of animation and live-action should focus not only on both quality and costs.

The merge of technologies allows for saving costs and, at the same time, introduces some eye-catching elements, keeping viewers absorbed for more time. 

The specifics of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) are that animation and live-action techniques are thoroughly connected so that viewers can hardly see any border between live-action and animated shots. This technique later reappeared in the films that were directed afterward. The brightest example is Cool World (1992).

How to Combine Animation and Live Action

Live-action and animation is a combination of live-action and computer-animated objects/graphics in a figure or character portrayed by a human cast member via motion capture. Then the combination is animated and processed by skillful animators. 

But there’s another way: traditionally animated live-action films utilize drawings in hand, stop-motion animations, or computer-generated pictures.

1920 & 1930 silent era films, Max Fleischer Studios produced the Koko the Clown series, where the cartoon character was boxing with a real kitten (live-action). Many other animation studios followed the example. The same approach was later used by Walt Disney for Mickey Mouse, Alice comedies, and Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit.  Some of the most notable on-screen interactions of live-action characters with animated characters of the post-silent movie era were Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck & Looney Tunes, etc. Later, Bob Hoskins complemented a live-action and animation mix with more sophisticated special effects. 

So how do they do the mix? There are a few standard techniques to follow:

• Shooting raw movie footage at 30 frames per second.
• Animating via paid or free software, presenting a test by identifying the main scene’s segments that are to be animated and that will be in collaboration and interaction with live-action episodes.
• After the test, filmmakers import many frames to animate scenes with live-action episodes.
• It’s a must-have to do the cleaning between the drawings and reduce the workflow with the partitioning of frame-by-frame drawings.
• Animation artworks are then organized in line with live-action scenes.
• Animated characters and settings are filled with color.
• Raw videos are complemented with effects in contacts, brightness, saturation, shadows, etc.
• Irregular camera movements and drawings are cleared and arranged into a sequence of scenes at the desired speed. Filmmakers are working on a smooth transition of scenes.
• Editing voices, applying music, or composing necessary audio tracks is the final step for communicating the message to viewers.

This all is tedious work. For everyone working, in the film industry, on television, on social media channels, etc. 

The greatest benefit of this mix is the result: with real actors and visually realistic, with more creative freedom, and plenty of personal elements and characters. Such movies are more about emotions than any other. Yet, there’s one drawback few people talk about: If filmmakers lack experience, there’s a high chance that 3D animation and live-action can start canceling each other out.

Summing Up

Since the times of Fleischer Studios, the industry knows a long list of amazing films that combine animation and live-action: Mary Poppins (1964), Cool World (1992), The Mask (1994), Casper (1995), Space Jam (1996), Scooby-Doo (2002), Ted (2012), and more. Yet, watching and enjoying them vs. knowing how exactly to combine live-action and animation for your needs are not the same things. We’re open to discussing your project and how our skills can help you make it true.