Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529871
On the Move A key challenge for the animation artists was to convey Roz's emotional journey without relying on typical facial articulation. Roz's eyes are designed as lenses, and her movements had to re ect her emotions without traditional human gestures. Jensen and his team found inspiration in silent lm actors like Buster Keaton and French mime and comic Jacques Tati to convey emotion through exaggerated body language and movement. "Roz was able to emote very powerfully, maybe even more powerfully and more effectively than if we hadn't overburdened her with a jaw or eyebrows," says Sanders. Jensen says the team embraced the challenge and experimented with Roz's physicality as she evolved in the environment, starting with overtly robotic motions that eventually progressed into more organic movements. The window of this physical transformation narrowed, he says, as they discovered that the audience needed to connect with Roz early on in the lm and her physical expression was key to that dynamic. Roz begins her journey on the island showing off all of her gadgets, spinning claws or the ability to capture photos and print them out. But as the story moves forward, she transforms in what Jensen calls a sort of reverse peacocking. "She does fewer shots with her head going 360 [degrees] just because she can, it becomes much more contained and organic and real," says Jensen. Ultimately, it's the emotion that is conveyed through body posture and how it connects with her dialogue that drives the narrative. As Roz evolves in the story, she becomes increasingly integrated into her surroundings both visually and through plot. "Through the course of her journey, she gets banged up and beat up," says Budsberg. "But what if incrementally she becomes more and more like the world around her stylistically. The lines start to disappear and there's one big highlight just brushed all the way down." Roz transforms throughout the lm until she blends artistically with her environment, a subtle visual nod to her evolution. "Roz was able to emote very powerfully, maybe even more powerfully and more effectively than if we hadn't overburdened her with a jaw or eyebrows." –Chris Sanders, Director F E AT U R E 28 KEYFRAME this page: Panoramic vis-dev art captures the scope of Roz's journey.