This research was part of a collaborative brief to create a 3D animation visualising Benjamin Britton’s, Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra orchestral (1946). Funded by the Orchestra Network for Europe Network, the short film ‘Red and the Kingdom of Sound’ has been screened at a series of live events alongside orchestras across Europe and was shared with schools as a learning tool. To visualise the music, a two dimensional ‘UPA style’ was chosen to match the era of the music’s conception and established a research path exploring two-dimensional aesthetics/rules in 3D production.
UPA (United Pictures of America / founded 1943) used a mix of an abstract /graphical 2D design style and character animation. Titles such as ‘Gerald McBoing Boing (1950)’ and the Mr Magoo series personify this approach. Replicating this kind of two-dimensional logic and applying it using 3D software is a core problem for studio production. In 2012 Disney Studios produced ‘Paperman’ using bespoke software as a response to this problem. The animation ‘Rob ‘n Roy’ (2013) by Tumbleweed Studios explored this problem further by creating two and half dimensional rigs that allowed characters to work on both two dimensional and three dimensional planes at the same time.
In ‘Red and the Kingdom of Sound’, a series of possible solutions were explored in response. These included techniques, such as flattening the 3D world, replicating texture/ noise (paper), creating three-dimensional shape definition in two dimensions, shadow control, and allowing three-dimensional characters to adhere to two-dimensional line/paint logic whilst moving. A series of tests were undertaken and solutions established. These were shared with project artists and animators as the ‘rules’ for the production, including the creation of a bespoke software plug-in for use with a cast of animated characters.
Film link: https://vimeo.com/250242953
Password: conducto
