#enchanted drawing

Anyone remember the virtual band; [The Gorillaz]? Its a band that consists of four animated characters who goes by the names; 2D, Murdock, Noodle and Russel who interacts with real life people and real life locations.

The thought of putting animation on-top of real life is a concept found in the cracks of the media we consume. They break realities and they fulfill the dreams of being able to interact with our favorite animated characters when the final product is finished. The names of what this media is may vary, but the agreed and the most used title is; Live-animated hybrid productions.

- A Trace Through Time -

Started as far back as 1900, the concept of animated characters on real life action began with; < The Enchanted Drawing > While it looked nothing alike with what we see today, The film shows the early concepts of this mixed media production. It shows a drawn character interacting with a real life actor and real life props with simple filmmaking magic.

The most famous productions that shares this concept is found through two popular movies. The film, < Who Framed Roger Rabbit > and < Space Jam > In theses films, the famous animated characters of the time are seen interacting with real life actors; Bob Hoskins and Michael Jordan respectively.

Through them, it showed the potential of playing with cartoonish physics and real life environments. Fulfilling a child’s dream to interact with their favorite childhood heroes or with their ideal lovers such is the case for < Cool World > with its leading femme fatale, [Holli Would] and its world building concept of a universe where the Noids (Humans) and Doodles (Animated Characters) live in their own worlds while the main character bridges between the worlds.

While what I talked about in this section is just a little Smitch of Live-animated productions through the years. I would like to take the time to highlight the less grand and technical side of things. See, aside from films. This concept has also opened up the idea of having them be made for commercials, pictures and even introduced virtual personalities as seen on [Trash Taste with Calliope Mori]

- Making Real Life Interesting -

While making films is tedious but rewarding, I would argue that its the small productions that makes me love this mixed media a lot more. As of late, I’ve been obsessed with finding and studying how Live-animated hybrid pictures get made by certain Instagram users.

The one I followed and used as study material is [ADUNIIS] for his interesting choice of scenery. his works features anime characters from various shows, blending in with mundane places like living people.

Similarly, [SamuelMB] does the same but with Disney characters. Having more than one subject to interact with and create fun gags during the editing process. Looking into it a little deeper, I discovered that a lot of these edits are found more on Pinterest under the tag; [Anime Girls in Real Life] and [Anime Boys in Real Life] The downside to this type of edit is that the good ones are few and far between.

These edits require a good eye for character poses that make sense, locations in angles that is more generic and less outstanding. Understanding compositions that require trial and error and lots of outsourcing. Just looking at some of them gave me a splitting headache over the amount of hours spend just for one photo. Several creators brought them back to their roots of short videos like, [KOJER]’s take on Ghibli characters on real life.

- Capturing The Magic -

Its no secret that I love this movement and that I’ve been learning how to make it work with my characters; Sadie, Hector and The Hoodlites. Really, its just my way of using all the photos I took to be used for fun. Its a creative outlet that I believe could be useful for something in my professional career as a graphic designer.

As a person and as a designer, no creator can “just be” someone of one duty anymore. We have to experiment with the tools given and move above and beyond what we started with. In my case, I want to bring my characters to real life scenery and hang out. Be in a moment and although it is far from perfect, its the most fun I had in a while with this ambitious project of mine.

For me, I see Live-animated hybrid productions as that act. To go above and beyond. The medium itself is a perfect marriage of the two elements into one whole entity. Causing a pause in the midst of the bland scrolling over typical pictures.

Digital art is a new and thankless craft that the world has yet to appreciate because it didn’t feel like a lot of effort is put to them. Meanwhile, Traditional art is an expensive craft with the constant need to restock art supplies. If both sides aren’t receiving attention.

Why not put them together? [Credits to Lauren Tsai]

Surprisingly, its still very underground among new artists and I rarely find them within the community. Perhaps this can be a challenge for any new souls out there If you have an Original Character or subject that you think looks dull. Add them to a real life image, blend them. Test some settings. Play with the lighting, make your mundane lives more, alive~ 

With that said, I’m writing to inform you that things might go slow on December 2021. Work is coming in again and I won’t write and draw as much but I’ll do my very best to keep to my schedule.

Thanks for reading